Samsung shutting Milk Music, quashes rumor about Tidal purchase

Amid talk that Samsung is going to shut down its streaming music service Milk Music, another rumor has surfaced. The buzz around the water cooler is that Samsung is going to purchase Jay Z's Tidal Music. Replacing Milk Music with Tidal would probably be additive for Samsung, although both are relatively small compared to leaders like Spotify, Pandora and Apple.

Today's report notes that the free tier of Milk Music has brought in some subscribers for Sammy, but the paid service has not done well at all. While that works for Spotify (the vast majority of the latter's subscribers belong to its free ad-supported tier), it didn't do much financially for the smartphone manufacturer. It certainly didn't help Samsung sell phones.

Samsung has told Variety that it is not looking to purchase Tidal. Jay Z purchased the music streamer last year for $56 million. In the last nine months, the service has had three CEOs and just let go of its COO and CFO. That's not to say that there haven't been some good moments for the streamer. It recently secured the exclusive for Kanye West's new album, "The Life of Pablo." Earlier this year, Tidal drew 1 million new subscribers by releasing Rhianna's "Anti" album before other streamers. Samsung was part of that promotion which started talk that the company was interested in buying Tidal.

If Samsung closes Milk Music, which seems likely, the question is what service it has in mind to replace it. Tidal is not the answer.

source: Variety (1), (2) via SlashGear