[jude]

The New York Times and others are reporting that Jay Z has made a $56M offer to buy Swedish company Aspiro, which owns Tidal and WiMP. You can read the story by clicking on the following link:
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/business/media/jay-z-bids-on-aspiro-a-swedish-music-streaming-company.html
 
From the article:
 

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Jay Z and his company gave some insight into his thinking, saying that the shift to streaming “offers great potential for increased entertainment comsumption [sic] and an opportunity for artists to further promote their music. Panther’s strategic ambition revolves around global expansion and up-scaling of Aspiro’s platform, technology and services.”

 
I'm a Tidal subscriber, and a big fan of the service, and I hope, if the acquisition does happen, that Tidal can be the better for it. Very specifically, I'm also hoping Tidal continues with its plans to adopt Meridian's MQA technology, which I've heard several impressive demos of (and have had many interesting conversations with Meridian about), and which I may be posting about separately soon.
 
Does the acquisition look likely? According to an article in MusicBusinessWorldwide, an executive from Aspiro's biggest shareholder on the board (Schibsted) is recommending the sale, saying...
 
Quote:

"Schibsted believes there is a lot of potential for further growth of the Company. However, Aspiro needs substantial expansion capital and a strong and dedicated owner to be able to grow and compete on the global music streaming market.
 
“For Schibsted, Aspiro is not regarded as a core activity, and we wish to allocate our financial resources to Schibsted’s core operations. Panther, which is controlled by S. Carter Enterprises, LLC, has adequate financial resources and a high level of competence in the music industry. Hence, I think they will be a better owner to lift Aspiro and its advanced music streaming service to a new level.”

 
...which suggests to me that a sale looks more likely than not.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Interesting..1400kbps vs 320kbps on Spotify with Tidal costing twice as much. Does the extra $10 cover the quadruple bandwith required per song? Maybe since tidal doesn't do a free service.

I wonder what they pay per song for royalties.

 

[goldendarko]

Interesting, hopefully this can help with TIDAL's user interface. I love the sound quality but definately felt Spotify was a lot more user friendly, and my wife would strongly agree too, she hate's using TIDAL because she finds it difficult to navigate.

 

[Phishin Phool]

Ugggh - The last thing I want is Jay Z getting involved with my music distribution after seeing what Dre and Jimmy Iovine have done.

 

[sommovigo]

I suspect that a major cash injection from a high-profile player like Jay-Z will lend Tidal the kind of marketing power to take its mission of high-resolution streaming to a larger audience and offer some serious competition to whatever remains of MOG/Beats in the Apple domain.
 
The fight for the consumer's ears will be waged in the streaming realm, which will further kill off CD sales *and* download sales - which means that the music makers will get screwed even more.
 
However, given Tidal's USP - JayZ's organization would be able to bring a competitive edge to the fight and possibly force the other players to up their resolution game or be left behind.

 

[nikoman]

If Tidal continues to offer its wide selection of music and continues to acquire recently released material then I see no harm in Jay - Z's purchase. 
 
It can only bring more exposure which will likely speed up the shift from traditional streaming to High-Quality streaming (which is the future). 

 

[Phishin Phool]

I hope you guys are correct but if we don't get net neutrality sorted out everything could fall to pieces or just screw the consumer.

 

[Kalavere]

  If Tidal continues to offer its wide selection of music and continues to acquire recently released material then I see no harm in Jay - Z's purchase. 
 
It can only bring more exposure which will likely speed up the shift from traditional streaming to High-Quality streaming (which is the future). 

 
Exactly my thought.

 

[aras]

I'm wondering what is stopping Spotify from offering Tidal quality streaming option as well

 

[Kalavere]

  I'm wondering what is stopping Spotify from offering Tidal quality streaming option as well

 
The masses probably don't care for it. It's cheap and cheerful, that's what your average consumer wants I assume. I don't know a lot of my friends that'll pay £20 to stream music. My dad is on four times the salary I am and he is struggling to wrap his head around shelling out £10 a month for Spotify.

 

[Genjisleeps]

To tell you the truth I never even heard of Tidal. I only heard of Spotify through my brother and good ol Pandora. But I just downloads audio files and doesn't use any type of music service. Is that the new thing now and downloading is a thing of the past?

 

[goldendarko]

Basically yes, streaming looks like the future. Hopefully we will see hi-res streaming soon too but may need more bandwidth for that to truly be a possibility yet

 

[Genjisleeps]

Basically yes, streaming looks like the future. Hopefully we will see hi-res streaming soon too but may need more bandwidth for that to truly be a possibility yet

Hmmm...well then if streaming is the future what will become of our DAP's like my Fiio X5? Will we need to find ways of using streaming with our awesome amps like the fiio e12 I have like plugging the e12 to my smartphone (which I probably won't do...)? or is there already a way? what do you do?

 

[Clemmaster]

Great news! I can finally listen to my favorite crappy RNB music in lossless format!

 

[Kalavere]

Hmmm...well then if streaming is the future what will become of our DAP's like my Fiio X5? Will we need to find ways of using streaming with our awesome amps like the fiio e12 I have like plugging the e12 to my smartphone (which I probably won't do...)? or is there already a way? what do you do?

 


Most modern phones allow you to bypass the internal DAC for a straight output to external DAC and then amplifier. Or to a DAC & amp combo. I very, very occasionally use my Note III to do just that.