Jay Z And His Famous Pals Just Launched A Rival To Spotify

Your favourite musicians just assembled, Avengers style, to launch a new streaming service that hopes to rival market-leader Spotify.

Jay Z - very much the Nick Fury of the music world - recruited Beyoncé, Kanye West, Madonna, Chris Martin, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Deadmau5, Jack White, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire, Calvin Harris and Usher to unveil Tidal in New York City on Monday.

Jay had purchased Tidal earlier this year from Swedish company Aspiro for $US56 million. In its new form, it seeks to cut out the middleman (aka, your Spotify types) and bring profits back to the musical artists (who, with Tidal, are now owners of both the medium and the message).

The question is whether the customers will come with them. Though exclusive music and video content is being promised by Tidal, it will require either an investment of $11.99 or $23.99 per month by Australian customers (the former is for standard quality sound, and the latter is for lossless hi-fi sound).

At almost twice the price of Spotify, Tidal has its work cut-out for it convincing music fans to jump ship, even if they do have Taylor Swift's back catalogue.

Would you pay more to stream music if you knew it was going to directly to the musicians?