A new video for Grimes’ Art Angels album track is being released on Tidal at noon today. In fact, the video — which Grimes directed herself, and features Janelle Monáe, who also sings on the track — is being released exclusively on Tidal, which means if you’re not shelling out $20 a month to fund Beyoncé’s maternity shoot, you’re shit out of luck.
In fairness to Grimes, as she explained on Twitter, the video is Tidal-exclusive because, well, Tidal paid for it:
She elaborated further on the arrangement in another tweet:
This is interesting! The idea of a streaming company paying directly for #content is pretty much unprecedented, and it’d be interesting to know how the streaming revenue for this video will be divided up: will Grimes’ label 4AD be cut out of the picture entirely? And if so, how does such an arrangement work under the terms of her (presumably exclusive) contract? Anyway, while you’re pondering such matters, you can preview the video right here: