Square Inc. is reportedly interested in acquiring the streaming service Tidal from Jay-Z. The digital payment company is run by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.
Jay-Z acquired the streaming service for $56 million in 2015 and Sprint acquired a $200 million stake in 2017. There has been no agreement between the two companies and both refused to comment on reports.
The primary products of Square Inc. are Square Seller, a payment processor, and Cash App. The acquisition of Tidal would represent a diversification of the company’s holdings in order to create a more generalized company.
In recent years Tidal has fallen behind both Spotify and Apple Music in terms of popularity. Despite its endorsement from popular artists and better sound quality, it has not found the same level of popularity as other streaming platforms. Tidal has not reported its subscriber numbers publicly since 2016. A previous advantage of Tidal was having the exclusive streaming rights to artists such as Jay-Z and Beyonce, but the discographies of both artists are now on other streaming services. This raises questions about potential struggles Tidal may be facing.
Brendan McPherson | IG @brendan_mcpherson
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