The TIDAL Program Every Artist Should Know About

TIDAL does not just provide high-quality audio to listeners and fans, it also pays artists more as compared to other music streaming platforms in the market. TIDAL has prided itself in being an artist-focused platform that offers its artists a fair price for their work, making the entire music marketing effort feel worth it for indie artists. Recently, TIDAL has introduced a host of features that have something for both listeners and artists. The most exciting thing for artists in this new feature is the Direct Artist Payout Program. 

Let’s dig in.

What is the Direct Artist Payouts Program?

Under the new Direct Artist Payouts Program, the most streamed artist on a HiFi Plus monthly subscriber’s account will be paid up to 10% of the subscription fee collected from the listener. The amount earned through the Direct Artist Payouts Program will be in addition to the revenue earned by streams by the artist. In simple words, if you’re the most-streamed artist among all the artists that a subscriber has streamed, you will be paid up to 10% of the revenue collected from that subscriber’s subscription fee that they pay for their HiFi Plus membership.

You will be rewarded for having superfans who stream your music more than any other artist’s music. Being paid by having superfans will further incentivise artists to invest in music marketing and collect a loyal following of fans.

How will the payment process work?

TIDAL has established a threshold of $50 for payments under this feature. Once you reach that threshold by earning through the most streamed artist feature, it will be reported to your payment partner or will be directly transferred to all those artists whose direct payment info TIDAL has. 

TIDAL is in the process of collecting payment-related information from artists, and in case TIDAL does not have relevant information related to payment for a particular artist, they will hold the revenue for a year before transferring it to the artist as soon as they gather enough data. 

Additionally, TIDAL has planned to also include songwriters in this feature and are also looking at ways to introduce different ways for artists to earn through this program. However, these changes are for the future. 100% of the money that artists earn through the Direct Artist Payouts Program will be paid to them in full and no cuts will be given to anyone from the revenue generated. 

Artists who distribute their music through TIDAL will be sent an email with the link, inviting them to participate in the program. The increased pay will be helpful to artists for their music promotion.

Other Changes 

TIDAL has also introduced a free tier in their subscription tiers for new listeners. The free-tier will be limited to an audio-only experience and, the interruptions in between songs will only be limited to the content on TIDAL, which will include new releases by artists and existing songs on the platform. This feature is only available in the US as of right now. 

The existing Premium tier will be transformed into a HiFi tier. The HiFi tier will offer lossless audio quality, in addition to everything offered in the premium tier earlier. The existing HiFi tier will be changed to HiFi Plus, which will include immersive audio, directed artist payouts, and royalties that are fan centred. 

TIDAL v.s Spotify

TIDAL and Spotify have similar features in terms of music discovery, and both recommend songs and artists based on algorithmic learning. 

When it comes to content, even though Spotify has more niche content, TIDAL boasts of a musical catalogue that is larger than that of Spotify. Some artists often choose to release their music exclusively on TIDAL months before releasing it to the world. This technique of music marketing helps them in generating hype about their music and also gives them an early review of their song. 

Spotify doesn’t have a video option except for their Canvas feature which can feature videos up to a few seconds, played on loop. TIDAL users can watch music videos, documentaries and movies about music, live performances, etc. on the streaming platform. 

Not just that, TIDAL also has a variety of artist exclusive content and also pays artists more than Spotify does. TIDAL has credit pages that go in-depth about all the contributors to the music. TIDAL members also get exclusive content that gives them access to live shows, concert tickets, meet-and-greets, live streams. This exclusive content indirectly helps artists in their music promotion endeavours.

Under one of TIDAL's programs, the streaming service selects the artists who are rising in popularity and then offers them support for free. From taking their professional photographs, and placing their music on the front page of TIDAL, the streaming service, helps these artists tangibly and directly, which further supports artists in their music promotion. 

With TIDAL’s new Direct Artist Payouts Program, artists will be paid their due share in the revenues generated by the platform. Plus, this new program has something for everyone. Artists get paid more, and listeners get high-quality audio and a direct chance to help their favourite artist to earn their due share. Here’s how you can do music promotion on a budget.