A Jay-Z album drop is only hours away, and people are scrambling to sign up for TIDAL to stream it…or are they? As excited as fans are about the release of the new album, called “4:44,” they’re perhaps equally frustrated that it will only be available on the TIDAL streaming service–and they’ll have to cave in and sign up.
Earlier this month, TIDAL and Sprint teamed up to release a star-studded teaser trailer for “4:44,” though no one knew at the time what the numerals meant. Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure, later tweeted that the two companies would offer “exclusive content” to their customers.
That “exclusive content” turned out to be Jay-Z’s latest album.
According to the TIDAL x Sprint website, Sprint customers will have access to “4:44,” along with a free 6-month TIDAL subscription. For those with Verizon or AT&T, there’s still hope. They can simply sign up for a free trial of TIDAL. But they’ll have to be quick; the album drops tonight at midnight Eastern Time.
NOTE: the album will be released through TIDAL HiFi, which is the fancier, more expensive version of the service. A HiFi subscription costs $19.99 a month; the regular service is $9.99 a month.
Unwilling to sign up for a third or fourth TIDAL subscription (it was the only way to stream “Lemonade,” after all)–and even more unwilling to switch their cellphone service to Sprint–fans took to Twitter to let out their anguish.
Me about to sign up for my 4th free Tidal subscription pic.twitter.com/JSnx68wx3l
— Iceberg Slime 🥶 (@ForeverFlyMike) June 29, 2017
Yall seriously scrambling to sign up for Tidal like that link won't be on twitter 20 seconds after the release? pic.twitter.com/sr7z4MAZ9H
— Wavy McGrady 🇯🇲 (@Jormatic) June 29, 2017
This is going to be folks re-signing up for Tidal w/ new email addresses trying to listen to Jay-z's new 4:44 album once it drops on Friday. pic.twitter.com/2zfg7F7tsV
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) June 29, 2017
TheWrap has reached out to TIDAL for comment.