It’s still 2020 folks so I’ll believe everything. However, when I heard that Square, the digital payment processor, is reportedly talking to buy Tidal, the music streaming service, I thought the world really weird. At first glance, that is a strange combination, but after thinking about it for a long time, I can do it kind of seeing it.
A report in Bloomberg said this week that Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Twitter, spoke with Jay-Z about buying Tidal, which the artist acquired in 2015, in an effort to diversify the digital payments business. The point of sale, which cited an unnamed source familiar with the situation, said the negotiations may not lead to a transaction.
Tidal describes herself as one streaming platform of artists, and counts on nearly two dozen high-profile owners, including Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Kanye West, Madonna and Nicki Minaj, among others.
According to Bloomberg, Dorsey aims to grow Square into a business of “standalone, complementary services.” Square already offers Vendors are a variety of different products and services, from online stores and delivery services to hardware and point of sale marketing.
Now look, all those services make sense for a digital payment processor. I can see how a Square salesperson using the company’s point of sale hardware and online store may also be interested in their marketing offering. But it’s not immediately clear how a music streaming service fits in.
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After running through the idea in my head repeatedly, one of the nothing but reasonable Things I came up with – and let me know if you all have any more ideas – was that the acquisition of Tidal could make it possible for Square salespeople to play music in their establishments. (Apparently it is not as easy as just hitting play because of, you guessed it, royalty).
Another thing that came to mind was that the acquisition allowed Square sellers to offer experiences like free concerts via streaming to their (socially distant) customers. According to his LinkedIn pageSince its inception, Tidal has livestreamed more than 120 concerts. Bloomberg emphasizes that it has also provided other experiences, such as streaming Rihanna’s summer collection Fenty / Puma in 2016. This could be a good offer as we are still in a global pandemic and it is unlikely that we will be able to go to concerts, fashion shows or other events like we always did anytime soon.
Whether one of these possibilities, or any others, is on the table is unknown. Beyond reporting the existence of conversations, the Bloomberg report didn’t include much additional detail.
Finding a new purpose in life would probably be good for Tidal, which has struggled to compete with Spotify and Apple Music. The last time it reported its paying subscriber numbers, in 2016, it only had three million. In comparison, Spotify said it had 144 million paying subscribers last September. Apple, for its part, which last reported paying subscribers for its service in 2019, reported it more than 60 million.
While it’s still unclear whether Square and Tidal will eventually get together, the photos of Dorsey and Jay-Z from recent months – first in the Hamptons in August and then onto the beach Hawaii– suddenly take on a completely different meaning.
[Bloomberg]