Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard has some strong thoughts on new streaming service Tidal, stating that the project is “going to fail miserably” and that the team of musicians behind it “totally blew it”.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Gibbard said that things went wrong when Jay Z decided to bring in "a bunch of millionaires and billionaires" to launch the service.
“If I had been Jay Z, I would have brought out ten artists that were underground or independent and said, ‘These are the people who are struggling to make a living in today’s music industry. Whereas this competitor streaming site pays this person 15 cents for X amount of streams, that same amount of streams on my site, on Tidal, will pay that artist this much,’” Gibbard shared. “I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid.”
He continued: “There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable streaming rate. And they didn’t do it. That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably.”
Gibbard is not the first musician to slam Tidal. Lily Allen previously expressed her concerns that the streaming service could lead to a resurgence of music piracy websites. Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford also recently discussed Tidal with The Daily Beast, stating that his band wouldn’t have joined it, even if they had been asked to.
“We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal,” he said. “I think smaller bands should get paid more for it, too. Bigger bands have other ways of making money, so I don’t think you can complain. A band of our size shouldn’t be complaining. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists.”
by Rebecca Schiller | Photos by Wenn
Tags: Death Cab for Cutie
Ben Gibbard thinks Tidal is 'going to fail miserably'
The Death Cab For Cutie frontman says Jay Z and co. 'totally blew it'
