[brother love]

For 33% stake, Sprint to pay $200 million + $75 million annual artist marketing fund:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/23/technology/sprint-tidal-acquisition/index.html

[Folsom]

Good or bad for audiophiles?

[wushuliu]

Good or bad for audiophiles?

A cell phone/wireless company?

I'm gonna say bad. Was only a matter time.

[macrojack]

A cell phone/wireless company?

I'm gonna say bad. Was only a matter time.

Better get used to it. Times are ripe for mergers and acquisitions. Beware the Ram-Jac Corporation.

[Phil A]

At some point if it keeps up, they may keep the current subscription price for Sprint customers and raise it for those who are not.

[jarcher]

They need $ and some more professional management.  You'd be surprise how many people want to dis Tidal because it's owned by "rich, greedy artists who don't deserve more money".  Seriously - one of the greatest things to happen to music and audio quality in the USA, and yet it brings out all the haters.

I think it's a good thing - I'd like to see Jay-z and his crew and the whole hip-hop emphasis on the UI substantially reduced. I think it would broaden the appeal substantially.

[jsalk]

Sprint's owner, Softbank, has tons of money at its disposal.  It is run by the richest man in Japan.  This is important because, as I recall, Tidal has yet to turn a profit. 

Softbank's involvement means it will have access to the funds to continue to develop. 

Plus, Softbank recently announced a $100 billion fund for AI (neural networks) research - $50 billion here in the US.  Imagine using something like Alexa to ask for music you like in broad terms and have Tidal find and play it for you...no clicking involved. It will certainly be interesting to see how this all rolls out.

- Jim

[brother love]

To follow-up on jsalk's excellent point re: this partnership/ cash infusion:

http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tidal-sells-33-stake-for-200m-to-softbank-owned-us-telco-sprint/

Quote from the subject article:

"According to Midia Research, TIDAL finished 2016 with 1.0m paying customers worldwide – far smaller than the subscriber figure we’d been led to believe it had procured."

[dburna]

What I don't understand from this announcement is whether Sprint will make Tidal available through all channels for Sprint users, or just via their cell phones.  If the latter, then big deal as I don't want another cell phone from Sprint.  If having a Sprint cell plan allows you to use this on your home network, then I'll have to convince my wife to keep her Sprint phone.   

-dB

[zybar]

Imagine using something like Alexa to ask for music you like in broad terms and have Tidal find and play it for you...no clicking involved. It will certainly be interesting to see how this all rolls out.

- Jim

That's what I want!!   

George

[wushuliu]

They need $ and some more professional management.  You'd be surprise how many people want to dis Tidal because it's owned by "rich, greedy artists who don't deserve more money".  Seriously - one of the greatest things to happen to music and audio quality in the USA, and yet it brings out all the haters.

I think it's a good thing - I'd like to see Jay-z and his crew and the whole hip-hop emphasis on the UI substantially reduced. I think it would broaden the appeal substantially.

I don't disagree. But at the same time the trend has been to sell at the right price.  Remember beloved MOG and then dre? The end goal I'm sure is to sell Tidal at the right price because these streaming services lose money.

That's why I'm not on the roon hype train either.

[Tyson]

They need $ and some more professional management.  You'd be surprise how many people want to dis Tidal because it's owned by "rich, greedy artists who don't deserve more money".  Seriously - one of the greatest things to happen to music and audio quality in the USA, and yet it brings out all the haters.

I think it's a good thing - I'd like to see Jay-z and his crew and the whole hip-hop emphasis on the UI substantially reduced. I think it would broaden the appeal substantially.

You assume that people value quality.  Generally that is not true.

[dB Cooper]

Tyson is correct- people do not value quality, although without exception they will adamantly say they do. Perhaps it is more accurate to say they want it but just don't want to pay for it.

My first reaction to the topic was "Sprint has lost money seven years in a row. They don't have enough money to buy a strip mall. Where are they getting money to buy a third of Tidal?" Jim Salk's post clarified things.

I haven't listened to Apple Music at all since subscribing to Tidal HiFi a month ago and am considering canceling it. I hope Sprint doesn't f*** it up.

They may develop a discount for Sprint users but I don't think going past $20/mo for an audio streaming service is going to fly.

[mav52]

Tyson is correct- people do not value quality, although without exception they will adamantly say they do. Perhaps it is more accurate to say they want it but just don't want to pay for it.

My first reaction to the topic was "Sprint has lost money seven years in a row. They don't have enough money to buy a strip mall. Where are they getting money to buy a third of Tidal?" Jim Salk's post clarified things.

I haven't listened to Apple Music at all since subscribing to Tidal HiFi a month ago and am considering canceling it. I hope Sprint doesn't f*** it up.

They may develop a discount for Sprint users but I don't think going past $20/mo for an audio streaming service is going to fly.
[/quote

The answer on the money is Softbank.  It the same deal with Sprint being the title sponsor for NASCAR from 2008 until Jan 2017.

[jarcher]

First of all 33% doesn't necessarily mean a controlling share. Secondly : if there are people paying twice as much for the hifi service, why shut them off - especially after you've made a commitment to MQA at supposedly even higher res AND when Pandora and Rhapsody have announced up coming high res service?

Can't believe I'm saying this as the guy who's usually called the pessimist and cynic : those who think the cd quality level or higher is going to be shut off I think are being excessively pessimist and cynical. Not everyone has to value "quality" for it to be offered - to make the business case its enough for it to be a marketing differentiater and money maker. - particularly when the content and infrastructure is already in place.

[Philistine]

I hope they don't futz it up like the clueless clowns at Logitech did with Slim Devices. 

[roscoe65]

First of all 33% doesn't necessarily mean a controlling share. Secondly : if there are people paying twice as much for the hifi service, why shut them off - especially after you've made a commitment to MQA at supposedly even higher res AND when Pandora and Rhapsody have announced up coming high res service?

Can't believe I'm saying this as the guy who's usually called the pessimist and cynic : those who think the cd quality level or higher is going to be shut off I think are being excessively pessimist and cynical. Not everyone has to value "quality" for it to be offered - to make the business case its enough for it to be a marketing differentiater and money maker. - particularly when the content and infrastructure is already in place.

I'm in agreement with you for a number of reasons:  Tidal's value is in its full-bandwidth streaming.  It's interface and discovery model are actually inferior to some other services.  While the HiFi pricing seems expensive at $240/yr to the average person who is used to "free", their student and military discounts bring that price down to about $144/yr.  We also saw both Rhapsody and Pandora introducing high resolution streaming at this year's CES.  But importantly, Tidal has all but supplanted downloads for many of us, and with a renewed interest in high quality audio we are seeing that file quality matters.  While the traditional high end audio community seems to be rapidly aging, the personal audio world (i.e., headphone listeners) has gotten huge, as witnessed by the large and active headphone community on Reddit.  I am seeing a lot of these headphone users graduate to modest, but nice speaker systems as well.

I love being able to use Tidal on my phone.  I can set playlists for off-line use when wifi is not available in full bandwidth and and feed it to a USB DAC.

[wushuliu]

The real question that continues to go unasked is when are we going to find out what the actual process/protocol is for the music that is streamed. How do the studios deliver the product, how does Tidal handle encoding, etc. All this changing of hands only adds to my skepticism when there is so little transparency.