Apple is reportedly in talks to purchase Jay Z's music streaming service Tidal, a source told The Wall Street Journal. As of now, no details are known about the potential acquisition, but if true, it will likely result in a big payday for Tidal's artist owners, including Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Pharrell.
Interestingly, this isn't the first rumor about a potential Tidal purchase. Back in February, rumors surfaced that Samsung was interested in buying the music streaming service, although nothing ever came of it. Apple already operates its own streaming service, Apple Music, which has been moderately successful, recently passing 13 million subscribers. As of now, it's not clear exactly what Apple would do with Tidal, although Jay Z's company has played host to exclusive content from a number of high-profile artists recently
Since the beginning of 2016, Tidal has premiered new songs, albums, or videos from Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Desiigner, T.I., TWENTY88, and more. It's also scored exclusive livestreaming rights for a number of TidalX concerts. All of this has helped lift the streaming service's fortunes a bit. Its subscriber numbers reportedly doubled after the release of Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. It does, however, still remain in a distant third to Spotify and Apple Music in terms of total subscribers. We'll have to see whether the deal with Apple goes through, but if so, we can chalk this up as another major mogul move from Jay Z.
