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California just made a huge positive step in Healthcare

Governor Jerry Brown made California the fourth state in the US on Monday to allow physician assisted dying. Yes, only the fourth, and it's disappointing that the numbers (or the lack of) overshadow the real achievement. Everyone has the right to live, and everyone should have the right to die. Of course life is sacred, but the opponents of this law must not seriously think that California's true intentions are to have a genocide. They simply just want to help those people who have no hope of a cure, and are suffering. That's it, there is no story here, Everyone is allowed to make their decisions about their life and body. If you can go and get an abortion from a professional, you should also be able to go to your doctor to die. They are there to help you and to lessen your pain. In any way possible. Of course we support that background checks must take place, and several doctors (including psychologists) should sign off before you are allowed to die. You sho...
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Is Spotify about to die?

It’s a bit of a long shot, but Jay-Z’s latest announcement is certainly leading the music industry in the direction of the death of Spotify. 

On March 30, Jay-Z along with 15 other musical icons, such as Madonna, Kanye West, Coldplay and Rihanna announced Tidal’s plans to take over the world. The world of music, that is. On top of all of this, Tidal continues to make headlines as last week, Beyonce shared a surprise song ‘Die With Me’ on the streaming site, to mark her and Jay-Z’s seventh wedding anniversary.

Have you heard of Tidal yet? If not, it’s probably because you’ve been listening to your free music on Spotify instead. How dare you! Shame on you! At least, that is what Jay-Z wants you to believe.

Tidal is a subscription-based service, which allows you to stream songs and music videos on your devices. What’s new about that? Probably the fact that it offers a better sound quality than Spotify and has the backing of some of the biggest stars in the music industry.

Oh, and it also costs twice as much as Spotify Premium. Or 20 dollars more then your current free subscription. So what’s the big deal? Well, like it or not, Tidal will change the music industry. It is always good to give more competition to the industry, and Tidal will do just that.

Unfortunately, Jay-Z. Tidal’s re-launch was a bit of a disaster. Yes, you read that right. It had already been launched under the radar in October. And why didn’t anyone really notice it? Because it wasn’t worth it.

When Taylor Swift took the world by storm and pulled all of her music in November from the biggest music subscription site, Spotify, everyone was shocked. She made sure that when 1989 was dropped, people could still listen to it so that it would become number one in a heartbeat and smash records, which it did. She justifiable claimed that music has inherent value. This was a big mess for streaming sites like Spotify, but eventually everyone got over it.

When Jay-Z lined up his army (which also includes Nicki Minaj, Calvin Harris, Jason Aldean and Alicia Keys), it looked like they were about to announce a coup d’état. Twitter immediately erupted and while some praise was received, criticism also followed. Most people said that it’s just another attempt for the rich to get even richer. And honestly, it kind of does look like that. While it is a noble cause, and most people agree that musicians and the producers should be compensated fairly, this is not the way to go about it.

Honestly, it was just embarrassing and awkward. It’s not enough to put famous faces next to a project, unless you are Dr. Dre and Apple is stalking you. The artists did little to differentiate themselves from Spotify, and for this kind of money, they will need to do a lot more.

So no, Spotify is not about to die. It’s more than 60 million users are not going to abandon it just because Madonna put her leg on the table. Most of the users are just fine, and they like Spotify. Even if once in the while you have to listen to those boring ads. But hey, the sound quality on it is perfectly fine and it’s for free. Tidal is not. It’s just going to make a small waves, but nothing more. It should already be over. But let’s give it a try and see what 

happens, it’s worth a shot.

*opens Spotify*

First Appeared 13th April 2015. Richmond Free Press (www.richmondfreepress.co.uk)
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