The award-winning telecommunications giant Sprint has spread the word that it has managed to buy a third of lossless music streaming site, Tidal. Sprint is apparently paying 200 million USD for its stake which puts Tidal's value at about 600 million USD with Marcelo Claure, the CEO of Sprint will be part of Tidal's board of directors.
While it might seem a bit odd that Sprint is getting involved with Tidal, an independent telecom analyst by the name of Jeff Kagan says "This seems to be the direction the wireless industry is heading in."
The Tidal and Sprint partnership will blossom into offers and upcoming promotions. Exclusive content from Tidal will be available to current and new Sprint subscribers, which is supposed to have about 58.348 subscribers in millions. This is according to a statement from Sprint during a press release.
Tidal, available in more than 52 countries, is an entertainment platform made specifically for fans, directly from artists found across the globe. It provides a music selection worth 42.5 million songs in high-fidelity and 140,000 videos available in high resolution.
However, Tidal's subscriber count which is at around 4 million is behind Apple Music's 17 million and Spotify's grand 40 million subscribers. It seems Tidal is hoping that it will strengthen its subscribership through Sprint's subscribers.
Sometime in January of 2015, Jay-Z previously acquired the Norwegian online streaming company focused on improved sound quality, Aspiro, for 56 million USD, through another entity owned by him, Project Panther Bidco.
Regarding the new development, Jay-Z comments that "Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential." He goes on to say that, "Marcelo understood our goal right away and together we are excited to bring Sprint's 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience."
