Is Jay Z gunning for Apple and Spotify?
The 45-year old mogul is buying the Scandinavian music streaming company Aspiro for $56 million, it was announced early this morning.
The purchase is being officially made by Project Panther Bidco Ltd, a company controlled by Hov. Asprio is known for their streaming service WiMP, which operates in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland and Germany, and also under the name Tidal in the US and UK. The service uses algorithms and human input to determine what songs its users listen to from a database of 25 million tracks.
When announcing the deal, Jay called Aspiro "an innovative high-quality company with strong future growth potential," suggesting he plans on scaling Aspiro up and competing with Spotify and Apple's new streaming service.
In addition to being one of the best selling music artists of all time, Jay-Z has business interests including nightclubs, beverages, and sports management.