Taylor Swift returns to streaming music with Jay Z’s TIDAL service

24 Mar 2015

Taylor Swift in concert, 2012

After a relatively brief hiatus, pop megastar Taylor Swift will be returning her catalogue to streaming services with the help of Jay Z’s own TIDAL streaming service.

The service was purchased by Jay Z and his S Carter Enterprises subsidiary as part of a successful US$52.6m bid for the Swedish company Aspiro who owned both TIDAL as well as WiMP with the former getting the accolade of having the only Taylor Swift music on the internet.

According to Billboard however, the catalogue will have the glaring omission of Swift’s latest album, 1989 which has arguably turned her from an American star, to a global one with album sales for it alone reaching as high as 8.6m worldwide.

The confirmation of her catalgoue’s inclusion on TIDAL comes just six days before the site re-launched which says that when it is operational will be “the first music streaming service that combines the best high fidelity sound quality, high definition music videos and expertly curated editorial.”

With the emphasis being placed on high-quality, the subscription price is equally high with a US$19.99 per month fee being charged to the user after a seven-day free trial compared with, say, Spotify which charges users US$9.99 per month.

Taylor Swift in concert image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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