The battle of the music streaming services continues to heat up. With Lil’ Wayne’s recent Lil’ Weezyana festival drawing to a close, both Tidal and Apple Music were embroiled in a fresh public stoush.
The deal between Drake and Apple Music has been much publicised, with the streaming service providing the backbone and platform for Drake in his recent beef with Philly rapper Meek Mill. This week is was claimed however that in a live video stream of the festival, Drake’s performance would not be streamed, due to Wayne’s affiliation with Tidal, the service who prides itself on high quality audio and artist exclusives, most recently some of Weezy’s own work.
As Drake took to the stage, Tidal went full “fine then, be that way” and produced the following:
1/2 Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience.
— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015
The service resumed after the blackout, as fans were then able to view the rest of the performances.
Former Drake DJ and business manager Future the Prince talked with Buzzfeed regarding the controversy, stating that it was not a decision made by Apple, and that the entire situation had been milked for publicity by Tidal.
It seems that Tidal is content to play the scorned little brother here, in the hope that it will attract more support by establishing itself as the underdog; claiming to be the service that upholds artistry.
It remains to be seen if either of these services will usurp Spotify, the real big brother in the family.