Samsung, Google and Spotify Have Considered Buying Tidal

Despite Tidal’s struggles to gain traction, both companies believe it could give a boost to their own digital music services. The smartphone maker recently spent $28 million sponsoring Rihanna’s latest Anti album and world tour.

Talks the companies are having with Tidal now appear to be aimed at smaller partnerships, sources said.

Tidal is reportedly valued at around $100 million, nearly double what Jay Z acquired it for in 2015.

The New York Post is reporting that Samsung is in talks with Jay Z to buy TIDAL, the streaming service the Roc Nation founder purchased in October of 2014 and infamously re-launched in March of past year.

That combined with the fact that Tidal’s “lossless audio” streaming, which was its only other significant selling point, was not enough to justify its $19.99/month price tag, $10 a month more than popular Tidal competitors like Spotify, Google Play or Apple Music, meant Tidal could just not thrive under Jay Z’s management.

It might be appropriate to say that most people don’t really love TIDAL. The Jay-Z-owned company is responsible for flubbing Rihanna’s latest release when her ANTI album was prematurely released, and creating piracy issues due to a botched release of Kanye West’s most recent album The Life of Pablo.

“The pressure is definitely on”, a source told The Post who confirmed rumors that Tidal has had some trouble paying royalties.

Back then, phone company Sprint was expected to sign on as an equity backer.

Potential backers were concerned that artists would be constrained from promoting Tidal exclusive releases by their own label deals, sources said.

There has been speculation that this and other exclusives have helped Tidal to grow its subscriber base to 2.5 million, but industry sources expressed skepticism about the accuracy of these estimates in conversations with Variety.

This video includes clips from Apple, Samsung, Tidal and Columbia Records.