Jay-Z
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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey launch a Bitcoin development fund
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey has teamed up with rapper and Tidal chief Jay Z on a new endowment to fund bitcoin development starting in Africa and India.
Square could be trying to buy Tidal from Jay-Z
The outlet is reporting that Square, the payments company run by Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, has discussed a potential acquisition with Jay-Z, the rapper and entrepreneur who bought Tidal in early 2015. Bloomberg cites an unnamed source and has emphasized that a deal isn’t guaranteed. Tidal is a direct competitor to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music Unlimited.
BBC Music is available in the US, but only on the web
The BBC is finally sharing its BBC Music site with audiences in the US. As of today, its trove of music reporting -- across radio, TV and the web -- as well as artist performances from Radio 1's Live Lounge are available stateside. That includes clips of Ariana Grande, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift and the Foo Fighters that were previously restricted to the UK.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z take digs at Spotify in latest Tidal exclusive
Beyoncé and Jay-Z aren't keeping quiet in the wake of Tidal's scandals around inflated numbers and late royalties... if anything, they're ramping things up. The power couple have released a joint album exclusive to the service, Everything is Love, that includes a not-so-subtle dig at Spotify. It's clear they're not having second thoughts about their streaming music choices.
Tidal investigates possible data breach amid streaming stats allegations
Tidal recently came under fire for allegedly inflating play-counts on Lemonade and The Life of Pablo, which in turn resulted in higher payouts for Beyoncé and Kanye West, respectively. The streaming service vehemently denied the allegations, but now it's doing something rather curious: hiring a third-party data security company to investigate a possible breach.
Tidal will debut an unreleased Prince album in 2019
Tidal and Prince's estate are done battling it out in court, ending things in good terms and with a new album, to boot. Jay-Z's streaming service has announced that it's debuting a new Prince album with previously unreleased songs in 2019. It will stream exclusively on Tidal for 14 days and will be available as a download seven days after it launches. Prince's estate will also release a physical version worldwide following Tidal's exclusive.
Amazon and Jay-Z's Roc Nation team up for Meek Mill docu-series
Amazon and Jay-Z's Roc Nation are working together to produce a documentary starring rapper Meek Mill and his battle with the US criminal justice system over the past 10 years. According to Variety, the documentary series will have six episodes and those involved are targeting a premiere sometimes in 2019.
Tidal may only have enough cash left to last six months
Music streaming service Tidal is facing both money and user growth woes, according to Norway's Dagens Næringsliv. After reportedly losing roughly NOK$368 million ($44 million dollars) before taxes in 2016, Tidal is now left with just enough cash to last six months. This despite Sprint buying a 33 percent stake in Jay-Z's streaming service in January. The $200 million deal, which included a reported $75 million fund for exclusive content, should've given Tidal "sufficient working capital for the next 12-18 months," said Jay Z's business partner and Roc Nation Sports president Juan Perez (via DN).
Post Malone sets Apple Music streaming record with song ‘Rockstar’
Post Malone's song "Rockstar" has just surpassed DJ Khaled's "I'm the One" as the record with the most Apple Music streams in one week. The Verge reports that the song snagged 25 million streams in a single week on the music service, which accounted for 56 percent of all first week streams of the song in the US. That's pretty impressive for a service that hosts around a sixth of the users that Spotify does.
Jay-Z's '4:44' tops Billboard 200 chart following wider release
Clearly, Jay-Z learned a lot about the perils of permanent streaming exclusives from former Tidal buddy Kanye West. Jay-Z's 4:44 album has topped the Billboard 200 chart for the week ended July 13th, or the first week after its brief Tidal exclusive came to an end. The release managed the equivalent of 262,000 album sales (1,500 song streams are equal to one album) in the US, which makes it the fourth-largest release at this point in 2017. And significantly, he did this after ditching Spotify in April -- the tally comes largely thanks to Apple Music, iTunes downloads and (to a lesser degree) old-fashioned CD sales.
After Math: Bigger and better
It was a bumper week for big ideas. Jay-Z's latest album went platinum in under a week, despite it only existing in the ethers of the internet. RED (of high-end camera fame) revealed that it's working on a "holographic" cellphone. And Tesla is going ahead and building the world's biggest battery array down in Australia. Numbers, because how else will we decide which is best?
