Jay-Z just got about $300 million richer today. That’s because the rapper sold a majority stake of his streaming platform, Tidal, to Square, the mobile payments firm run by Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. In return, Jay will take a position on Square’s board of directors.
There won’t be much of change on Tidal as a result of the deal. According to soon-to-be interim Tidal head Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s current hardware lead, the deal will help expand the payment platform’s goals and give more control to musicians.
“We see a real connection to considering artists as entrepreneurs, as CEOs of their own business life, not just the biggest musicians in the world,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “[Artists starting out in the music industry] don’t have all the access they need, they get paid slowly, they don’t see all the data. It’s really down the middle of things that Square has done uniquely well.”
Jay-Z and Dorsey both shared individual messages about the new deal, both of which you can find in threads lead by the tweets found below.
Square is acquiring a majority ownership stake in TIDAL through a new joint venture, with the original artists becoming the second largest group of shareholders, and JAY-Z joining the Square board. Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!
— jack⚡️ (@jack) March 4, 2021
I said from the beginning that TIDAL was about more than just streaming music, and six years later, it has remained a platform that supports artists at every point in their careers. Artists deserve better tools to assist them in their creative journey.
— Mr. Carter (@sc) March 4, 2021
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