Jay-Z isn't playing by normal rules when it comes to streaming.

His new music streaming service, Tidal, has already grabbed Taylor Swift after she dropped her contract with Spotify, and it looks like Jay-Z may be able to set up even more exclusive deals.

In a time where having friend power could be useful in securing deals with artists, Apple's Beats Music relaunch in June and Tidal look to have the advantage over Daniel Ek's Spotify, which has made a lot of enemies in the music industry due to poor payouts.

Like Us on Facebook

Even though 15 million people have active Spotify accounts and only 17,000 have Tidal subscriptions, this could quickly change if artists start moving away from Spotify, Rdio and other services that offer freemium style streaming.

Universal Music Group, Sony and Ministry of Sound have all complained against the use of freemium services. Spotify and Rdio claim it's the only way to bring customers to music streaming, but labels and artists are starting to become impatient with the low revenue and lack of growth in the paid subscription market.

Apple is expected to offer no free music option when Beats Music relaunches in June. It could be a major step in stopping users not bothered about the advertisements or shuffle playlists Spotify offers.

YouTube seems to be fine though, due to video ads generally making more revenue and the size of YouTube's audience closing the revenue gap for artists. Only Prince and a few other snarks are willing to stay away from YouTube, and it's likely to stay that way.

TagsJay-z, Tidal, Spotify, taylor swift, Music streaming, Beats Music