Tidal Music Streaming Service Now Accepts Venmo

Tidal Music Streaming Service Now Accepts Venmo

Tidal, the music streaming service owned by Jay-Z, now accepts Venmo as a way to pay for the service, according to reports.

The announcement is the latest in a number of collaborations for the PayPal-owned app, which has also made deals with Shopify, Uber and Hulu.

Tidal users who join the service will be able to choose Venmo as an option when they sign up, and existing users can select the option on the Tidal website.

The deal is not exclusive, but it does help Tidal stand out in a field of apps including Apple Music and Spotify, which only accept PayPal.

Tidal has been steadily trying out new features lately, like master-quality audio on Android, personalized playlists and an integration with Plex.

Jay-Z acquired Tidal in March 2015 for $56 million from Swedish firm Aspiro. The rap mogul then gave stakes in the firm to 19 prominent artists and made promises of millions in marketing.

The company has also had issues with data breaches.

Consumers pay $20 per month for access to Tidal’s approximate 40 million song catalog in high-fidelity, or they can pay $10 a month for standard quality sound. Tidal claims 4.2 million subscribers, most of whom were acquired along with those big exclusive releases. It is also the only streaming service offering the catalog of the late Prince, as the singer had a personal relationship with Jay-Z and was otherwise unwilling to put his material on streaming services.

In 2016, Kanye West released a new album, “The Life of Pablo,” exclusively on Tidal. Kanye had originally planned to release the album jointly on his own site and Tidal, but at the last minute, made it a Tidal-only release for the first seven days. Kanye owns a small part of Tidal through friend and owner Jay-Z, and had emphasized that all music lovers should subscribe to Tidal to hear the album.