Square Inc.
SQ,
has expressed interest in buying Tidal, Jay-Z’s music-streaming service, Bloomberg News reported late Wednesday.
The digital payments company, run by Jack Dorsey — who’s also Twitter Inc.’s
TWTR,
CEO — is looking to diversify, Bloomberg said, adding that negotiations are private and may not end in a deal. A price was not mentioned.
Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z bought Tidal in 2015 for $56 million, and relaunched it as an artist-owned service offering higher-fidelity music than its streaming rivals, such as Spotify SA
SPOT,
and Apple Music.
Dorsey has been spotted socializing with Jay-Z twice in recent months.
Apple Inc.
AAPL,
reportedly tried to buy Tidal in 2016, and Sprint bought a $200 million stake in the company in 2017.
Tidal has struggled to win over consumers, and has not updated its subscriber numbers since 2016, when it reported 3 million paying users. While it offers a $9.99-a-month standard plan, its $19.99-a-month premium sound-quality plan is about twice the price of its competitors.
