Jay Z responds to rumors that Jimmy Iovine tried to lure music artists away from his new streaming service Tidal
In an interview with Billboard, Jay Z acknowledged the rumors but said he wasn't angry at Iovine since he was just being a competitive businessman, according to 9to5Mac.
"I think that's just his competitive nature, and I don't know if he's looking at the bigger picture: That it's not about me and it's not about him; it's about the future of the music business," Jay Z told Billboard.
Jay Z went on to talk about how the music streaming space was large enough for multiple big players including Spotify and Apple's Beats Music, and said the focus should be on helping to keep musicians, producers, and writers fairly compensated.
"My thing with Jimmy is, 'Listen, Jimmy; you're Jimmy Iovine, and you're Apple, and truthfully, you're great. You guys are going to do great things with Beats, but … you know, I don't have to lose in order for you guys to win, and let's just remember that,'" Jay Z told Billboard. "Again, I'm not angry. I actually told him, 'Yo, you should be helping me. This is for the artist. These are people that you supported your whole life. You know, this is good.'"
Artists who join Jay Z's Tidal streaming service all receive an equal equity stake in the company, according to Jay Z, with those joining early on getting a larger equity stake as "Tier 1" partners. So far, Jay Z has recruited Kanye West, Beyonce, Daft Punk, DeadMau5, Usher, Madonna, Rihanna and others as Tier 1 partners, but he says the door is still open. Musicians who join Tidal at a later date will still receive equity in the streaming service, but a smaller portion.
"Will artists make more money?" Jay Z said. "Even if it means less profit for our bottom line, absolutely. That's easy for us. We can do that. Less profit for our bottom line, more money for the artist; fantastic. Let's do that today."
Jay Z is hoping that the new business model will force other big players in the music space to reconsider their business models. But, he said he believes Apple choosing to introduce its own streaming service to compete with Spotify, Tidal, and others only validates streaming as the music format of the future.
"When the biggest distributor of downloads says they're going to start a streaming company, I mean, I don't know what more you need to know that it's the next format."
You can read Billboard's entire interview with Jay Z by clicking here.