Grand opening, grand closing? According to the New York Post, Samsung is reportedly in talks to purchase Jay Z's music streaming service, Tidal. The rapper acquired the company for $56 million in 2015 and in March of last year brought on over a dozen performers as artist owners, including Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj.
Back in September, Tidal hit the million subscriber mark. More recently, the company received a major boost in subscriptions thanks to an exclusive release of Kanye's new album, The Life of Pablo. Tidal is reportedly valued at $100 million, and while the company has seen its share of success over the last year, it's still well behind Spotify, which boasts over 25 million subscribers.
"Samsung is re-engaging; they are working on something really big, and they’re keeping it very quiet in case it leaks," a source told the New York Post. Jay Z has a past history with the South Korean electronics company. In 2013, he released Magna Carta Holy Grail and partnered on an exclusive app with Samsung that included one million free downloads of the album. Rihanna, who is signed to Jay Z's Roc Nation and is an artist owner of Tidal, also had a similar deal in place for her latest album, ANTI.
Samsung isn't the only company in play to reportedly buy Tidal. Spotify and Google are also very much interested, according to sources. We reached out to Tidal for comment and will update when available.
