Jay Z moves to invest in Nigerian music business
Jay Z, who ranks third on Forbes’ list of Hip-Hop's Wealthiest Artists with a fortune of US$550 million, is making moves to expand his streaming service to Nigeria.
Last week, Jay Z took to Twitter to defend his recently acquired streaming service Tidal amidst numerous qualms from potential customers, artists and industry figures. One of his posts read: “My cousin just moved to Nigeria to discover new talent.”
However, at the time of tweeting, Jay Z’s cousin Brian ‘Bee-High’ Biggs – currently director of mobile strategies at Jay Z’s music company Roc Nation – had already scouted a new act for Tidal.
On April 1 Nigerian artist Ice Prince posted a photograph on Instagram of himself and Jay Z at the New York headquarters of Roc Nation. The caption read:“#RocThe story Loading… Ice|Hov. Alot Learned Today! Bless King Hov.”
Ice Prince is currently signed to 10-year-old Nigerian label Chocolate City Records. In 2007 its artist Audu Maikori won aBritish Council award for International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year (IYMEY), making the label the first Nigerian music company to attain a global music award and receive recognition by the British Council.
One dated media report suggested Ice Prince was to become a brand ambassador for the Jay Z-endorsed cognac D’usse, however with the rap mogul’s promises of creating an artist-owned Spotify rival complete with exclusive content and platforms like Discovery to develop emerging acts, it’s more likely Ice Prince is part of Tidal’s plans for global reach.
New Orleans hip hop artistJay Electronica, who signed to Roc Nation in 2010, was also spotted in Nigeria in mid-April. The rapper/producer, who features on Mac Miller's Watching Movies With The Sound Off and theCurren$y andMos Def LP Pilot Talk, was spotted in the studio withNigerian artist andCEO of Mavin Records, Don Jazzy.
In related news, Tidal has this week revealed it pays roughly four times the royalty rate of Spotify. The Verge reports Tidal pays $0.024 to $0.028 per stream and Spotify pays $0.006 to $0.0084. During Jay Z's Twitter rant last week, hestated the service pays a 75% royalty rate to “ALL artists, writers and producers – not just the founding members on stage,” and that its equity value is currently US$60 million.
Tidal is available in 43 countries globally, including Australia, and recently expanded to New Zealand, Israel, Monaco, Lichtenstein, Andorra, Iceland, Thailand and Malaysia. Tidal offers 25 million songs and over 75,000 videos.