Jay Z and Apple might be joining forces.
Apple has dominated the jigga man’s streaming service, Tidal, ever since the launch of Apple Music one year ago, but a new report claims that the iPhone-maker is in exploratory talks to acquire the music streaming service.
“The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal,” reports the Wall Street Journal, which says Apple is considering buying the company as a way to bolster its strategy to spend tons of cash on artist exclusives.
Tidal was launched by Jay Z in 2015 alongside a cadre of popular artists, promising artists greater revenues than those offered by Spotify and Apple Music. The streaming service has a similar marketing strategy as Apple, spending big on exclusives like Kanye West’s Life of Pablo.
Despite scoring exclusives from everyone from Rhianna to Madonna, Tidal has struggled to keep up with the pace of paying subscribers Apple Music and Spotify are adding. Apple Music boasts more than 15 million paying listeners. Spotify has 30 million. But Tidal only has 4.2 million.
Both Apple and Tidal are remaining silent about rumors of the talks. Terms of the possible deal haven’t been revealed, but it would likely be more than the $56 million Jay Z paid to buy the company in 2015.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
5 responses to “Apple might buy struggling competitor Tidal”
Sixk of Apple making deals with rappers etc. it’s not the image that’s beneficial for a company like that…
Shut up!
I assume people like Kanye West are role models for you, right ? And what they do – you consider ‘music’ ?
The truth is – tons of Apple users – and i’m not talking about teens using iPhones – are not going to be amused by their favourite company associating itself with rappers, pseudo-celebrities etc. It’s not Samsung for christ sake…
Dude whether you realize it or not Rap/Hip-Hop is the most popular genre on the planet, It’s everywhere, suck it up ok. Spotify even said it from one of there test studies
How is that image any different from them carrying and making money off of the millions of hip-hop songs on their platform? Is it only okay when Apple makes money but not rap artists?