Since the acquisition of Tidal, Jay Z has taken a lot of backlash. At first, I agreed with it, because I was disappointed in the way that the product was introduced into the marketplace. The re-launch event failed to tell us why the service was different from the competition. A hiccup by the marketing department surely. But after a few weeks went by, we received those details which showed how the service offers even royalties across the board for both major and indie acts (75% compared to Spotify’s average of 70%). Not to mention the fact that the service will stream movies (like Netflix), sporting events and music concerts. With all that said, this product is truly unique and appears to be fruitful.
Today, The Root published an article which stated, Jay Z is not a majority owner in TIDAL. This statement is in fact true but VERY misleading. At Jay Z’s free TIDAL sponsored concert, his freestyle gave off the effect that the company is black owned. And it is, and I’ll show you how briefly, since I know niggas don’t like to read. Ha!
Aspiro AB (“Aspiro”) was purchased by Jay Z owned company Project Panther Bidco Ltd (“Panther”). According to 4-traders.com, Panther bought about 95% of the company, which makes Jay Z, majority owner.
Now here is where the confusion ensues; TIDAL is just ONE service offered by Aspiro (for all we know, they could have other projects in the works). TIDAL, as we all saw, split the company among 16 artists, which included Beyonce, Dead Mau5, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Madonna & more. So yes, Jay Z is minority owner in TIDAL but majority owner of the parent company, Aspiro. So, in a nutsell, TIDAL is in fact, Black-Owned.
“Lucy you got some splainin’ to do
The only one they hatin’ on looks the same as you”
On episode 5 of our podcast, we discuss Jay Z’s business dealings.