2016 has been a big year for Jay Z‘s Tidal streaming service. Which may be good news as it looks to bounce back from a reported $28 million loss in 2015.
The professional pocket watchers at Wall Street Journal obtained legal filings showing that Aspiro AB, Tidal’s parent company that Jay Z bought, has more than doubled its losses since 2014.
WSJ reports:
Aspiro AB, the Swedish holding company that Jay Z and a group of other musicians bought in early 2015, recorded a net loss of 239 million Swedish kronor ($28 million) last year, according to a legal filing. That compared with a net loss of 88.9 million Swedish kronor ($10.4 million) in 2014.
Norwegian business publication Dagens Naeringsliv is also reporting that Tidal is delinquent on payments to around 100 labels and owes them $438,000 in payouts.
Billboard writes:
Tidal’s spending went mostly towards record label royalty fees, accounting for nearly 300 million Swedish kronor ($35 million) of the budget. Otherwise, 218 million Swedish kronor ($25.5 million) was spent on the company’s 86-person workforce — up from 77.2 million kronor ($9 million) in 2014.
The good news is that Tidal’s revenue increased by 30 percent $36.2 million to $47 million. They can also boast their high-profile exclusive releases including Beyoncè’s Lemonade, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo and Rihanna’s ANTI. The company also bolstered their subscription base to 4.2 million this year from the 540,000 they had when they started.
Jay once rapped that he can triple his worth anywhere on God’s green earth, let’s hope he can eventually do the same in this case.
Tidal did not immediately respond to HipHopWired’s request for comment.
