Tidal says it’s welcoming select artists to use Tidal Circles, a new social network built into the Tidal streaming service.
The company says that Circles is an “artist-to-artist forum for artists to discuss their career experiences and connect with their peers on how to navigate the music industry.”
In this case, Artists refers to musicians, DJs, or anyone who creates content on the platform, and who have claimed their artist page on Tidal.
The new feature is in early access and is currently only open to artists in the Tidal Rising program and general rising artists using Tidal Artist Home. Tidal hasn’t indicated when Circles will become more widely available.
At the moment, Circles isn’t open to the wider music industry — producers, label execs, and other players can’t participate, however, Tidal notes that these folks can still assist artists in the management of their Tidal Artist Home profile.
Once registered for Circles, artists can browse the four main forum topics: Touring & Booking, Fans & Social, Merchandise, and Music Creation. A search feature will help people find specific conversations, and artists are free to post their comments as themselves, or anonymously.
That anonymity doesn’t mean you can say anything you want. Tidal says interactions will be moderated by its customer support team in accordance with the service’s content guidelines for Circles. Those who don’t follow the rules will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. If this results in a content moderation decision (or a more severe penalty), customers can follow up with the same team to dispute the outcome.
Circles is free for artists to use and the feature can be accessed directly from the Tidal Artist Home area.
Tidal offers several features specifically for artists, including Tidal Collabs, which helps artists find and connect with other creators who share similar audiences, and Fans, which lets artists better understand who’s listening to their content.
Recently, Tidal announced that it plans to simplify its subscription tiers. The Tidal HiFi and HiFi Plus options will soon be removed, and a single Tidal individual plan will contain all of the current HiFi Plus features, including lossless hi-res and spatial audio, for $11 per month.
