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Apple In Talks To Buy Jay Z-Owned Tidal Streaming Service (9to5mac.com) 61

An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is in talks to acquire the Jay Z owned streaming service, Tidal. 9to5Mac reports: "While specific details are unclear at this point, Apple acquiring Tidal would give it an incredible leg up when it comes to negotiating for exclusive streaming rights. Tidal is currently owned by Jay Z and a variety of other artists, including Kanye West, Beyonce, Chris Martin, Jack White, and many more. Negotiations between Apple and Jay Z are reportedly still early and 'may not result in a deal,' according to the report. Apple is interested in Tidal because of its strong ties to artists, many of which are owners. Tidal has secured the exclusive streaming rights to a handful of notable albums in recent months, including Beyonce's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo." Earlier this year, a report claimed that Samsung, Google and Spotify had all considered buying the streaming service.
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Apple In Talks To Buy Jay Z-Owned Tidal Streaming Service

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  • Or.... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Tidal, desparate for a sale, release rumours that its in talks to be bought with someone with deep pockets, in order to motivate someone with deeper pockets and poor impulse control.

    • Re: Or.... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Someone alert Bachmanity Capital!

  • 4 easy steps (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gamenfo ( 18212 ) on Thursday June 30, 2016 @07:59PM (#52423663) Homepage

    This seems like a perfect strategy for a group of musicians mad that apple / spotify / etc are all not making them enough money.

    1. Start a streaming service
    2. Release exclusive albums
    3. Wait to be bought
    4. PROFIT!

  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30, 2016 @08:14PM (#52423731)

    would be bought.

  • Crap like this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday June 30, 2016 @08:32PM (#52423813)
    is why I'd like to see a return to the old tax rates from the 50s,60s and 70s before "Reganomics" took hold. When you've got as much cash as Apple why _not_ just buy every single possible competitor... I mean, wasn't Tidal another one of those services started _because_ of the crappy deals Apple gave artists?
    • I mean, wasn't Tidal another one of those services started _because_ of the crappy deals Apple gave artists?

      I thought it was a service started because a self-obsessed douche-bag was overly self-obsessed, thought he was the worlds greatest producer, and worlds greatest businessman, and then couldn't figure out why people pirated his stuff when he released his self-obsessed album on an obscure platform no one uses.

      It would be a real bad outcome for Apple to buy this. Not for Apple, but because self-important shits who have an epic failure of an idea don't deserve the windfall success of another company buying out a

      • I thought it was a service started because a self-obsessed douche-bag was overly self-obsessed,

        Jay-Z actually bought the service from Norwegians/Swedes who wanted lossless music streaming.

      • by fred911 ( 83970 )

        "self-obsessed douche-bag"

        Well put, I couldn't agree more. It's also one reason I refuse to even listen or read anything bearing his name or any of the associated "reality" "talent" the douche-bag is associated with.

      • So very much this. It is beyond and past time for the entire Kanye / Kardashian / Beyonce / J-Z / Jenner pantheon to just go the hell away and fade away into obscurity.

        It's not even as though I seek out their vainglorious tommyrot. In fact I actively avoid it. But it keeps intruding into the spheres that I do care about. I know bad news sells more papers than good. And people mostly goto hockey games to see the fights and NASCAR to see the crashes. But hell... I feel like a dumber and all-around worse

    • by teg ( 97890 )

      is why I'd like to see a return to the old tax rates from the 50s,60s and 70s before "Reganomics" took hold. When you've got as much cash as Apple why _not_ just buy every single possible competitor... I mean, wasn't Tidal another one of those services started _because_ of the crappy deals Apple gave artists?

      • The tax rates were applied to people, not companies. It wouldn't change anything here.
      • Tidal started as WiMP [wikipedia.org] in 2010, 5 years before Apple Music was launched. Initially, their selling point was curated content tailor to the local markets they were operating in, and they also helped digitize many old recordings here in Norway. Later, they started offering lossless streaming.

      .

    • by khallow ( 566160 )

      is why I'd like to see a return to the old tax rates from the 50s,60s and 70s before "Reganomics" took hold.

      This is a classic case of cargo cult economics. There are several deep problems with this outlook. First, the prosperity of the past had nothing to do with the tax rate. Second, the problems of today have nothing to do with the tax rate. Third, most of the rich never had to pay that tax rate. And fourth, this is a brazen case of envy which completely disregards the harm it would cause and should have no place in economic policies that affect hundreds of millions of people.

      So let's start with the first po

  • by BuypolarBear ( 2713397 ) on Thursday June 30, 2016 @08:55PM (#52423917)

    Let me get this straight: they like that it's owned by artists, so they're going to buy it from those artists? Amazing how they can't see the problem with this.

  • Zero (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dysmal ( 3361085 ) on Thursday June 30, 2016 @10:11PM (#52424195)

    That is the amount of fucks given about the prospect of Apple gobbling up the most hyped music streaming service that no individual actually knows a subscriber of.

    • I give a fuck. Self-obsessed douche-bags powered exclusively by marketing hype shouldn't get rich by creating a huge failure.

    • by teg ( 97890 )

      That is the amount of fucks given about the prospect of Apple gobbling up the most hyped music streaming service that no individual actually knows a subscriber of.

      I subscribe to it, and have done so for many years - I started way before Jay Z bought it. Back in the day, it had nice curated playlists - which spotify did not have. It also added lossless streaming, which I wanted.

      These days, the playlists in Apple Music are far more numerous and fits me better - the increased focus on music I don't like in Tidal (hip hop) makes a exit more likely. If only Apple Music had lossless....

    • It worries me that they're simultaneously gobbling up platforms (beats, tidal), while pushing hardware manufacturers to abandon open standards and migrate to their proprietary drm garbage. No other company has such weight to forcibly drag consumers into a vertically integrated, walled garden. I fully expect that Tidal (and any others they gobble up) users will soon require Lightning headphones for the "full experience", or for drm "security" reasons, or whatever.
  • Didn't those "exclusives" last all of a week or two before they also became available on Apple Music?

    (It's a serious question. I'm a Pandora One user; plus I don't really care whether or not I ever hear either album)

  • "There's a sucker born every minute." -P. T. Barnum

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Now they'll be bungling that crap with beats headphones and other crap Tim Cook buys because his people are so totally out of ideas.

    He should step down, join Meg Whitman and the others like him.

  • aac, and apple music won't even run on my phone.

    I've lost Mog and Beats Music - if I lose Tidal Music I'm going to start pirating.

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