Tidal, the artist-owned music streaming service run by Jay-Z, has secured a major

partnership with cellular service provider Sprint. Sprint Corp. has agreed to acquire a 33% stake

in the service. Going up against industry giants such as Apple Music and Spotify, the $200

million deal could be the saving grace for the streaming service.

The self proclaimed “artist-owned coalition” has artists such as Alicia Keys, Daft Punk,

Kanye West, and Jack White each owning a stake in the company. These artists periodically

release exclusive content through the TIDAL app. According to a Sprint spokesperson, Jay Z and

his fellow artist-owners will retain equity in the streaming service.

What’s in it for Sprint? The deal makes Spring Chief Executive Marcelo Claure a

member of the Tidal board. Also, all of Sprint’s 45 million customers will gain access to the

exclusive content on TIDAL via free subscriptions, and Sprint customers can use TIDAL without

worrying about using up all of their data. With cellular providers like AT&T and T-Mobile each

offering their own data-free streaming partnerships, Sprint’s new deal should help boost their

revenue.

The $200 million deal should also help TIDAL’s performance. One of TIDAL’s flaws

according to consumers if their lack of a free ad-based subscription. In 2016, TIDAL was

accused of releasing incorrect user reports. Assuming the majority of Sprint users hop on the

TIDAL wagon, TIDAL should soon see a significant increase in their amount of users.