Jay-Z has reportedly tabled a bid for late Prince’s unreleased music trove. The business mogul is offering a whooping $40 in an investment which is expected to bring a huge boost to his multi-business company ‘Roc Nation’.
The 46-year-old rapper made an offer to Tyka Nelson [the late musician’s sister], hoping to acquire all legal rights to Prince’s unreleased music.
Tyka Nelson and her husband Maurice Phillips are considered parties to the proposed business agreement, a report from Mail Online confirms.
A large number of unreleased materials were discovered at Prince’s Paisley Park estate after his death in April.
Jay-Z’s mouth-watering offer comes a few days after news surfaced that ‘Warner Brothers Records’ [Prince’s long-time associated music label] is set to release a music album that will contain 40 tracks of the late musician’s greatest hits. The release of his post-humous album titled ‘Prince 4Ever’ has been scheduled next year.
‘Prince 4Ever’ will consist largely of the funk maestro’s best-known hits from early and mid-career.
The album will also feature the unreleased 1982 track ‘Moonbeam Levels’ and also a 12-page book of photographs.
According to the report, a deal between Hov and Tyka Nelson’s family may suffer huge setbacks because an agreement must be secured from all of the singer’s brother and sisters, as well as the trust managing Prince’s estate.
Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly making plans to acquire Jay-Z’s powerful online streaming company Tidal for an undisclosed sum. Steve Job’s company is yet to complete agreements with the associate owners and promoters which include music icons like Kanye West, Beyonce, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Madonna and more.
Jigga reportedly acquired Tidal for $56 million in 2015 and went further with collaborations from friends, giving his company a solid base with music icons.
Hollywood Life confirmed that Tidal exclusively marketed Kanye’s “The Life of Pablo” for six weeks. The company held express rights to Beyonce’s “Lemonade” for a limited time before it became available on a rival online music streaming platform Spotify.
All said, Tidal has been confirmed as the only streaming service that has legal rights to stream late Prince’s music, and the singer’s death increased its market value.
The explanation makes it very easy to understand what’s at stake if Jay-Z acquires rights to Prince’s unreleased music.
“[On a possible sale of Tidal to Apple before Jay-Z’s current upgrade plan] If the deal goes through, it will be because Apple has paid enough money [to Tidal], which could be a roughly 10x return for Jay-Z, so it’s good business,” said Mark Mulligan, a digital music market analyst, The Washington Post reported in July.
“Apple will also send a statement to the marketplace. So it’s win-win. First and foremost, this is about buying the competition.”
Now you understand why Jay-Z is a smart business guy.
