Mobile service provider Sprint has picked up a 33 percent stake in Tidal, a music streaming service company founded by rapper Jay Z. Sprint described the deal as an as an "unprecedented partnership" that will give its subscribers unlimited access to exclusive content on the Tidal app.
Sprint is owned by Japanese multinational company SoftBank.
In a statement issued to media, Jay Z said: "Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential."
Jay Z's Tidal app takes a lot of pride in being one of the few apps that directly connects artists to fans. Apple's iTunes had successfully played this "exclusive game" over the years. The renowned rapper launched the company in mid- 2015 after acquiring a Sweden-based tech company.
Launched as artist-friendly streaming service, Tidal boasts of several renowned artists including Kanye West, Rihanna, and Coldplay. However, its "artist-friendly" tag has not been good enough to fend stiff competition from Spotify and Apple Music.
The details of the deal have not been made public. It is still not known how much Sprint paid to acquire a 33 percent stake in Tidal. It is also not clear whether the Tidal app will come pre-installed on Sprint handsets, or subscribers will have to download it separately.
The news about Tidal's deal with Sprint comes barely days after a leading Norwegian newspaper claimed that the music streaming company has been inflating its subscriber numbers. In March last year, the firm claimed that it has three million subscribers, but internal documents showed that it had merely 1.2 million activated accounts and 850,000 subscribers.