During an interview with the Los Angeles radio station REAL 92.3, the rapper was asked his thoughts on the service.
"They probably could've did something more exciting if they reached out, because the people you saw there don't even own the rights to their music," he said. "So they can't say it's gonna come out of Tidal. It has to go everywhere."
Essentially, 50 Cent is saying people don't need to pay upward of $9.99 a month for music that will be available elsewhere, including rival streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify. In other words, he says, "Why would you actually buy Tidal to get something that would be everywhere else?"
In March, Jay Z debuted Tidal with a star-studded presentation that included Usher, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, Beyoncé, and many others.
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"The companies have contracts, and companies are gonna do everything to get the maximum performance out of the music," he added. "They're not going to just put it through Tidal as a service."
Jay Z bought Tidal in January for a reported $56 million with the intention of creating the world's first streaming platform owned by musicians. The service pays established musicians for use of their music.
Subscribers can also receive some exclusive content, such as Beyoncé's recent track that coincided with her and Jay Z's wedding anniversary.
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Death Cab for Cutie singer Ben Gibbard told The Daily Beast in April: "I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid. That's why this thing is going to fail miserably."
Mumford and Sons front man Marcus Mumford added: "We want people to listen to our music in their most comfortable way, and if they're not up for paying for it, I don't really care."
Singer Lily Allen, too, tweeted: "I love Jay Z so much, but TIDAL is so expensive compared to other perfectly good streaming services ... He's taken the biggest artists & made them exclusive to TIDAL (am i right in thinking this ?), people are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves sending traffic to torrent sites. Up and coming (not yet millionaires) artists are going to suffer as a result … my concern is that Tidal may set emerging artists back."
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