NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The performer Jay Z unveiled his streaming service Tidal this week to much fanfare but the star-studded hype may not justify the upstart service's prospects. Jay Z is certainly well known but Tidal is jumping into a crowded space of music platforms that have already locked-in numerous subscribers.

The attraction of Tidal -- which Jay Z acquired in January for $56 million from a Swedish tech company -- lies in two assumptions: that users will pay for higher-quality audio and that they'll select Tidal because a lineup of A-list celebrities, some of whom own shares in the company, have agreed to exclusivity contracts.

To enter a market that's been around in some form for 10 years but has accelerated over the past five, Tidal must deliver added value. It's questionable whether the market for higher-quality audio is all that large. Most consumers listen to MP3s, completely unaware that sound quality would be a lot better through a CD or vinyl. Quality might not be that important, said Casey Rae, chief of the Future of Music Coalition, a non-profit organization that represents musicians.

"What we're talking about in this market is differentiation," Rae said in a phone interview. "It's kind of a crowded field for streaming. As of this hour in 2015, I don't know if that feature alone is enough to move the needle.''

Tidal must also do more than just hold a splashy kick-off event in New York to overcome a lack of name recognition when compared with Spotify, which began in 2006, and Pandora, which launched in 2000. Most consumers will likely just stick with what they know and what's familiar, so Tidal or any other player will have to convince consumers to actively leave their current platform.

With Apple (AAPL) - Get Report buying Beats and expected to launch a new music streaming service in June, it's possible the nascent industry is headed for consolidation, Rae said.

Apple has "a massive war chest," Rae said. "They have a user-friendly and developed operating system and store, and they also have a superstar strategy with Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. They have a preloaded user base because of the size of the iTunes store and all the credit cards they have and marketing muscle."

Apple reinvented the way we interact with music when it introduced the iPod, and it can very possibly do that again with a new streaming service. The question is if the other services will survive, whether Jay Z likes that or not.