Jay Z purchased Tidal for a reported fee of $56 million back in 2015 and went on to launch exclusive releases on the site, such as Beyonce's Lemonade album from last year. At the time, it was one of the most expensive music app services as most music was being sold via downloads vs. in stores.
In the years to come, Tidal would struggle to carve a lane for themselves as the novelty waned, so did its user base. In an effort to jump start its growth, Jay Z sold 33% of Tidal to Sprint in 2017, instantly exposing the music app to close to 50 million more potential customers.
But last past Summer, Jack Dorsey and Jay Z were seen walking in the Hamptons. What they were discussing was anybody's guess at the time. According to Bloomberg at the time, Square was interested in buy Tidal as a way to diversify what services it could offer their customers.
Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/c/YahooFinance/videos
Jack Dorsey was later quoted as saying, "Given what Square has been able to do for sellers of all sizes and individuals through Cash App, we believe we can now work for artists to see the same success for them, and us. We’re going to start small and focus on the most critical needs of artists and growing their fanbases."
To me that statement from Jack has that with the Tidal purchase Square is getting into the music NFT game.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.