Apple Might Be Buying Jay-Z’s Tidal — Here’s What’s Good, Bad and Ugly About It
Music streaming services are one of those love it/hate it things: Everybody has an opinion. But things could soon be shaken up in the music arena. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple is looking to purchase that thing we’ve definitely run out of free trial time on: Tidal.
Jay-Z purchased Tidal in 2015 for $56 million, hoping to provide better audio quality for streaming and paying very good rates for exclusive contracts with artists like Beyonce and Kanye West. So, if Apple were to purchase Tidal, this means that Apple Music users could get all of Beyonce’s Lemonade and Kanye West’s Life of Pablo. Score! However, a lot of users are hesitant to switch over to Tidal because it costs $20 per month. For context, both Spotify Premium and Apple Music cost about $10 per month.
Basically what this all means is that competition in the music streaming arena is about to get fierce. Each company is going to be strict about their exclusivity rights and find new ways of converting customers to their brand. Spotify just accused Apple of blocking its latest update in the App Store and trying to eliminate competition. We think we smell some conflicts of interest…
Buckle in, guys. It looks like we’re in for quite a ride.
(h/t Buzzfeed, photo via Getty)