Music mogul Jay Z, real name Sean Carter has sold 33% of his streaming service Tidal to Sprint, a communications services company in the US. According to the BBC, Sprint forked out an estimated $200 million for the share.
In an announcement on Monday, Sprint said it was proud to announce that it was entering into a partnership with Tidal and that would give its 45 million retail customers unlimited access to artist content from Jay Z’s exclusive platform.
Sprint said Jay Z and the artists who co-own the platform will continue to run the service, however, Sprint’s CEO Marcelo Claure will join Tidal’s board of directors.
“Sprint shares out a view of revolutionising the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest shared potential,” Jay Z is reported to have said.
Tidal is also partially owned by other stars including Madonna, Rihanna and Daft Punk.
Proving himself to be a savvy entrepreneur, Jay Z bought the Tidal platform with his wife Beyoncé three years ago for $56 million from the Norwegian company Aspiro in 2015, according to a report by the BBC.
The company has not been without any controversy. In November last year, the late Prince’s estate filed a lawsuit against Jay Z’s Roc Nation, parent company to streaming service Tidal, claiming that Tidal streamed Prince’s songs without permission following the legendary singer’s death.
Tidal had been given exclusive rights to stream Prince’s album HitNRun: Phase One for a period of 90 days only. However, it’s been alleged that Tidal streamed the artist’s entire catalogue.
The idea behind Tidal was to take on competitors such as Spotify and Apple Music.
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– Additional report: BBC
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