The biggest Music Stars in the world join Jay Z's music streaming service to rival SPOTIFY!

Jay Z promotes 'artist-owned' music streaming brand

Some of the biggest names in entertainment have re-launched the music subscription service Tidal, which they are billing as the first artist-owned platform for music and video.

At an event in New York on Monday, Madonna, Beyonce, Kanye West, and 13 other performers announced they had become co-owners of Tidal.
The service launched last October, but was recently bought by rapper Jay Z.
It is hoping to compete with the likes of Spotify, Deezer and Google Play.
However Tidal offers 25 million music tracks, fewer than the 30 million offered by many rival services.

As well as a standard subscription for $9.99 a month, Tidal offers a "high fidelity" option for $19.99, which claims to deliver better sound quality.

Singer Alicia Keys spoke on behalf of the artists as they all lined up on stage at Skylight at Moynihan Station in Manhattan.
Describing the event as a "graduation", she said the artists hoped Tidal would alter musical evolution.
"So we come together before you on this day, March 30th, 2015, with one voice in unity in the hopes that today will be another one of those moments in time, a moment that will forever change the course of music history."
Their mission, she said, goes beyond commerce and technology.
"Our intent is to preserve music's importance in our lives,'' she said.
Notably, the majority of the company will be owned by artists, a symbolic move in a business where musicians often have little control over how their work is distributed and consumed.
Jay Z's strategy will include encouraging artists to lobby their labels to give Tidal new music a week in advance of other services, giving it a short window of exclusivity.
He told Billboard: "We didn't like the direction music was going and thought maybe we could get in and strike an honest blow.
"Will artists make more money? Even if it means less profit for our bottom line, absolutely. That's easy for us. We can do that. Less profit for our bottom line, more money for the artist; fantastic."

WHAT IT WILL COST

The membership-based service - similar to subscription service Spotify - will provide music and exclusive video content that users can stream on computers, tablets and smartphones or listen to offline. 

Unlike Spotify there isn't a free service. 

It is being offered to U.S. users at two price points: about $9.95 for standard sound quality and $19.99 for 'lossless high fidelity sound quality.'

Tidal streams at 1,411 kilobytes per second - well above the 320 for premium subscribers of Spotify, which offers lower levels for free users.

 

SISTER CRISTINA SCUCCIA: REAL LIFE NUN IS A SENSATION AS SHE ROCKS OUT ON ITALY'S THE VOICE - THE VOICE ITALIA

Nun Rocks It On Italy's 'The Voice' Singing Competition And No One Can Believe It: Sister Cristina Scuccia Wows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpaQYSd75Ak

The Voice IT | Serie 2 | Blind 2 | Suor Cristina Scuccia - #TEAMJ-AX

Sister sister! You've never seen a nun shut it down like this one.
The judges of singing competition "The Voice of Italy" couldn't believe their ears when they heard Sister Cristina Scuccia belting out Alicia Keys' "No One," but they were in for a greater shock when they saw what Scuccia looked like.
Judges begin the show with their backs to the stage, and if they like what they hear they can swivel their chairs around-- but none of them were prepared for the sight of 25-year-old Scuccia, a member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family, delivering a jaw-droppingly good performance in her black habit and silver cross. As the crowd cheered, her fellow sisters jumped up and down in delight.
Source the Huffington Post

 

THE ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE...100TH ANNIVERSARY

 

 

The Royal Variety Performance 2012...Ashleigh and Pudsey steal the show

The first performance, on 1 July 1912 was called the Royal Command Performance, and this name has persisted informally for the event. This was held in the Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary. After correspondence with Sir Edward Moss the King said he would command a Royal Variety show in his Coronation Year 1911, provided the profits went to the Variety Artistes' Benevolent Fund, as the EABF was then known. It was planned to be in the Empire Theatre, Edinburgh, part of the vast Moss Empires group, but the building went on fire a month before the show. After the death of Sir Edward Moss, Alfred Butt was chosen as the impresario and it was staged in 1912.[2] This was a lavish occasion, and his London Palace theatre was lavishly decorated, complete with some 3 million rose petals.

