Sprint Purchases 33 Percent Stake in Tidal For $200 Million (billboard.com)

Sprint has acquired a 33 percent stake in Jay Z's music streaming service Tidal, the two companies announced today. From a report: A source familiar with the matter tells Billboard that the purchase was for $200 million and that Jay and each of the company's two dozen artist-owners will remain part owners. As part of the deal, Tidal will become available to Sprint's 45 million retail customers, while the companies will partner for exclusives from its artists, according to a press release.

Comments

So...

[ChodaBoyUSA]

A failing cell network purchased (part of) a failing streaming company...so they can fail together?

Another bad investment

[BarbaraHudson]

This is the same Jay Z whose Tidal streaming music company is now accused of grossly inflated subscriber counts - using their own numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a proviso for either refunding the majority of the "investment" in one form or another, or for clawback terms. In other words, buy it for $200 million, get rebated $175 million. Even Sprint can't be that stupid ... or can they?

Re:It's not gonna happen

[MightyYar]

I used to listen to cassette tapes on a Walkman, so I'll take "free, way better quality than tape" over "expensive, and maybe you can hear the difference in a quiet room with expensive headphones".

Re:It's not gonna happen

[AvitarX]

I'm pretty happy with Google Play music, except for the fact that tidal (I assume) is taking artists away (my selection of Jay-Z has significantly reduced).

I'd like to see competition, but not in the form of exclusivity.

I left spotify because it sucked (no streaming to chromecast, no side loading, worse recommendations, no personal "library"), I suspect they fixed many of the issues, but that's why competition is good.