Kanye's Tidal breakup is about ego, not money
The relationship between Tidal and Kanye West, one of the streaming service's original artist-owners, is seemingly coming to an end. According to various reports, which Engadget confirmed independently, 'Ye has decided to terminate his exclusive streaming deal with the company, claiming it owes him more than $3 million dollars. Most of that sum was allegedly supposed to be a bonus for him bringing in 1.5 million new subscribers with the release of his last album, The Life of Pablo, in 2016. Tidal is shutting down Kanye's claims and, per TMZ, doesn't seem to be too concerned with his threat to quit since he's still under contract. It's also been reported that, if he were to jump ship and join another streaming service, Tidal's prepared to take legal action.
Jay-Z's '4:44' album is no longer a Tidal exclusive
Just a week after Jay-Z released 4:44 as an exclusive tied to Sprint and his music service Tidal, it's now available more widely. iTunes / Apple Music, Google Play Music and Amazon Music are all offering the album for listening now, with some including The Story of O.J. animated video. It has not appeared for listening on Spotify yet, but since most of his catalog is still missing from the service it's not entirely surprising. The album has already been certified platinum by the RIAA, but for many, this their first opportunity to have a legit listen.
Kanye West reportedly quits Tidal over money dispute
Kanye West has been one of Tidal's biggest champions: he joined the company the moment Jay-Z relaunched its service, and The Life of Pablo was one of the streaming music service's largest (if temporary) exclusives. However, it appears that the relationship has... soured. TMZ sources claim that Kanye has left the company over a payment squabble involving both Life of Pablo and music videos. It's reportedly a messy dispute, and certainly not what Tidal wanted in an already tumultuous period for the business.
Don't bother signing up for Tidal now to get that Jay-Z album
As promised, Jay-Z dropped his new 4:44 album earlier today on Tidal, but you won't be able to stream it if you subscribed recently. As the Verge reported earlier, and Pitchfork confirmed by trying to sign up, Tidal users who enrolled after June 26th won't get access to the album. Instead, you'll get a message saying "Jay-Z 4:44 is only accessible to Sprint/Tidal customers and all Tidal accounts established prior to June 26th during the exclusive period."
Tidal lost huge sums of money fighting streaming rivals
If you guessed that it would be expensive for a small streaming service like Tidal to compete with heavyweights like Apple and Spotify, especially through exclusives... you guessed correctly. Tidal's parent company, Aspiro, has reported a $28 million loss for 2015, the year Jay-Z bought it. That's more than twice the $10.4 million loss it chalked up in 2014. While the Wall Street Journal understands that this doesn't include all US financial data (it's not a "complete picture"), it's not exactly flattering. That's particularly true when Tidal didn't have a guaranteed source of funding going into 2016.
The After Math: Pay up
This was a week of folks getting theirs. Brazil locked down $6 million of Facebook assets in its ongoing battle of WhatsApp. Disney shelled out $3.5 billion for the company that runs MLB At Bat. Hall-of-Fame running back Jim Brown squeezed $600,000 out of EA for its unlicensed use of his likeness. And Apple is reportedly about to spend big bucks buying Tidal from Jay-Z. Numbers, because how else are you going to measure financial debt?
Tidal delivers desktop app, refreshed UI and student pricing
Jay Z's music-streaming service, Tidal, relies heavily on bringing exclusive content to subscribers. But it knows more features are needed to complement that. Today, in an effort to make the overall experience better for its users, Tidal is launching desktop apps for both Mac and Windows -- albeit in beta form. There's also an updated user interface on mobile and the web, along with the new applications, which comes with extra personalization options, a simplified menu and improved search results. Ticketmaster support has been added too, letting people view artists' tour dates and purchase concert tickets directly from the music service's website or apps; Spotify does something similar through Songkick.
Recommended Reading: Wearing Google Glass every day for two years
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. Two Years Through the Looking Glass by Allen Firstenberg I'm pretty sure there's nothing I've done every day for the last two years. Maybe I've taken a vitamin, but I'm sure I missed a day here or there. Allen Firstenberg is way more dedicated to habit than I am, though. He's been wearing Google Glass since he received the headset two years ago and has a load of observations about the past, present and future of the tech.
Jay Z says his Tidal music service is doing just fine, thank you
Jay Z re-launched Tidal with a lot of fanfare, but how well is his artist-owned streaming service doing so far? Just fine, if you ask the man himself. As part of a flurry of Twitter posts, Mr. Carter revealed that Tidal has "over 770,000" subscribers to date. He also scoffs at the idea that Tidal is solely about pampering wealthy artists who want a larger cut -- the rapper argues that Tidal's $60 million in equity value pales in comparison to the billions in musical net worth at rivals like iTunes and Spotify. Every artist on Tidal gets a 75 percent royalty rate, Jay Z says, not just those with a direct stake.
