Lined up on stage , they have a combined wealth of almost £1billion . But these megarich leading ladies of pop banded together on Monday to demand even more money from fans . Madonna , Beyoncé , Rihanna and Alicia Keys teamed up to convince the world to fork out for a service that lets the public listen to their songs on the internet . At one point 18 of the biggest names in music took to the stage in New York to launch the enterprise , called Tidal – which guarantees them much bigger payments than rival services . Scroll down for video . Material girls : Rihanna , Alicia Keys , Madonna and Beyonce launch the online music service in New York before the backlash began . But it seems their attempts to make waves in the music industry turned into a flood ... of complaints . Despite being backed by showbusiness superstars , Tidal was the most talked about topic in the world on Twitter yesterday , with thousands branding it ‘ greedy ’ , ‘ out of touch ’ , ‘ cynical ’ and ‘ money grabbing ’ . Many critics said they felt cheated – thinking the stars had gathered to launch a new charity campaign rather than a project to swell their bank accounts even further . The music streaming service is the brainchild of rapper Jay Z , 45 , who along with his wife Beyoncé , 33 , is worth almost $ 1billion ( £676million ) . At one point 18 of the biggest names in music took to the stage to launch the enterprise . Pictured : Usher , Rihanna , Nicki Minaj , Madonna , Deadmau5 , Kanye West , Jay Z , and J.Cole at the event . Streaming enables fans to listen to songs or watch music videos online , without having to buy or download them permanently on to their computers . Such services have vast libraries of songs , with one of the most popular firms – Spotify – boasting more than 30million tracks to listen to . But Spotify and other competitors provide their services for free – offering musicians a nominal amount for including their tracks on their libraries . Many of the world ’ s leading musicians are now starting to turn against such deals , saying they are not earning enough from them . US pop star Taylor Swift famously pulled all her music off Spotify last year . The 25-year-old wrote at the time : ‘ Music should not be free , and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album ’ s price point is . I hope they don ’ t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art ’ . Tidal now offers fans a rival service , providing a huge library of music for users to listen to , but charging a minimum of £9.99 a month . On Monday , almost 20 multi-millionaire artists gathered on stage in the Big Apple to lend their support . The line-up included rap star Kanye West , 37 , Nicki Minaj , 32 , and Usher , 36 – along with pop royalty Madonna 56 , and Rihanna , 27 . British stars Calvin Harris , 31 , and Chris Martin , 38 , appeared via video link . Taylor Swift , left , pulled all her music off Spotify last year . Ed Sheeran , right , tweeted his 'eternal love ' to anyone who owns a copy of his first album , however they got hold of it . The stars also used Twitter to raise the profile of the project using the hashtag TIDALforALL – but faced an immediate backlash online . One person tweeted : ‘ I legit thought # TIDALforALL was some sort of save the world campaign , not a streaming service to make millionaire artists richer. ’ Another added : ‘ Something very wrong with presenting capitalistic ventures like # TIDALforALL as social justice movements. ’ A third wrote : ‘ I ’ m still mad about # TIDALforALL ! Those “ artists ” are filthy , money grabbing , selfish , disgusting human beings ! It makes me mad ... ’ Tidal is a markedly different approach to that taken by some other artists . In 2012 , British newcomer Ed Sheeran tweeted : ‘ Eternal love for anyone that owns a copy of ‘ + ’ [ the name of his first album ] , however you got hold of it , legal or illegal , thank you for enjoying it ’ . In 2007 , the band Radiohead released their album In Rainbows online and allowed fans to pay whatever they wanted for it . Speaking in New York , singer Alicia Keys said she hoped the Tidal service will ‘ forever change the course of music history ’ , adding : ‘ Our intent is to preserve music ’ s importance in our lives ’ . Radiohead released their album In Rainbows online and allowed fans to pay whatever they wanted for it .
Music streaming service Tidal is the brainchild of rapper Jay Z , 45 . It was branded 'greedy , ' 'cynical , ' and 'money grabbing ' on Twitter . Streaming allows fans to listen to songs without downloading them . Tidal charges a minimum of £9.99 a month for access to its huge library .