Report: Beyoncé Music Caught Up in Tidal Struggle With Sony
UPDATE: Sony Music Entertainment CEO Doug Morris denies the drama. "Jay Z is a friend and business associate for many years," he said in a statement to Billboard.
"I have always admired his business acumen, his entrepreneurship and his passion for music," Morris continued. "All of our content, including Beyoncé, is available through the Tidal service, and we have announced no plans to remove our catalog from Tidal. Like all of our other partners, we are rooting for Jay and Tidal to succeed."
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PREVIOUS: Jay Z may not be exaggerating when he says that there are "big companies that are spending millions on a smear campaign [against Tidal]."
Word is, he and the Mrs., who is also an owner, are having trouble in the boardroom when it comes to making a deal with the parent company of Beyoncé's label, Sony Music Entertainment.
"Music industry people who are familiar with the negotiations and forbidden from discussing them publicly say that Sony and Warner [Music Group] are asking Tidal for large advances in return for the right to feature their artists’ catalogs," reports Bloomberg Business in a lengthy feature titled "That’s Business, Man: Why Jay Z’s Tidal Is a Complete Disaster."
Elsewhere in the article, however, it's noted that another source, one linked to the service site, is already disputing at least part of that, saying, "The company’s financial condition is fine," and that they reached a deal this month with Warner.
From where is the smear streaming? We may never know. What is understood is that Warner doesn't account for what will become of Bey's music, and fans are definitely looking for that possible Jay/Bey joint album.
Somewhere in America, #FreeBey T-shirts might already be in stock.
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(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation)