Take him at his word: he’s not a businessman, he’s a business, man. Few artists have embraced “entrepreneurship” more fully than Jay-Z.

This summer, he surprised fans by releasing his thirteenth solo album, 4:44. But it was no surprise that they could only get it via Tidal, the streaming platform Jay-Z launched in 2015 with superstar shareholders like Beyoncé, Madonna, Kanye West, and Jack White. Competing with Spotify, Apple Music, and Google, Tidal distinguished itself as an artist-owned alternative that offers listeners high-fidelity streaming and provides artists with unparalleled support. As Alicia Keys proclaimed at the official launch, “This is for the people by the people, you know?”

The star-studded and live-streamed announcement garnered immense social media and press attention, glorifying Tidal as a panacea amidst the music industry’s tumultuous shift towards the streaming paradigm. Yet very few noted the fundamental similarity between Tidal and its competitors. Marketing ploys and UI/UX features aside, each of these services does basically the same thing: they provide subscribers with unlimited access to an expansive music library for a monthly fee.