[jaykemp]

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

wow! big moves from jay z!

 

[520RanchBro]

Ahaha funnily enough I do like some of his music (before the whole I am god thing he does now and constantly) he is just not a good person in real life from what I have seen. Plenty of people use their position to do good for society, he does not. Same reason I don't like Marilyn Manson. Nothing to do with music, bad people don't deserve my money IMO.

98% of multi-millionaires are awful ******** I'm sure, usually comes with the territory of being that rich.

 

[retrophonic]

  Well reading This I lost all my reasons to start using tidal. I am using the trail for a day and I do like it, however when it moves to America it will become yet another money grabbing firm who hardly listen to the individual. Especially since some rapper is buying it.
I kinda liked that the company was from Sweden, I hoped it would be a company which truly likes what it's doing and wants the best for the user. Then they really deserve to make alot of money. Take FiiO as example, it has become huge and still listens to all it's users and does exactly what the user wants.

Wait...what? 

 

[gmatthews7919]

Not sure it matters who owns it as long as the range and quality continue. I find the articles and commentary secondary to the music and quality.

 

[jaykemp]

  I still don't see a reason to object to Jay-Z being the money man.  I don't know his personal life, so if there's something there that disqualifies him, I wish someone would say it.  Other than that, rich people bid on or buy companies if the deal works out.  Regardless of personal quirks.  WHY do people oppose Jay-Z being a rich jerk buyer instead of a more anonymous rich jerk buyer?

i agree. i see an awful lot of negativity aimed at jay z here since this announcement! and i don't feel it is justified. yes i am a fan, and yes i love his music, but that has nothing to do with this post. people are saying he is a bad person in real life, but to those who say such things, what do you really know? He does a lot of work with the under privileged.  At the end of the day he is a business man. looking to make a smart move, and this is one of them. give him a chance! 

 

[jaykemp]

interesting article for those Jay haters.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/10/1350777/-Just-because-you-don-t-know-about-it-doesn-t-mean-Jay-Z-isn-t-ultra-conscious-charitable-He-is

 

[weijunz]

Not a big fan of tidal, but after this it's really the end.

 

[htr2d2]

  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.

Agreed.

 

[BillHew]

While typing this I am listening to Diana Krall Wallflower using TIDAL on my macbook pro at 24/192k upscaled with my Meridian Explorer 2 DAC/AMP, fed and purified by an ifI iUSB PSU with Philips Fidelio X2 headphones suitably run-in providing outstanding performance and comfortable listening. For me, the quality and soundstage are wonderful and since TIDAL I've not been purchasing music apart from those special and hard to find titles. My only hope is that the collaboration with Meridian on introducing MQA goes ahead - things will then just get better and better. Hifi streaming is definitely the way to go provided the range of music titles is as deep and wide as the performance...

 

[tokendog]

Bah....sounds like Mog.com all over again. They destroyed Mog. I really hope JayZ stays away from Tidal.

 

[Billheiser]

  Bah....sounds like Mog.com all over again. They destroyed Mog. I really hope JayZ stays away from Tidal.

Why?  Beats/Mog has nothing to do with Jay Z and Tidal.

 

[tokendog]

 
Why?  Beats/Mog has nothing to do with Jay Z and Tidal.

 
Beats/Mog actually does have something to do with it, just not directly. It was a comparison to how Dr. Dre (co-founder of Beats)/ Beats bought out Mog and basically ruined it.
Mog, while not as high quality as Tidal, was at one time one of the better streaming services with CD quality music offerings and was much better than the available competition at the time.
 
I was a member of Mog before/during/after the acquisition and subsequent ruin of it's service and offerings by Beats with the Mog relaunch.
 
I am now a member of Tidal and a very similar thing appears to be occurring with them as well. Only time will tell.

 

[Billheiser]

Beats/Mog actually does have something to do with it, just not directly. It was a comparison to how Dr. Dre (co-founder of Beats)/ Beats bought out Mog and basically ruined it.
Mog, while not as high quality as Tidal, was at one time one of the better streaming services with CD quality music offerings and was much better than the available competition at the time.

I was a member of Mog before/during/after the acquisition and subsequent ruin of it's service and offerings by Beats with the Mog relaunch.

I am now a member of Tidal and a very similar thing appears to be occurring with them as well. Only time will tell.

I understand the analogy. But there is no particular indication at this point that JayZ would ruin Tidal. It's a different owner and a different service, so the MOG example does not apply. I dig that it's a worry or fear that something bad will happen, but there's no basis, right now, to predict that it actually will.

 

[tokendog]

I understand the analogy. But there is no particular indication at this point that JayZ would ruin Tidal. It's a different owner and a different service, so the MOG example does not apply. I dig that it's a worry or fear that something bad will happen, but there's no basis, right now, to predict that it actually will.

 
Actually, in almost all situations in which there is little basis, one would look at the past examples or precedents to determine the most likely outcome or most reasonable concern/fear. For the sake of debate, do you have an example in which a music artist/company such as Dr. Dre / Beats & JayZ/Project Panther have taken over a streaming music service and not ruined it? I would think such an example would show us on an equal ground in our concerns of how this will play...However, I'm not aware of such a case.
 
And for the record, I never pretended to know what would happen, only what could.

 

[Billheiser]

   
Actually, in almost all situations in which there is little basis, one would look at the past examples or precedents to determine the most likely outcome or most reasonable concern/fear. For the sake of debate, do you have an example in which a music artist/company such as Dr. Dre / Beats & JayZ/Project Panther have taken over a streaming music service and not ruined it? I would think such an example would show us on an equal ground in our concerns of how this will play...However, I'm not aware of such a case.
 
And for the record, I never pretended to know what would happen, only what could.

Yes, ruination could happen.  Or not.  I don't have enough information to predict.  MOG/Beats is a sample size of one, and thus can't be used as a prediction or a trend.