Jack White is the latest celebrity musician to come out in defense of the new streaming service TIDAL, which has been dragged through the proverbial mud ever since it launched months ago. White is one of the initial backers of TIDAL, and the guitarist felt compelled to answer questions from his own fans.

How TIDAL Came Crashing Down

Presented as a Q&A on the website for Third Man Records, White’s record label, the first question immediately compares TIDAL to its well-known competitor, Spotify. When asked “Will smaller artists be treated more fairly with TIDAL than, say, Spotify?,” White said, “Damn straight. I’m aiming to get unknown artists paid so that they can make more music.”

White continued with loose verbiage in defense of the “unknown artist,” saying things like:

“Unknown musicians don’t have a voice being heard, i want those artists to make a living at being artists so more great music can happen.”

“Whoever started the model of making a website that gets paid by big advertisers (Youtube) and does not pay that money to the artists GENERATING the interest. Makes no sense to an artist trying to survive.”

To his defense, White did address the main criticism of TIDAL, namely that it appears as though rich artists are just going to get richer through the service. Jay-Z, in particular, has come under fire.

White’s response: “A streaming service owned by artists is the first step, it’s not about the rich getting richer. it takes artists that can get peoples attention to be able to make a scenario possible for those artists that don’t have a voice to get in a position where they aren’t struggling, and believe me third man records is full of artists the mainstream’s never heard of and have no voice or power in the system. have you heard of Rachelle Garnier? what about the Smoke Fairies? Drakar Sauna? Pujol? The Gories? Those are just some of the up and coming artists on third man that try to make a living in music. And if you stream their songs… they get paid for it. And they get to LIVE and not take second jobs….and make MORE music! I support keeping musicians you love in business. We want a full third man roster page on tidal that you can stream hundreds of records on, and each time that artist gets something. that’s a beautiful thing.”

You can read his full response here.