Block skalar ned sin investering i Tidal – lägger ned TBD

Tidal (stylized TIDAL) is a Norwegian-American music streaming service, launched in 2014 by the Norwegian-Swedish public company Aspiro. Tidal is now majority-owned by Block, Inc., the owner of the point-of-sale system Square. With distribution agreements with all three major record labels and many independent labels, Tidal claims to provide access to more than 80 million tracks and 350,000 music videos. On April 10, 2024, Tidal merged its two subscription plans to become one simply named Tidal, which offers the same quality as the former HiFi Plus plan (FLAC HiRes 24-bit/192KHz and MQA – 24-bit/352.8 kHz). However, on July 24, 2024, Tidal removed the feature to listen in MQA. Tidal claims to pay the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market. In March 2015, Aspiro was acquired by Project Panther Bidco Ltd., which relaunched the service with a mass-marketing campaign, promoting it as the first artist-owned streaming service. In January 2017, Sprint Corporation bought 33% of Tidal for a reported $200 million. In March 2021, Block, then known as Square, agreed to pay $297 million for majority ownership of Tidal. In June, 2022, through the disclosure of the Annual Stockholder Meeting 2022, Block reported that the stake acquired in the Tidal music service was 86.8%. While some observers praised the high-fidelity audio quality, and higher subscription fees that would result in higher royalties to the artists and songwriters, others felt the high subscription fees and exclusive Tidal content from the artists involved could lead to more music piracy. Tidal claimed to have over 3 million subscribers in 2016, although the veracity of those claims and the company's reported streaming numbers have been questioned. As of April 2024, Tidal operates in 61 countries.

Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) is an American technology company offering financial services to consumers and businesses. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, it leads the U.S. point-of-sale systems market. As of 2023, Block serves 56 million users and 4 million businesses, processing $228 billion in payments annually. Block's inaugural product Square, launched in 2009, is a point-of-sale system. It allows businesses to accept card payments and manage various operations, including bookings, e-Commerce, inventory, payroll, shift scheduling, banking, and obtaining business loans. Additionally, Block's portfolio includes Cash App, a consumer-focused digital wallet service introduced in 2013. This service allows users to send, receive or save money, access a debit card, invest in stocks and bitcoin, apply for personal loans, and file taxes. Block also owns Afterpay, a buy now, pay later service; TBD, a decentralized platform targeting bitcoin and decentralized finance; Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet service; and Tidal, a music streaming service.