TIDAL

Win Butler talks about Tidal’s “poorly managed launch”

Win Butler, known from Arcade Fire, talked to The Independent about the band’s new film, The Reflektor Tapes. During the interview, he talked about Tidal and their perception of it. Butler and Regine Chassagne were two of the artists that were part of the service’s launch. Even though the band does not regret their involvement, Butler was not thrilled with the impression of the launch gave.

He told The Independent: “None of the artists knew anything about the PR, it was a poorly managed launch, but conceptually the thing that we liked about Tidal was that it’s HD streaming quality.”

Butler also blamed major labels for the struggles of the service, and the price point of the HD streaming.

“They dictated that Tidal has to cost $20,” he says. “The major label music industry has completely ruined every aspect of their business. At every step of the way they’ve had the tools offered to them to create an industry that works, and they’ve completely blown it. That’s why we never had any interest in signing a contract with one of these companies because they’re clearly completely clueless.”

He said it would be “silly” not to talk about solutions for distributing art “at the table with Jay Z, Kanye and Daft Punk.”

Read the full article.

 

Watch the White Stripes perform on Detriot public access television

Jack White recently opened the vault do White Stripes’ music and shared rarely seen footage from the band’s early days. The duo made their television debut on May 28th, 2000 on Backstage Pass, a program on public access television in Detroit. They previewed their second album, De Stijl, which would come out the following month, on the program, performing the songs, “Apple Blossom” and “Death Letter”.

To find the footage, it is available on the new streaming service, TIDAL, as Jack White is a co-owner of the company. Watch it here.

As well as this archival footage, a White Stripes’ cover of “Rated X” by Loretta Lynn will be released in the upcoming package from the subscription service, The Vault from Third Man Record. The cover was originally recorded in 2000 but was then kept away from the public since then, however, the 7-inch will have a b-side of a live recording of Lynn’s “Whispering Sea” which was recorded in George, Washinggton at the Gorge Amphitheater on August 6th, 2005. Listen to a sample of “Rated X” here.