Girls Aloud meet the Queen

Top performers included Vesta Tilley, George Robey, David Devant, Anna Pavlova (ballerina), Harry Lauder and Cecilia Loftus. The organisers did not invite Marie Lloyd, because of a professional dispute. Her act was deemed too risqué and her three public, unsuccessful marriages made her unfit to perform in front of royalty. She held a rival performance in a nearby theatre, which she advertised was "by command of the British public". The name of the event was changed to prevent possible royal embarrassment. The Royal Variety became an annual event at the suggestion of King George V from 1921 and the British Broadcasting Corporation began to broadcast it on radio.

From 1960 to 1975, ITV broadcast a recorded version of the show, switching to live broadcasts in 1976. From 1986 until 2010, production and broadcast of the show alternated each year between the BBC and ITV, with the BBC usually staging the show in a West End theatre, and ITV in regional theatres outside London. From 2011, ITV have exclusive rights to televise the show.[1] The show has been frequently staged in the London Palladium theatre, and in the 1950s and 1960s a television show based on the same idea, called Sunday Night at the London Palladium and hosted by many entertainers, including Bruce Forsyth, ran for over 20 years.

Almost every conceivable sort of act has at one time or another been presented to the monarch at the Royal Command Performance, including The Beatles in 1963, The Supremes in 1968 and The Blue Man Group in 2005. At the Beatles' show on 4 November 1963, John Lennon delivered a line to the well-heeled audience which has passed into legend: "For our last number I'd like to ask your help: Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery ..."

The money raised by the Royal Variety Performance provides most of the funding for the Entertainment Artiste’s Benevolent Fund and it’s home Brinsworth House.

Kylie Minogue meets the Queen

 

The Performances

After the first Royal Variety Performance on 1 July 1912 presented by Sir Alfred Butt, it was seven years before the next show, on 28 July 1919 held at the Coliseum Theatre presented this time by Sir Oswald Stoll. The orchestra was conducted by Edward Elgar. In 1921 it moved to The Hippodrome, and was held in November. It was the first time that the Royal Variety Performance became an annual event. In 1923 it moved to the Coliseum Theatre. Then after a gap in 1924, moved to the Alhambra Theatre in February 1925, where it remained in 1926, held on 27 May. It was the first Royal Variety Performance to broadcast, with the BBC providing live radio coverage.

In 1927 there was another move, this time to the Victoria Palace Theatre, with J. A. Webb the compère. Then 1928 show, on 13 December, was held at the Coliseum Theatre. The next show, on 22 May 1930, moved to the London Palladium with George Black and Val Parnell compèring. It was a start of seven successive years at the venue.

In 1935 the Royal Variety Performance was held in the Silver Jubilee year of King George V and Queen Mary. This was the last time King George V attended – he died three months later in January 1936.

There have been two Royal Scottish Variety Performances, both attended by Queen Elizabeth, and presented by Howard & Wyndham Ltd in Glasgow`s Alhambra Theatre, which Sir Alfred Butt had opened, in 1958 and 1963.

Ashleigh & Pudsey BGT Winners 2012

Britain’s Got Talent Acts

Since 2007, one act of the Royal Variety show has been selected by the British public through the ITV1 television talent show Britain's Got Talent.

A public telephone vote decides the most popular act in each semi-final, which then progresses to the final, along with a second act chosen by the judges. The grand final is then broadcast live and all the acts perform again for the public vote.

Winners

• 2007: Paul Potts – pop opera tenor
• 2008: George Sampson – street dancer
• 2009: Diversity – street dance group
• 2010: Spelbound - gymnastics squad
• 2011: Jai McDowall - singer
• 2012: Ashleigh and Pudsey - musical canine freestyle