Jay-Z's New Music Streaming Service TIDAL Just Launched, but Is It Worth the Price?

Thanks to big-name owners, such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Coldplay and Rihanna, the brand new music streaming service TIDAL is making waves across the internet, a joke you'll be sure to read more than once today.

Billboard

Through TIDAL's two tier service—$9.99 for standard definition audio and $19.99 for high definition audio—these artists are looking to take a stand against free music streaming services, which many have claimed don't pay the artists well enough. Most recently, Taylor Swift pulled her entire discography from Spotify for this very same reason.

TIDAL is banking on several big features that other streaming services can't offer at the moment: lossless, 16-bit Flac files, HD music videos and exclusive content from artists such as Beyonce and Rihanna, all in one app.

After personally using TIDAL for a few hours, I can confidently say that the high quality in the audio is extremely noticeable, even for someone that's not a complete audiophile like myself. I even listened to the same song on both Spotify (which I pay for) and TIDAL, and the clear winner for quality is TIDAL.

So are you willing to pony up $20 a month for higher quality? Or are you satisfied with the handful of other free music streaming services, such as Spotify, Pandora, or iTunes Radio?