Cyrus Langhorne
Music moguls Jay Z and Beyoncé have plenty to brag about this week after landing atop financial publication Forbes’ “Highest-Paid Celebrities” of 2016 list.
Over the past 12 months, Jayoncé have banked over $100 million.
Beyoncé continues to live up to her royal nickname: Queen B and husband Jay Z are this year’s highest-paid celebrity couple, raking in a regal $107.5 million over the past year. The sultry songstress pulled in $54 million, good enough to claim the No. 34 spot on our upcoming Celebrity 100 list—the annual ranking of the world’s top-earning superstars, which will be released tomorrow morning. Jay Z finished a smidgeon behind, taking the No. 36 slot with a $53.5 million tally. (Forbes)
Last month, reports surfaced about technology giant Apple aiming to purchase Jay’s TIDAL streaming service.
Apple is exploring the idea of bringing on Tidal to bolster its Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong ties to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna.
The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal, these people said. Terms of the potential deal aren’t known. (Wall Street Journal)
Some reports suggested Jay Z’s name attached to TIDAL could be a huge factor in the potential deal going down.
Tidal has about 4 million paying subscribers, according to the WSJ. (For context, Apple Music has 15 million.) Those can’t automatically be moved over to Apple Music, but Apple should be able to persuade many of them to come over. It has whatever Jay-Z brings to the table for consumer marketing and artist relationships. (Recode)
TIDAL partner T.I. recently talked to SOHH and compared its services to competitors like Apple Music.
“I think it’s already distanced itself from the other platforms simply because we have more unique usages. There are things that you can come to TIDAL for that you can’t go to the other two services and get. There are things that you can get on the TIDAL platform that you cannot get anywhere else. It exceeds exclusive music. Although it includes exclusive music, I don’t know anywhere else where you can go and get something that’s comparable to the TIDAL X performances or concert series. I don’t know of another platform where you can go get that. I don’t know of another platform where you could go get exclusive content like “Money & Violence” that has a cult following and dynamic feel of the culture and the community. I think it’s diverse in a way that sets itself apart from many of the other considerable mentions in this league.” (SOHH)
