Tidal, billed as the first artist-owned streaming service of music and videos, was recently bought by Jay Z in an effort to “change the music industry forever.” He has signed on several A-list musicians to his company including Kanye West, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and Madonna. Tidal is a membership-based service similar to YouTube that charges its members up to $20 for a high quality sound of the aforementioned artists’ music. While some may see this as a small price to pay for the music they love, the majority of listeners are not thrilled about paying for a membership. All in all, Tidal is an organization that is purely interested in profit. Its creation, or rather the attention given to it as of late, has come to support only the elite, which will greatly limit the listening audience.

Before addressing the price, let’s take a look at the so-called “high quality” that Tidal owners promise.  Several online critics who have tried Tidal as well as other streaming sites have noticed no identifiable difference. According to Paul Riismandel and his website Radio Survivor, the music from Tidal and the standard quality found on YouTube were practically identical, with only a slight tendency to favor Tidal. Additionally, many criticize the fact that mobile listeners will be offered the choice between sacrificing their music and sacrificing their phone bill, with customers being unable to download it to their devices directly and instead forced to use their data by listening from the site.

As for the price, Jay Z defends it, saying that music has worth and that the fans need to be respectful of music by paying for it and supporting the artists. This is a very presumptuous statement that assumes that lower income individuals will be able to afford the monthly fee. For many people, music is a source of inspiration. Some listen to music just to get through the day and for any of those people, not signing up for Tidal may not be because of not wanting to, but of an inability to do so. And yet still, it will be taken away from them. Many other artists, such as Lily Allen and Mumford and Sons, have shunned Tidal, saying that it has opened a gateway for piracy.

The outlook for Tidal is, so far, not great. It will not “change the music industry.” In fact, the only thing that will change is the amount of people willing to listen to rich musicians in search of more money. Advice for Jay Z? Sell the company immediately. Right now there are still people interested because of how many popular musicians are committed to the site, meaning it could potentially sell for more money than Jay Z bought it for, but with the public growing more and more concerned with the cost and quality of the music, its popularity will only go downhill from here.