Apple reportedly mulling Tidal acquisition for access to exclusive content

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2016
A shaky rumor on Thursday claims Apple is in early talks to acquire Tidal, the music streaming service and Apple Music competitor purchased by rapper Jay-Z in 2015.




Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reports a deal is far from finalization and cautions ongoing talks might not result in an agreement.

Apple's interest in Tidal lies in the firm's ties to top artists like Kanye West, Beyonce and Rihanna, many of whom own a stake in the brand, the publication said.

Earlier this year Kanye West's highly anticipated album "Life of Pablo" debuted as a Tidal exclusive, arriving on Apple Music weeks later. More recently, Apple missed out on "Lemonade" by Beyonce, Jay-Z's wife and business partner. Prior to her affiliation with Tidal, Beyonce broke sales records with a self-titled album sold exclusively through iTunes in 2013.

Compared to Apple Music and market leader Spotify, Tidal offers little outside of a first crack at windowed content. The company in March announced a paid subscriber base of 3 million users after one year of operation, far below Apple Music's then-current 11 million subscribers and Spotify's 30 million. Apple's service has since grown to 15 million paid subscribers, while Spotify this month said more than 100 million people are signed up for its free-to-stream tier.

For Apple, a move for Tidal is somewhat surprising considering it officially closed a $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014. That acquisition led to the launch of Apple Music, the company's flagship streaming service and premium music product.

Further, Apple sunk considerable time and money into developing its own method of scoring exclusives. A report this week profiling the company's efforts in original content creation highlights corporate financing of music videos, documentaries and other digital media. Top executives all the way up to CEO Tim Cook get involved in the production process in a hands-on approach that has so far yielded exclusives from Eminem, Drake, Taylor Swift, M.I.A., Future, Chance the Rapper and more.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Oh, hell no. Let that POS fail first, THEN come to an agreement. They deserve nothing less than pennies on the dollar.

    In addition...
    https://youtu.be/d4C3ijlWcHM
    edited June 2016 latifbp
  • Reply 2 of 36
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    I'm sure Spotify will be pissing and moaning about this too...
    lolliverericthehalfbeecalipatchythepirateirelandronnEsquireCatslostkiwipscooter63
  • Reply 3 of 36
    Give him $5. 
    lolliverSpamSandwichcali
  • Reply 4 of 36
    Wasn't there a rumor Jay Z was talking to Samsung about purchasing the company? I am guessing Apple is being mentioned in a desperate attempt to bring more attention to Tidal. Tidal has never shied away from an opportunity to get its name printed by referencing Apple. 
    lollivercalilostkiwientropysbaconstang
  • Reply 5 of 36
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Wasn't there a rumor Jay Z was talking to Samsung about purchasing the company? I am guessing Apple is being mentioned in a desperate attempt to bring more attention to Tidal. Tidal has never shied away from an opportunity to get its name printed by referencing Apple. 
    Good lord. Let Samsung buy 'em!
    baconstang
  • Reply 6 of 36
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    The only reason I'd be even a little bit excited about this is Tidal has Prince albums not available on iTunes.
    calironnlostkiwicnocbuijasenj1
  • Reply 7 of 36
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Oh, hell no. Let that POS fail first, THEN come to an agreement. They deserve nothing less than pennies on the dollar.

    In addition...
    https://youtu.be/d4C3ijlWcHM
    Exactly. It's bound to fail. Apple will then pick up the pieces. 
  • Reply 8 of 36
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Wasn't there a rumor Jay Z was talking to Samsung about purchasing the company? I am guessing Apple is being mentioned in a desperate attempt to bring more attention to Tidal. Tidal has never shied away from an opportunity to get its name printed by referencing Apple. 
    Good lord. Let Samsung buy 'em!
    Maybe they can MILK the little money Tidals MUSIC makes. ;)


