Bloomberg Business has a big article today titled That's Business, Man: Why Jay Z's Tidal Is A Complete Disaster.
It's worth a read, but it's also very long, so here's the most noteworthy takeaway:
Jay Z had expected telecommunications giant Sprint to be an early investor in Tidal, but after some discussions they decided to pass. With Tidal's change of ownership, record companies have been allowed to renegotiate their royalties and Hov had been depending on that Sprint investment to pay the rate hikes Warner and Sony are entitled to.
Now, without the phone cash, it's going to be a struggle for Tidal to pay the new rates. They were able to come to a deal with Warner, but haven't yet been able to with Sony.
Beyonce is among the prominent artists on Sony, meaning Jay Z might lose the rights to stream his own wife's songs.
Would that make him a digital music cuckold?