They’re still 2020 people, so I’ll believe anything. However, after learning that Square, the digital payment processor, seems to be talking about buying Tidal, the music streaming service, I thought the world was getting really strange. At first glance, this is a weird couple, but after thinking about it for a long time, I can sort of see it.
A report a Bloomberg this week states that Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Twitter, has spoken with Jay-Z about the purchase of Tidal, which the artist acquired in 2015, in an effort to diversify the digital payments company. The media, citing an anonymous source familiar with the situation, said the negotiations may not result in a transaction.
Tidal describes himself as one artist-owned transmission platform, and has nearly two dozen renowned owners, including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Kanye West, Madonna and Nicki Minaj, among others.
For Bloomberg, Dorsey aspires to turn Square into a company made up of “independent and complementary services.” Square already offers offers its vendors a variety of products and services, from online stores and delivery services to hardware and marketing at the point of sale.
Now, all of these services make sense for a digital payment processor. I can see how a Square seller who uses hardware and the company’s point of sale online store might also be interested in their marketing offerings. But it’s not clear how a music streaming service fits into all of this.
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After going over the idea repeatedly in my head, one of the not more reasonable the things I thought — and please let me know if you all have any more ideas — were that the acquisition of Tidal could make it easier for Square vendors to play music in their stores. (Apparently, it is no as easy as clicking the game because of, you guessed it, Copyright).
Another thing that came to my mind was that the acquisition could allow Square vendors to offer experiences such as free streaming concerts to their (socially distant) customers. According to his LinkedIn page, Tidal has broadcast live more than 120 concerts since its inception. Bloomberg points out that it has also offered other experiences, such as streaming Rihanna’s Fenty / Puma Summer Collection in 2016. This could be a good deal considering we are still in a global pandemic and it is unlikely that we will be able to go to concerts, fashion shows or other events as before.
It is unknown if there are any of these possibilities or any other on the table. In addition to reporting on the existence of conversations, the Bloomberg report did not include many additional details.
Finding a new purpose in life would probably be good for Tidal, who has struggled to compete against Spotify and Apple Music. The last time he reported his numbers of paying subscribers, in 2016, he only had them three million. In comparison, Spotify said it had 144 million paying subscribers this past September. Apple, meanwhile, which last reported that it had paid subscribers for its service in 2019, reported that it had more than 60 million.
While it’s still unclear whether Square and Tidal will join in the end, photos of Dorsey and Jay-Z from recent months, first in Hamptons in August and then to the beach Hawaii—Suddenly they take on a completely different meaning.
[Bloomberg]