Surf’s Up: Tidal & Ticketmaster

Tidal may not be washed up just yet, as the service this week announced a partnership with live events ticketing giant Ticketmaster.

Launched in the US, users of Jay Z’s much talked about service will be able to view forthcoming live dates for their favourite artists and buy tickets to upcoming shows. There will also be exclusive giveaways, presales and deals for Tidal customers- all 540,000 of them.

The link to live is arguably a natural connection for streaming services to make and one already partially embraced by Spotify, which features upcoming tour dates and links through to Songkick and ticket links.

Tidal also this week rolled out several new features including a beta desktop player and improved search functionality on its mobile platform.

As previously reported, Tidal re-launched at a widely derided press conference in March this year. The subscription only service is £9.99 for a standard version and £19.99 for a ‘high definition’ streaming option and is co-owned by artist investors including Madonna and Kanye West.

On the subject of streaming, producer Steve Albini this month denounced high quality streaming as missing the point, comparing streaming to transistor radio in that it’s a convenient yet temporary solution.

Oh, and Albini also called the music industry a “Parasite” and said that copyright was dead in an interesting if bound to be divisive panel at Primavera Pro. Find out more at Music Business Worldwide.