Sprint, one of the leading telecommunications companies in the United States, today announced the acquisition of 33% of Jay-Z's owned streaming music service TIDAL, a service that made its debut in 2015 and soon emerged as a competitor to Google Play Music, Spotify, and other similar services.
During the last months, different rumors pointed to the interest of certain companies in taking over this service, including Apple, Google and even Spotify, however finally it was the Sprint operator that has taken over a third of the company to offer content exclusively to its forty-five million clients.
Sprint buys a third of TIDAL and enters the streaming music business
Jay-Z, current CEO of TIDAL, and his entire team will continue to manage the music service in streaming, while Sprint's CEO, Marcelo Claure, joins TIDAL's management, as both companies have made public through a release. Financial details have not yet been disclosed, however the agreement reached between the two will grant Sprint customers access to exclusive content:
Sprint and global entertainment platform TIDAL today announce a partnership that will soon give Sprint's 45 million customers unlimited access to exclusive artist content not available anywhere else ...
As part of the partnership, Sprint will acquire 33 percent of TIDAL. JAY Z and the proprietary artists will continue to lead the artist-centric service TIDAL as it pioneers and grows the direct relationship between artists and fans. Sprint and TIDAL's formidable pairing will grow customers on both platforms by offering exclusive access for customers who subscribe to TIDAL. Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will also join TIDAL's board of directors.
JAY Z, CEO of TIDAL, said that “Sprint shares our vision to revolutionize the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest and most shared potential. Marcelo [Claure] understood our goal immediately and together we are excited to bring Sprint's 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience.
This association does not appear to mean that Sprint customers will have free access to the service., which like the rest of the services of the competition, has a cost of $ 9,99 per month. TIDAL also has a higher subscription level, at $ 19,99 per month, which offers access to high fidelity music.
The advantage of the association would be, essentially, that both Sprint and TIDAl will join forces to support artists with a significant marketing budget that will allow offer exclusive content and other promotions.
The end of rumors
Today's announcement would put an end to months of rumors about the possible sale of TIDAL and its acquisition by other companies.
Last September, Apple denied rumors about its alleged interest in acquiring the service, while Samsung, Google, Spotify and others also have shown interest in reaching an agreement together with Sprint.
The differentiating factor of TIDAL with respect to other streaming music services has been, since its inception, its claim for maintaining a close relationship with artists, something for which the personality, power and influences of its CEO Jay Z have been of great use in the music industry. Thanks to that TIDAL has managed to count on great and highly reputed artists who have placed exclusive content on it. However, these efforts for exclusive content have been questioned, as many of the later releases expanded to Apple Music and other competing services.
Late last year, one of its biggest advocates, Kanye West, said that competition between Tidal and Apple Music was affecting the music industry, further fueling rumors of a possible acquisition.