As the service approaches its first full month as a full-blown music streaming service, Jay Z has entered the TIDAL conversation in a hope to help extinguish some of the backlash the service has been receiving of late.

Taking to Twitter moments ago, the rapper once-again explained that TIDAL has been set up to put music-consumers at the heart – however music may not just be the central thought of the service.

“We made Tidal for fans. We have more than just music. We have video, exclusive concerts, tickets for events early, live sports!… “ Jay Z explained, continuing “Tidal is where artists can give their fans more without the middlemen”. TIDAL’s co-owner then ended, saying “Indie artists who want to work directly w/ us keep 100% of their music. “If you don’t want the CEOs all in the videos. Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers – not just the founding members on stage.”.

What can we take from this? Well first-and-foremost, the ‘live sports’ may indeed be an interesting angle. TIDAL desperately need a USP to help go up against the likes of Spotify and Deezer (and the soon-to-be-relaunched Beats Music). The benefit of Spotify centres around the ad-funded freemium ideology – the basic tier of the service that allows users access to over 25m tracks without paying a penny. Flip that to TIDAL, and even the lowest price-point clocks in at just shy of £10 per month (with a US/UK flip for our overseas counterparts).

Expanding to live sports will certainly give TIDAL an edge over its competition, however ultimately this still goes against the service’s initial set-up, described purely as a “High Fidelity Music Streaming Service”.

Later this evening, TIDAL’s first live-streamed concert will take place, with Jack White’s final acoustic show being streamed exclusively to the service’s members. (If you’re eager to see this, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial straight away).

Essentially, we’re still not convinced by TIDAL – that price-point is still way too high for the limited amount of content that can be received over-and-above the likes of Spotify/Deezer. Since the service’s launch toward the end of last month, the ‘exclusive’ content premieres have been few, and far-between. The likes of new Rihanna and Beyonce videos quickly made their way onto YouTube for all to see; meanwhile Jay Z himself launched a video for a song that’s almost three years old.

Are Jay Z and co worried? Probably not. However, no-one would have expected the backlash that’s occurred. Let’s see how this whole ‘live sports’ process plays out… we’re certain that would backfire even more – with music being such a globally-connected art, many sports are confined to their own continents (the USA’s NFL, for example, would limit access for the rest of the world).

However, it looks like TIDAL is here to stay. As Jay Z admits, “We are human. We aren’t perfect – but we are determined”. Check the rapper’s whole Twitter ‘#TIDALFACTS’ tirade, below: