On Saturday, Kanye West called on Apple to purchase Apple Music competitor Tidal, saying he wants to put an end to the “beef” between the two music streaming providers.
West said that Apple’s rivalry with Tidal is a detriment to the music industry, and he is calling on executives from both companies to come together to discuss sale terms. Specifically, he wants a meeting between Apple CEO Tim Cook, Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Apple Music’s Larry Jackson, Tidal owner Jay Z, in addition to Drake. West later added Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek to the list of execs he wants at the table.
Here are a few tweets from West regarding the issue:
Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
Fuck all this dick swinging contest. We all gon be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
I need Tim Cook Jay Z Dez Jimmy Larry me and Drake Scooter on the phone or in a room this week!!!
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
This Tidal Apple beef is fucking up the music game.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
Even though West failed to elaborate, West is likely referring to negotiations related to a potential Tidal acquisition. In June, Apple was said to be mulling a purchase of the smaller streaming service, assumedly for access to exclusive releases.
In March, Tidal announced that it had a paid subscriber base of only 3 million users, despite an all-star content lineup. At the time, Apple Music had a total of 11 million paid subscribers, which is a figure that has grown to over 15 million customers in just a few months. However, both services pale in comparison to Spotify, which boasts over 30 million paid subscribers.
As for Apple, the company is focused on providing users with exclusive streaming music content, but it remains unclear if that means bidding for a competing service. Apple already dabbles in original content creation, including financing music videos, documentaries and other digital media.
[via Business Insider]
