Aspiro: Musicians Support Jay Z with Twitter Tidal Wave

There's a turquoise revolution on Twitter today in support of Jay Z's launch of his Tidal music streaming service. Participants include music royalty such as Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Coldplay and Madonna have turned their avatars turquoise and are promoting the service's launch with the #TIDALforALL hashtag. And rumor has it that Rihanna's eighth album will drop today on Tidal.Jay Z's company Project Panther bought Swedish tech firm Aspiro's two streaming music services-WiMP and Tidal-for $56 million, clearly setting his sights on competitors Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and Beats Music by promising more returns to the artists. With Aspiro being folded to focus on Tidal, the music mogul is calling on his musician friends to lend their support.Taylor Swift, on record for pulling her catalog from Spotify, will also bring her catalog to Tidal. A spokesperson for Swift said her music is available on all streaming services that require a subscription fee. "Big Machine Records believes music has value and we do not believe Taylor's music should be made available for free."[more]Other artists backing Tidal on social media include DJ Calvin Harris, Usher, Jason Aldean and Beyonce.Tidal will offer subscribers access to 25 million tracks, 75,000 music videos and artist interviews. Premium streaming will run $9.95 per month, while the lossless streaming service, at $19.95 per month, promises highest fidelity-quality audio and video with no advertising.The stakes are huge. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports that US streaming music revenues increased about 29 percent last year to reach $1.87 billion, accounting for more than one-quarter of total industry revenues, according to eMarketer. Paid subscriptions to on-demand music services, the largest share of streaming revenues, grew by 25 percent last year to $799 million."Jay Z is one smart businessman, but launching a streaming music network in this competitive environment without a big marketing budget may prove to be more than even he can handle," reports Forbes. "Even with the help of his superstar friends, it may prove to be impossible to leapfrog Spotify in the market, let alone even catch up to it, and the deep pockets of Apple and Google could eclipse both a flash under the right circumstances."Regardless, it's a Tidal wave on Twitter as musicians sets out to change the music streaming business-and particularly before Apple introduces its new streaming music service powered by Beats.