Jay Z claims there is a 'smear campaign' against Tidal app

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Rapper says that his streaming service is 'here for the long haul'
Report claims that app is being affected by delays from Apple, which is launching its own music service this summer
Jay Z claims that Tidal already has more than 700,000 subscribers
App purchasing data shows that it has fallen out of top 750 downloads

By Rachel Mcgrath For Mailonline and Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 16:30 EST, 26 April 2015 | Updated: 01:59 EST, 27 April 2015

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Jay Z launched a stream of tweets defending his premium music streaming app Tidal after the service, launched last month, was described as a flop.

His social media diatribe comes as reports claim that Tidal is being sabotaged by rivals as it attempts to take business away from more-established music outlets such as Spotify and Apple.

'We may not be perfect - but we are determined,' he said while claiming that there are 'many big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign'.

'We are here for the long haul,' the rapper and businessman tweeted in a string of 'stream of consciousness' messages.

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Twitter rant: Jay Z unleashed a string of 'stream of consciousness' tweets on Sunday defending his premium music streaming service Tidal and saying that it is still early days for the app

Tidal tweets: Using the hashtag #TidalFacts, the rap mogul told naysayers that 'actions will speak louder than words' as he continues to fine tune the streaming service he purchased for $56 million in January

Equality for all: The rapper and businessman insisted that Tidal is good for all artists and not just a money-maker for the big name artists like Kanye, Rihanna and Madonna who have joined him as co-founders

Feeling the need to vent: Jay Z decided to take to social media on Sunday in an aggressive push after what he saw as a 'smear campaign' from big companies against Tidal

Jay Z, who paid $56 million for TIDAL's technology in January and relaunched it in March, went on the offensive against the supposed smear campaign.

Tidal has potential rivals including popular streaming service Spotify and tech giant Apple, though Jay Z did not post any details about the alleged campaign.

After Tidal was criticized because of the wealth of its founders, the rapper said that other big tech companies also have huge amounts of money.

'Rich getting richer? Equity values... YouTube $390 billion. Apple $760 billion. Spotify $8 billion. Tidal $60 million,' he said.

On Sunday Page Six claimed that there's also a 'war' looming between Tidal and Apple.

Citing industry sources, the New York Post's gossip site alleged that tech giant Apple is trying to impede Tidal ahead of the scheduled relaunch in June of its own Beats Music by taking a long time to approve iOS updates for the Tidal app.

'Tidal had a new app on Android on April 15, but still hasn’t received approval for Apple’s iOS app store,' a source said.

The site claimed that after Rihanna's song American Oxygen debuted on Tidal, there were technical problems with her music on iTunes.

Apple told Page Six that the allegations that Rihanna's songs were deliberately scrambled are not true.

The spokesperson declined to comment on the other claims made in the article, according to Page Six.

War looming: A report from Page Six on Sunday said that Apple, which is launching its own music service, is trying to stop any growth by Tidal by delaying availability of updates for its app

Big guns: Tidal charges users $19.99 a month for its premium music streaming service and aims to take on rivals such as Spotify, Pandora and Apple's iTunes. Madonna and Rihanna are among the company's backers

In the same article, Page Six also alleged that Robert Kondrk, vice president of iTunes Content, has said any artists who put out exclusive music on Tidal won't be featured artists on iTunes.

The article also reported that Sony Music will not grant Tidal a license to stream from Sony artists, one of whom is, of course, Jay Z's wife Beyonce.

A representative for Sony Music declined to comment to Page Six.

A month ago, some of the biggest names in music joined Jay Z for the launch of Tidal but the $19.99 a month subscription service is floundering in the app downloads charts.

According to Billboard.com on Sunday, Tidal, which launched on March 30, has fallen out of Apple's top 750 apps, after a peak at No. 83 on April 7.

The rapper's Twitter rant and news of tensions with other tech companies come after a week of bad press for TIDAL.

The company's CEO Andy Chen also recently left the company amid a 'streamlining' of staff.

Even those close to Jay-Z were seen as moving away from the potential failure.

Co-founder Kanye West changed his Twitter avatar away from a logo for the service and deleted all mention of it from his account earlier this week.

He later reaffirmed his support for the service in a tweet saying 'The love of music is louder than words'.

Despite reports of its stuttering start, Jay-Z insisted on Twitter that Tidal is doing just fine.

'We have over 770,000 subs. We have been in business less than one month,' he tweeted, and included the hashtag #TidalFacts.

Artists unite in New York for launch of Tidal streaming service

Tweet of support: Canadian producer and performer Deadmaus5, who joined Jay Z on stage at the New York relaunch of Tidal on March 31, used his Twitter account Sunday to support the company

Tidal is co-owned by Jay Z, Kanye West, Beyonce, Madonna, Rihanna, Jack White, Alicia Keys and others.

In his Sunday stream of tweets, Jay Z stressed that the service pays a 75 percent royalty rate to all artists and not just the high profile founders who appeared on stage at the launch.

Other info he shared under the hashtag #TidalFacts included that 'iTunes Store wasn't built in a day' and 'It took Spotify 9 years to be successful.'

TIDAL has attempted to differentiate away from its competitors by billing itself as having higher quality audio and being focused on rewarding those making music.

Jay-Z referenced Tidal X which 'supports artists by giving them a platform to connect with their most loyal fans. Tidal is for all.'

Canadian producer and performer Deadmaus5, who joined Jay Z on stage for the Tidal launch in New York, jumped on the bandwagon Sunday.

He tweeting his followers: 'despite whatever dumbs**t preconceptions you may or may not have about tidal, im still behind it. Im in it for industry growth, not PR. (sic).'

Several artists have publicly criticized the roll-out, saying that Jay Z made it seem as if some of the world's biggest musicians wanted more money.

'When they say it's artist-owned, it's owned by those rich, wealthy artists,' Marcus Mumford, the frontman of Mumford & Sons, said in a recent and widely-disseminated interview with The Daily Beast website.

Friction: Page Six claimed Sunday that Sony Music won't give Tidal a license to stream music by artists signed to it labels, which include Jay Z's wife Beyonce