Apple is apparently in “exploratory talks” to buy Jay-Z’s music streaming service, Tidal according to Pitchfork via The Wall Street Journal.
Sources say that Apple is looking to buy Tidal to gain access to the exclusive artists the company has signed on for their releases. This is a smart move.
According to Forbes, Apple Music isn’t living up to its full potential even with all the money behind them, but with Tidals clout and exclusive content Apple could clime to the top.
“Tidal has a reputation of being relatively friendly to artists, as it is largely owned and managed by performers and also because of its relatively higher payouts. The service has strong relationships with big names such as Kanye West and Beyoncé, among others, who debut or offer exclusive access to their latest albums on Tidal. This could give Apple a leg up over larger rival Spotify (30 million paying subscribers), which has noted that it would not engage in the exclusive content model”.
Apple has already taken the necessary procedures to gather more exclusive content than its competition. For example, the whole Taylor Swift leaving Spotify users without her music and streaming it exclusively via Apple Music. After that entire deal, Apple Music announced that it will pay artist during the three month free trial granted to users, to keep high-profile artist Swift. Check out the details here.
The service which offered 800 million iTunes users three months of free access to its music streaming seemed like a success at first, but with the three-month period was over, only 6.5 million subscribers remained. With 6.5 million subscribers this left Apple Music in the number two spot, following Spotify. Read the full story here.
Apple Tidal merger rumors suggest that acquiring Jay Z’s music service will help Apple to further improve its exclusive music content. Tidal has strong relations with artists like Kanye West, Beyonce, Madonna, Rihanna, Calvin Harris, Jack White and more. The help from such influential artists could beef up their numbers. Also, with Apple under major reconstruction, this may not be such a bad idea. Their plans include making Apple Music competitive with the rival streaming service, Spotify, who significantly trumps them in subscribers. Read more about it here.
Our guess, if Apple buys out Tidal, there’s a good possibility that it could become the go-to streaming platform for new music creating the ultimate one-stop music destination.
However, neither Apple nor Jay-Z has confirmed on Apple Tidal merger rumors. Stay posted for details on whether or not the merge will happen.
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