Kanye West wants Apple to buy Tidal, calls for executive meeting
Rapper Kanye West in a minor tweet storm on Saturday called on Apple to purchase Apple Music competitor Tidal, saying he wants to put an end to the "beef" between the two streaming music providers.
West said Apple's rivalry with Tidal is a detriment to the music industry, and he's calling on executives from both companies to come together to discuss sale terms. Specifically, he wants to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Beats cofounder Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music Larry Jackson and Tidal owner Jay-Z -- as well as Drake, for some reason -- this week. He later added Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek to the list of execs he wants at the table.
"F--- all this dick swinging contest. We all gon [sic] be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music," West said. In an apparent reference to late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, he added, "Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve."
While he failed to elaborate, West is likely referring to negotiations related to a potential Tidal acquisition. In June, Apple was said to be mulling a purchase of the smaller streaming service, assumedly for access to exclusive releases.
When Jay-Z relaunched Tidal last year, he divvied up minor ownership rights to big-name artists like West, Beyonc?, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Chris Martin, Rihanna, Usher, Jack White and others. A number of minority owners have since released albums on the service as windowed exclusives, including West, who begged fans to subscribe after the debut of his last album, "Life of Pablo."
Despite an all-star content lineup, Tidal in March announced a paid subscriber base of only 3 million users. At the time, Apple Music's base came in at 11 million paying subscribers, a figure that has since grown to more than 15 million customers. Both services pale in comparison to market leader Spotify, which boasts some 30 million subscribers.
As for Apple, the company is focused on providing users with exclusive streaming music content, but it remains unclear if that means bidding for a competing service. Apple already dabbles in original content creation, including financing music videos, documentaries and other digital media. The collaborative strategy, fostered by Larry Jackson, has yielded exclusives from Eminem, Drake, Taylor Swift, M.I.A., Future, Chance the Rapper and more.
West said Apple's rivalry with Tidal is a detriment to the music industry, and he's calling on executives from both companies to come together to discuss sale terms. Specifically, he wants to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Beats cofounder Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music Larry Jackson and Tidal owner Jay-Z -- as well as Drake, for some reason -- this week. He later added Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek to the list of execs he wants at the table.
"F--- all this dick swinging contest. We all gon [sic] be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music," West said. In an apparent reference to late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, he added, "Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve."
While he failed to elaborate, West is likely referring to negotiations related to a potential Tidal acquisition. In June, Apple was said to be mulling a purchase of the smaller streaming service, assumedly for access to exclusive releases.
When Jay-Z relaunched Tidal last year, he divvied up minor ownership rights to big-name artists like West, Beyonc?, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Chris Martin, Rihanna, Usher, Jack White and others. A number of minority owners have since released albums on the service as windowed exclusives, including West, who begged fans to subscribe after the debut of his last album, "Life of Pablo."
Despite an all-star content lineup, Tidal in March announced a paid subscriber base of only 3 million users. At the time, Apple Music's base came in at 11 million paying subscribers, a figure that has since grown to more than 15 million customers. Both services pale in comparison to market leader Spotify, which boasts some 30 million subscribers.
As for Apple, the company is focused on providing users with exclusive streaming music content, but it remains unclear if that means bidding for a competing service. Apple already dabbles in original content creation, including financing music videos, documentaries and other digital media. The collaborative strategy, fostered by Larry Jackson, has yielded exclusives from Eminem, Drake, Taylor Swift, M.I.A., Future, Chance the Rapper and more.
Comments
There is no "beef"here. The, aptly named, Tidal is under water and Apple does not give a shit, as they should.
Music streaming is an attention-share business for brain-dead shareholders. You are losing money on every customer, and investors reward you for every new customer. Music and "making it up in volume" are strange bedfellows.
Even more strangely, R.E.M.'s "How the West was won and where it got us" is streaming out of my Zeppelin right now :-| ?
Kanye is up to his eyeballs in debt. There is no way Apple should even reduce that by $1.99.
Apple buying Tidal only makes sense if they wanted to stop someone else funding it , and though the artist exclusivity was worth it - it's a marginally better proposition than buying Pono Music, but 3 million subscribers is only a few months growth of Apple Music.
As a musician, surely you'd want to go exclusive with Apple, over Tidal any day of the week. Yes your percentage is lower, but Apple is a much bigger base, develops artists and at their most frustrating are very pleasant compared to dealing with Kanye.
https://goo.gl/images/Mw80fZ
PS: I still haven't tried Apple Music. I guess I just prefer to own my music.
Regarding Tidal, everyting has its price. For sure, in Apple's hands, Tidal's exclusives are worth more than in Tidal's hands as an independent service. Such is the dynamic of a small player potentially selling out to a very large players. But should an Apple offer be based upon the value they might realize from having Tidal aboard, or based upon what Tidal is worth on its own? Somewhere between is a fair price, and no doubt there's a number in Apple's mind to take out this smaller player. With the antagonism that's existed set aside and this looked at as a business opportunity, I think there's reason for Apple to consider a bid. Whether the minds at Tidal would feel that's appropriate is another matter.