Tidal has a few selling points — the service offers two tiers, a $9.99/month tier that looks like pretty much every other streaming service, and a $19.99 tier that features high quality audio.

Come on, Spotify uses 320kbps Ogg Vorbis in high quality mode. Can anyone really tell the difference between that and uncompressed audio? I sure as hell can't, and even if you can, does it honestly make a difference to your listening experience?

Billboard: “So, Tidal launches today. Creatively, what do you hope happens, beginning tomorrow?

Jay Z: Artists come here and start making songs 18 minutes long, or whatever. I know this is going to sound crazy, but maybe they start attempting to make a “Like a Rolling Stone,” you know, a song that doesn’t have a recognizable hook, but is still considered one of the greatest songs of all time, the freedom that this platform will allow art to flourish here. And we’re encouraging people to put it in any format they like. It doesn’t have to be three minutes and 30 seconds. What if it’s a minute and 17, what if it’s 11; you know, just break format. What if it’s just four minutes of just music and then you start rapping?”

What is he talking about? There's nothing stopping anyone from releasing a 17 minute song on Spotify. I see Close to the Edge by Yes on there. Hell, they even have Dopesmoker, and that's an hour long! Am I missing something here?