The evolution of music continues with the biggest and brightest.  It all started when Jay Z purchased Swedish tech company Aspiro for $56 million and relaunched it to compete with Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, and other streaming services. TIDAL bills itself as the first music streaming service that combines high-fidelity sound quality, high-definition music videos, and expertly-curated editorial. It will offer artists up to twice the payouts as its rivals.

In an interview with Billboard, Jay Z revealed that he decided to get into the streaming business about a year-and-a-half ago.

“We didn’t like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow,” he said, “and if, you know, the very least we did was make people wake up and try to improve the free vs. paid system, and promote fair trade, then it would be a win for us anyway.”