Jay-Z Gets Bailed Out As Sprint Invests In Tidal

Recently there’s been a lot of speculation on how long Tidal could financially hold on before it would have do something drastic. Today those fears are allayed with the news that telco Sprint has bought a 33% interest in the music streaming service for $200 million. Each of the company’s much celebrated two dozen artist-owners will remain as partners.

A big part of the deal is that Sprint reportedly contributed another $75 million just for future artist exclusives and marketing, which had been lacking in recent months.

Sprint is owned by the Japanese giant Softbank and has about 45 million paying customers, which will reportedly now get access to Tidal as part of their cell phone service agreement.

Tidal is reported to only have about 1 million paying customers, but it is available in 52 countries and has more than 42 million songs in its catalog, as well as 140,000 videos. It’s not known how many of those are on the premium high-definition tier, but it’s presumed to be only a small portion. The press release sent out about the investment states that there will be no change in service for Tidal’s current customers.

Tidal has had a relationship with Sprint that goes back a couple of years, and owner Jay-Z has been courting the company since then. That said, Tidal was burning through money while its paid subscribers weren’t rising at a fast enough rate to compensate. Something had to give, and after overtures to other large companies like Apple, the company pulled off the surprise Sprint deal.

This should at least buy the company some time, give it some money to market with, and gain a new customer base from Sprint customers. Tidal gives Sprint its entry into the music world, which it’s been looking for for some time. At the moment its a win/win scenario for both companies.