Madonna, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Alicia Keys (pictured above) teamed up to convince the world to fork out for a service that lets the public listen to their songs on the internet. Lined up on stage, they have a combined wealth of almost £1billion. But these megarich leading ladies of pop banded together yesterday 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.
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).