New Jay-Z Album '4:44' Updates: Tidal Releases New Songs for Subscribers Who Signed Up Before June 26, Sprint Users
Jay-Z's new album "4:44" is now out, and the release schedule for the newest output of the recording artist has been met with some confusion by fans.
The album did appear on Jay-Z's own music subscription service Tidal just three minutes after midnight Eastern Time on Friday, June 30, but the album is not so readily available to Tidal subscribers, according to the Independent.
Instead, only Tidal subscribers who signed up for the service before Monday, June 26, have access to "4:44." An exception was made for Sprint customers, who also have access to Jay-Z's new album via Tidal regardless of the date that they signed up for the service.
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For unfortunate fans who opted to sign up for the Tidal service on or before June 26, a message explaining the situation appeared. "JAY-Z 4:44 is only accessible to Sprint/TIDAL customers and all TIDAL accounts established prior to June 26th during the exclusive period," the message read.
The prompt also encouraged fans who want access to the new album to go over to Sprint — that is, if they want to hear Jay-Z's newest beats. "Switch to Sprint and get 6 complimentary months of TIDAL + access to Jay-Z 4:44 and all future TIDAL X Sprint exclusive content," the message explained.
For industry watchers who have been wondering how Sprint would benefit from investing in Tidal, this answers a lot of questions. The telco placed $75 million in funding into the music subscription service, and this new move by Jay-Z seem to be Tidal's way of reciprocating, according to The Verge.
Unfortunately for Jay-Z fans outside the United States, they won't be able to get their hands on Jay-Z's album as of this time. For fans who have not subscribed to Tidal, they could catch one of the ten new tracks of "4:44" streamed by iHeartRadio across 160 radio stations in the country.
