Apple is in exploratory talks to acquire streaming-music service Tidal, headed by rap mogul Jay Z, according to people familiar with the matter. Terms of the potential deal aren’t known.
The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal, these people said. Apple is exploring the idea of bringing on Tidal to bolster its Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong ties to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna.
Daisuke Wakabayashi, Hannah Karp & Patience Haggin
Amusing to see this shared on Daring Fireball right next to a post about Spotify complaining about restrictive App Store rules. His comment: the real message here is that Apple Music is kicking Spotify’s ass
– if that were true, why would Apple need to buy another streaming service to improve Apple Music? I tend to think the opposite is true: Spotify is doing fine despite harsh competition and Apple Music is having a hard time hanging on to its subscribers:
In a note last week, Cowen’s John Blackledge and Tim Arcuri wrote that Apple Music’s subscriber churn rate of 6.4% per month is almost three times that of Spotify. That means that even though Cowen’s survey suggests that Apple Music will add nearly as many paid subscribers as Spotify in the next year, roughly three-quarters of those could quit the service, the analysts write.
Nathan McAlone
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