Jay Z to Announce "A New Chapter" for Recently-Acquired Tidal Streaming Service, Will Take on Spotify?

Jay Z (Shawn Corey Carter). 45, has recently added to his impressive portfolio of businesses, which includes Roc Nation Music and Roc Nation Sports, the Swedish tech company Aspiro, reportedly for the sum of $56 million in cash. Aspiro presently runs two streaming services: the ad-free WIMP in Norway, Sweden and other parts of Europe and the high-definition Tidal in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Both services offer daily track recommendations, curated playlists, interviews with artists, and audio available to stream and download in the lossless FLAC format, but both for a price of around $20 a month. Now, under the new Jay Z management, these two services will be operated under just the Tidal banner worldwide.

Last week, Jay Z sent out a press invite for an event scheduled for today, March 30, promising that "Shawn 'JAY Z' Carter and special guests will announce a commitment to a new direction for the music industry from both a creative and business perspective." The event, which will be live-streamed, will unveil "a new chapter" for the global streaming service.

Jay-Z with his own deep connections within the music industry, especially since his Roc Nation Music represents acts which include certified stars like Rihanna and Shakira, and he is of course married to the one and only Beyonce, should be able to increase Tidal's presence in the global streaming service market. Perhaps even enough to effectively challenge the "freemium" model used by Spotify to amass its 60 million users and 15 million paying subscribers around the world.

Recently, Taylor Swift went on a high-profile publicity campaign against Spotify claiming the service was undervaluing her music by allowing people to listen to it free of charge. She pulled off her albums from the music streaming service. Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company with acts ranging from Sam Smith to Katy Perry, is currently also using license negotiations with Spotify to push for a more marked differentiation between its free service and its paid-subscription tier.