Samsung considering Tidal buy-out, according to reports

The Jay Z-owned streaming service is reported to be selling to stay afloat.

Electronics giant Samsung is reportedly in talks with Tidal to acquire the streaming service, the New York Post reports.

Rumours of Samsung’s interest in the company have been circulating since October 2015, but a source said that the company is back in talks with the streaming service, bought by Jay Z in 2015 for $56m.

According to the New York Post’s sources, Tidal has been having difficulty paying its royalty bills on time and is considering selling in order to stay afloat.

“Samsung is re-engaging; they are working on something really big, and they’re keeping it very quiet in case it leaks,” the source told the newspaper.

The newspaper’s sources also claim that Spotify and Google have been considering working with Tidal to “bolster their own digital music services”, with Spotify considering a Tidal “powered by Spotify” partnership rather than bid for the company outright.

Samsung already has a longstanding relationship with both Jay Z and Tidal. The South Korean company distributed free copies of the rapper’s Magna Carta Holy Grail album in 2013, while Tidal co-owner Rihanna recently signed a $25m deal with Samsung covering tour costs and the giveaway of 1 million copies of her recent album Anti.

The streaming service has had several big exclusives over the past year including Prince’s HITANDRUN and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, but this has so far failed to translate into the kind of subscriber figures gained by its rivals.

While the streaming service has managed to gain over a million paid subscribers since launching under Jay Z’s leadership last year, the number is dwarfed by Spotify’s 20 million and Apple Music’s 10 million.

The company has also seen a number of high-profile personnel changes under Jay Z’s ownership. In December the company hired former SoundCloud executive Jeff Toig as CEO after the loss of Peter Ronstadt.