Jay Z gets drenched by Tidal music service

Music mogul Jay Z controls a business empire, but so far his success is not extending to the music streaming service that he bought into last year, Tidal.

Losses are mounting and the Swedish-based holding company that controls it is burning through cash amid intense competition in the genre, theWall Street Journal reports. Aspiro, the parent of Tidal, had a loss of $28 million last year, almost triple the loss recorded in 2014..

Although Jay Z, who certainly knows the music business, bought into Tidal, it has endured continue competition from a variety of music steaming sources, from Spotifyand Apple to YouTube. For the moment, Tidal is the dark spot among his many businesses in the U.S.
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A Tidal spokesman had no comment on Aspiro's issues.

It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

Jay Z announced in February, 2015, that it had bid on Tidal and WiMP music services, which were owned by Aspiro. He celebrated the acquisition with a launch party in New York that was stocked with A-list celebrities, starting with wife Beyonceand including Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Chris Martin, Nicki Minaj and Daft Punk.

But things didn't stay great for long. Jay Z filed suit against Aspiro in March seeking what Swedish media said was about $15 millon. At the time, the issue was the number of subscribers. "It become clear after taking control of Tidal and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the previous owners."

He said he couldn't comment further but that "we’re proud of our success and remain focused on delivering the best experience for artists and fans."

Don't worry about Jay Z. He remains one of the most successful rappers-turned-entreprenuers with a wide variety of entertainment-related businesses.