Jay Z enters streaming music fray with purchase of Beats Music competitor Aspiro

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited March 2015
Rap icon Jay Z has officially taken control of Swedish Internet firm Aspiro, which markets subscription streaming services WiMP and Tidal, direct competitors of Apple's Beats Music.




According to The New York Times, a Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, made a $56 million bid for Aspiro through an investment entity called Project Panther Bidco in January.

As Aspiro is a publicly traded firm in Sweden, terms of the takeover required a 90 percent approval from shareholders. Interested parties had until Wednesday to make their decision, and Project Panther announced its bid was successful on Friday.

"All conditions for completion of the offer have been fulfilled, and the offer is therefore declared unconditional,'' Project Panther said in a prepared statement. "Accordingly, Panther will complete the acquisition of the shares tendered in the offer."

Aspiro will subsequently be delisted from Nasdaq Stockholm.

While Jay Z's intentions are unknown, the publication guesses he is interested in Aspiro's high-definition services, which offer higher resolution music files compared to leading streaming brands, including Apple and Spotify.

Last October, Aspiro's WiMP brand announced it had 512,000 paying users, though only 20,000 opted in to high-definition services. Apple's Beats Music has not revealed exact numbers, but the service is believed to carry about 300,000 subscribers. By comparison, Spotify hit 15 million paid subscribers at the end of 2014.

Apple is looking to launch a rebranded Beats Music incarnation later this year as a pay-only service, rumors say. Earlier this week, it was reported that Apple failed to negotiate new royalty pricing models with record labels that would have brought subscriber costs down from $10 to $8 per month.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31

    Jay Z, trying to be cooler (and richer) than Dre still...

  • Reply 2 of 31
    Wow $56 million and it has over half million subscribers, apple paid $2.5 billion (let's give the hardware business $500 million value). I think they paid too much
  • Reply 3 of 31
    realcool wrote: »
    Wow $56 million and it has over half million subscribers, apple paid $2.5 billion (let's give the hardware business $500 million value). I think they paid too much

    Weren't their sales something like $3 billion in 2013 with crazy high margins? How is the hardware side only worth 500 million?
  • Reply 4 of 31
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by realcool View Post



    Wow $56 million and it has over half million subscribers, apple paid $2.5 billion (let's give the hardware business $500 million value). I think they paid too much

    Let's give the hardware business an arbitrary value that massively under-appreciates earnings and brand?  Sure!

  • Reply 5 of 31
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by realcool View Post



    Wow $56 million and it has over half million subscribers, apple paid $2.5 billion (let's give the hardware business $500 million value). I think they paid too much



    The Hardware business was valued at 2.5 billion, FYI.

     

    Apple also bought some tastemakers with it.

  • Reply 6 of 31
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    Nope.
  • Reply 7 of 31
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,103member

    Let the ball kicking contest begin!

  • Reply 8 of 31
    splifsplif Posts: 603member

    WiMP...great name¡

  • Reply 9 of 31
    splif wrote: »
    WiMP...great name¡

    Rapper see. rapper do...
  • Reply 10 of 31
    splif wrote: »
    WiMP...great name¡

    Seems like it would have been more appropriate for Kanye.
  • Reply 11 of 31
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Kanye's partner in crime/The rapper who's always talking down other artists.....

    This guy is a real D**K!!

    He should give his album away to Sammy again then go suck one!!

    Let's see him try to convince Beyonce to break up with Apple and release exclusives on WiMP instead.

    WiMP? Hmmmm wonder why they decided to go with a lower case "i"...
  • Reply 12 of 31
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Seems like it would have been more appropriate for Kanye.



    LiMP is still available :D 

    What is interesting is that artist's are buying up modern distributions channels. Next step (maybe) signing new artists and cutting out the old guard.

    Unless, of course part of the investment for this venture is the old guard.

  • Reply 13 of 31
    pscooter63pscooter63 Posts: 1,080member

    You know, at first glance I misread the title as "steaming"...

  • Reply 14 of 31
    brlawyerbrlawyer Posts: 828member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post

     

    Jay Z, trying to be cooler (and richer) than Dre still...




    They can be rich, but they are still the (c)rap of the (c)rap. I love how these guys don't even say their names - it's all about "Dre" and "Z". Yo, Bro.

  • Reply 15 of 31
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member

    I'll wait until Nas buys a streaming service.

  • Reply 16 of 31
    jcs2305jcs2305 Posts: 1,336member
    brlawyer wrote: »

    They can be rich, but they are still the (c)rap of the (c)rap. I love how these guys don't even say their names - it's all about "Dre" and "Z". Yo, Bro.

    Yo bro ? Seriously ? Who talks like that ? Also they are nicknames.. Like Bono or Sting. :no:
  • Reply 17 of 31
    postulantpostulant Posts: 1,272member
    jcs2305 wrote: »
    Yo bro ? Seriously ? Who talks like that ? Also they are nicknames.. Like Bono or Sting. :no:
    Exactly !! I see where this is headed. I'm out!!!
  • Reply 18 of 31

    Oh yes. Now that streaming is being examined critically by artists, labels, and listeners themselves, ...this is the time to invest in yet another service.

  • Reply 19 of 31
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post

     



    They can be rich, but they are still the (c)rap of the (c)rap. I love how these guys don't even say their names - it's all about "Dre" and "Z". Yo, Bro.


    Do you have ANY idea how many artists of all genres and media change their names? Lady Gaga? I doubt you know much about rap at all to begin to make any conclusions about Jay Z's reputation in that medium. If you don't like rap music or rap culture, fine. However, your "these guys" and "Yo, Bro" statements tell me a lot about you.

  • Reply 20 of 31
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cali View Post



    Kanye's partner in crime/The rapper who's always talking down other artists.....



    This guy is a real D**K!!



    He should give his album away to Sammy again then go suck one!!



    Let's see him try to convince Beyonce to break up with Apple and release exclusives on WiMP instead.



    WiMP? Hmmmm wonder why they decided to go with a lower case "i"...



    He's a D**K!!, why? Why does he bother you so much, especially given you only "know" him through media portrayals? And we know how objective they are.

Sign In or Register to comment.