It seems like only yesterday that Napster entered the music industry, and changed the way we acquired music forever. Artists, sensing the heavy losses of CD sales, fought back, and in a 2000 U.S. District Court Case entitled: “Metallica v. Napster, Inc,” the judge ruled in favor of Metallica.

Napster was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy and liquefy its assets. But, to the community of international musicians, the damage was already done.

Nowadays, digital music streaming has become lawful, and legitimate. Sites like Spotify, 8tracks, YouTube, and Grooveshark allow web surfers to listen to the music of their favorite artists, for free! Meanwhile, Apple has also revolutionized music by successfully marketing its iTunes service, offering consumers 99 cents per song.

Enter Jay-Z, and his recently-acquired company: Tidal.

The pitch: Jay-Z is teaming up with the world’s hottest stars (I’m talking Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Coldplay, Kanye, Rihanna, and more…) to offer streamed content at a significantly higher quality of sound.

At a press conference earlier this week, Alicia Keys took to the podium already filled with top musicians, and said: “Wow! This is so incredible. I think all of us, collectively, in this room, are feeling the same kind of energy… Today we announce the first ever artist-owned global music and entertainment platform.”

In early March, Jay-Z purchased a majority of Aspiro, the company which owns Tidal, for $54 million. This past Tuesday, in reaction to the artists’ press conference, Aspiro’s stock spiked 938%.