Water Company Challenges Jay Z’s "Water Is Free" Tidal Comments

When Jay Z introduced Tidal back in March, he infamously said in a New York Times interview, “The challenge is to get everyone to respect music again, to recognize its value. Water is free. Music is $6, but no one wants to pay for music. You should drink free water from the tap — it’s a beautiful thing. And if you want to hear the most beautiful song, then support the artist.”

Now, a water company is taking issue with that statement, as Billboard points out. Steve Snyder, an executive for Denver Water, has penned “An open letter to Jay Z” refuting his assertion that water is free. “Since water is my business, I have to say, “Stick to your own business, man!,” he writes.

As Snyder explains, “Artists should be paid for the music they create. But to say that ‘water is free while music is $6’ isn’t exactly true.”

He continues, “This isn’t meant to state the obvious fact that some people can’t pay their water bills, so water must not be free. But your comments bring up the issue of how people value water — an issue our industry struggles with all the time.” To back up his argument, he approximates the amount of H2O one could glean from Hova’s earnings; apparently, the money made from Magna Carta Holy Grail could buy 1 billion gallons (enough to fill 1600 Olympic-sized pools). 

Snyder concludes his post by writing, “So perhaps we have something in common. You will continue your quest to help people understand the value of music, while people in my industry will do the same with water. Of course, I’ve heard you actually have a whole list of problems to address — 99 to be exact?” Read the blog post in full here.

Today, Denver Water issued a follow-up post, clarifying that “This is not about whether Jay Z thinks water is free. In fact, we commend him for speaking out about the water crisis in other countries. We understood his reference to water and music. He was talking about the value of the very thing that provides his livelihood. So were we.”

Check out our Pitch post “Tidal and the Elusive Promise of Streaming Music”.