After buying Beats in 2014 and turning the Beats Music streaming service into Apple Music, it’s now rumored that Apple may have its sights set on another music service.
A new report claims that Apple is currently in talks to acquire Tidal. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the talks are “exploratory,” and as such, may not actually result in a deal. There’s no word on how much Apple might be willing to pay for Tidal.
Tidal has been around since 2014, but it was relaunched by Jay-Z in March 2015 as a service that was sort of “by the artists, for the artists.” One of Tidal’s tentpole features is that it offers high-fidelity music streaming for $20 a month in addition to the standard $10 per month streaming service. However, Tidal hasn’t really caught on with consumers, having just 4.2 million paying subscribers. To compare, Apple Music has 15 million paying subscribers and Spotify has 30 million.
As for why Apple might be interested in acquiring Tidal, it’s said that Apple is attracted to Tidal’s strong ties to popular musicians like Kanye West and Madonna. Those artists already have their music on Apple Music, but acquiring Tidal could strengthen their ties to Apple, which could give Apple an advantage in the form of Apple Music exclusives or other features.