    In addition...
    https://youtu.be/
    Well when you have a head that big....
    SpamSandwich[Deleted User]
  • Reply 9 of 36
    schlackschlack Posts: 719member
    this doesn't seem like such a bad idea....if they could bring in the artists who have ownership of tidal as brand ambassadors and creative leaders within the company (who could possibly compete with a company that counts Dr Dre and JayZ as executives...plus it shuts down a potent competitor.
    ronn
  • Reply 10 of 36
    getvoxoagetvoxoa Posts: 84member
    Why bother with Tidal even if it fails.
  • Reply 11 of 36
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    If the price is right it seems like a no-brainer stratigic acquisition for Apple. Part of me is saddened by all this exclusive music and video content though (Apple Music; Netflix; HBO etc.) Nothing much can be done about it I guess, it's just sad when art goes behind walls—I do consider both these forms of media to be art. But obviously the worst thing about this deal will be watching West's retarded head growing two inches larger.
    edited June 2016 baconstang
  • Reply 12 of 36
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    schlack said:
    this doesn't seem like such a bad idea....if they could bring in the artists who have ownership of tidal as brand ambassadors and creative leaders within the company (who could possibly compete with a company that counts Dr Dre and JayZ as executives...plus it shuts down a potent competitor.
    Yeah I don't see Apple using them as creative leaders, more getting their content and featuring them and probably giving them a radio show on Beats 1.
    baconstang
  • Reply 13 of 36
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    cali said:
    Good lord. Let Samsung buy 'em!
    Kanye has issues (banging into a sign isn't what I mean). The world would be a better place if TMZ didn't exist. Fucking hate those pricks.
    baconstang
  • Reply 14 of 36
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Wasn't there a rumor Jay Z was talking to Samsung about purchasing the company? I am guessing Apple is being mentioned in a desperate attempt to bring more attention to Tidal. Tidal has never shied away from an opportunity to get its name printed by referencing Apple. 
    If your point is true is reminds of the move that apparent smartphone fuel cell company pulled. Weren't they a pubic company? Gosh there are sleazbags in this world.
  • Reply 15 of 36
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    This is such b-s, if true. What a triviality. At this point, it would seem that, if Apple has a strategy of some kind, only Tim Cook knows about it.

    (By all means, feel free 'Dislike' this comment in droves, but have the intellectual decency and honesty to tell us what you think Apple's strategy is. Don't be a gutless little weasel!)
    edited June 2016 pscooter63entropyscnocbui
  • Reply 16 of 36
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    ireland said:
    cali said:
    Kanye has issues (banging into a sign isn't what I mean). The world would be a better place if TMZ didn't exist. Fucking hate those pricks.

    I agree. TMZ is probably worse than Kanye.

    ireland said:
    But obviously the worst thing about this deal will be watching West's retarded head growing two inches larger.

    Kanye would immediately write a song about it.

    On his latest song he blabbers something about talking to Tim Cook about a deal.


    baconstang
  • Reply 17 of 36
    EsquireCatsEsquireCats Posts: 1,268member
    Seems logical since Tidal and Beats are/were the only services which are products of music industry players. Artists/Labels seem happy with both of these services from a revenue perspective.

    Amusingly I'm sure Spotify will whine about this while not offering to replicate Apple/Tidals payouts to artists.
    edited July 2016 ronnbaconstang
  • Reply 18 of 36
    applesauce007applesauce007 Posts: 1,698member
    Tidal would be a good buy for Apple for several reasons:

    1.  Tidal has great relationships with lots of star Artists.
    2.  JZ would certainly be a good advisor to Apple on Music matters.
    3.  Tidal streams both Music and Videos.

    ronn
  • Reply 19 of 36
    rotateleftbyterotateleftbyte Posts: 1,630member
    Tidal would be a good buy for Apple for several reasons:

    1.  Tidal has great relationships with lots of star Artists.
    2.  JZ would certainly be a good advisor to Apple on Music matters.
    3.  Tidal streams both Music and Videos.

    2. JZ might become an advisor to Apple on things relating to the dead and dying backwater of music that is often wrongly called R&B.[1]

    There fixed it for you.
    [1] IMHO, real R&B was the raw music played by bands like the Animals and Yardbirds in the mid 1960's. The blues background was obvious. Where is the blues infulence on this modern variant eh?
    Just my opinion though. But I did see both those bands live back then.
    baconstang
  • Reply 20 of 36
    bigmikebigmike Posts: 266member
    So I guess Apple be boasting “It’s ya boy” now...
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