Tidal's Madonna, DeadAmu5, Kanye West, Jay Z and J Cole
As Jay Z and Madonna's Tidal music streaming
service falls, skidding towards bankruptcy, electronics
giant Samsung, is reportedly interested in buying in the
failed business. The Swedish company Aspiro was purchased
and renamed Tidal. The price tag was $55,000,000,
underwritten via loans and personal funds by recording
artists Jay Z, Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West, Micki Minaj, J.
Cole and DeadAmu5, among others. It was launched as an
equity business run by the aforementioned entertainers, but
adopted the music streaming model pioneered by rival Spotify.
Spotify is worth an estimated $3 billion and
has 30 million subscribers (Apple, who is new to music
streaming has 11,000,000 subscribers and Tidal has now has
1,000,000 but Tidal's users are mostly free accounts that
are trial memberships). Tidal's owners immediately thought
they would become billionaires. However, that's not how
things worked out. Approximately 25 people fled Tidal, as
the new owners have been engaging in criminal activity, such
as falsifying sales, keeping two sets of accounting books,
withholding royalty statements from recording artists who
signed up the service in acts that constitute breach of
contract, financial fraud, conversion and racketeering.
This week it was announced, Tidal has been
sued for doing the very thing the company said a year ago it
wouldn't do - not pay artists. The band, The American
Dollar, sued Tidal for $5 million American dollars. Oh, but
it gets worse. Coincidentally (not really) yesterday Jay Z
and company claimed it has fired Tidal's CFO Chris Haart and COO Nils Juell
(trying to shift the blame to the two executives for Jay Z
and Madonna's unlawful conduct - after blaming
Harry Fox and prior to that, Universal, for all
their self-induced problems). However, other reports
indicate both men left Tidal, adding to the grand total of
25 people that already fled the lawbreaking company. Weeks
prior Tidal's Senior Vice President, Zena Burns and Chief
Information Officer, Vania Schlogel left.
Jay Z and company are seeking to offload
Tidal. It is hemorrhaging millions of dollars and being
slapped with lawsuits, wracking up massive legal fees.
Despite these facts, Jay Z and his fellow Tidal owners want
$100,000,000 for a company they bought for $55,000,000 a
year ago and have run into the ground, while incurring
serious additional debts. Tidal is also running a criminal
credit card scam to boost revenues (Tidal Ripped Off Consumers Fraudulently Charging The Credit
Cards Of Former Customers Who Closed Their Music Streaming
Accounts).
Any entity that purchases Tidal is going to
be faced with serious liabilities on a failed business.
Tidal doesn't even have the rights to much of the music they
are illegally streaming. Major labels also hate Tidal for
botching their releases (and they seek to botch more
releases to get them as Tidal exclusives). Vanity Fair
magazine wrote, "On top of everything else, music
industry executives aren't confident about Tidal, either. In
a Billboard survey, 71 percent say they think Tidal will die
out within a year. A more optimistic 17 percent gave Tidal
one to two years before it folds." In short, they want
Tidal gone.
In response to an item Jay Z and Madonna
floated to the New York Post about Tidal and a potential
sale, Samsung stated to the newspaper, "It is our policy to not comment on
rumors or speculation."
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