Jay Z enters streaming music fray with purchase of Beats Music competitor Aspiro
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.
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.
Comments
Jay Z, trying to be cooler (and richer) than Dre still...
Weren't their sales something like $3 billion in 2013 with crazy high margins? How is the hardware side only worth 500 million?
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!
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.
Let the ball kicking contest begin!
WiMP...great name¡
Rapper see. rapper do...
Seems like it would have been more appropriate for Kanye.
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"...
Seems like it would have been more appropriate for Kanye.
LiMP is still available
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.
You know, at first glance I misread the title as "steaming"...
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.
I'll wait until Nas buys a streaming service.
Yo bro ? Seriously ? Who talks like that ? Also they are nicknames.. Like Bono or Sting. :no:
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.
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.
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.