Jay Z and Apple aren’t going to be joining forces anytime soon, according to Apple Music head honcho Jimmy Iovine.
In a new interview, Iovine poured cold water on Tidal takeover rumors, saying: “We’re really running our own race” and “we’re not looking to acquire any streaming services.”
Iovine was responding to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that said Apple is in exploratory talks to acquire Jay Z’s streaming music service.
“The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal,” reported the paper. The story posited that buying Tidal would be a good way to bolster its strategy of securing music exclusives.
On the face of it, Tidal is the music service with a philosophy most similar to Apple Music’s own. Jay Z’s streaming service is built upon giving users the chance to listen to exclusive albums like Kanye West’s Life of Pablo in addition to offering all the same songs other services do.
With that said, Tidal’s subscriber base remains between one-quarter and one-third the size of Apple Music’s. According to Apple, Apple Music currently has around 17 million users, a significantly smaller number than chief rival Spotify’s 40 million.
But would buying Tidal really make Apple Music any more competitive? I’m not sure that it would, and based on Iovine’s interview, Apple isn’t either.
Source: BuzzFeed
