Jay Z: Tidal's 'Doing Fine,' Give Us Time

The iTunes store wasn't built in a day and it took Spotify almost a decade to become successful, Jay Z pointed out in a series of tweets over the weekend claiming his Tidal music service was the victim of a "smear campaign" from big companies. "Tidal is doing just fine. We have over 770,000 subs," he said, promising that he was in it for the long haul. "We have been in business less than one month." The celebrity-owned service dropped out of the iPhone top 700 download chart within weeks of its relaunch, and only jumped as far as 664 even after rumors that Tidal subscribers would be the first to access a new album from Jay Z and Beyonce, reports Mashable.

Addressing criticism that the service seems designed to help rich stars like its owners get richer, Jay Z said "Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers—not just the founding members on stage," the Guardian reports. With the new Tidal Rising function for smaller bands, he said, "Indie artists who want to work directly w/ us keep 100% of their music." At the Daily Beast, Marlow Stern calls Jay Z's talk of an anti-Tidal smear campaign "incredibly paranoid at best, and disingenuous at worst," blaming the backlash in the outrageous press conference the service's celebrity co-owners held last month. (More Jay Z stories.)