The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and other media sources are reporting that Apple is in negotiations to purchase the Tidal streaming music service from Jay Z. At this point, it's still just talk. Nothing is official. Many of our readers have embraced Tidal because it offers a CD-quality streaming option, and we've been asking Apple to offer something similar for a long time. It will be interesting to see if it actually happens.

From TechCrunch
If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Apple is in discussions with Tidal about acquiring its music streaming app, which offers exclusives and early releases from big artists like Beyonce and Kanye West. The Wall Street Journal reports that the talks are still early and might not end in a deal, but Apple wants those exclusives to bolster its Apple Music streaming app that's currently in hard-fought competition with Spotify.

Apple has been pushing to score exclusives of its own, like the release of Drake's most recent album. But Tidal has been winning on that front. Rapper Jay Z bought Tidal for $56 million in March 2015, then revamped it with a set of landmark partnerships with some of the biggest names in music, including venture as co-owners: Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, Arcade fire, Chris Martin from Coldplay, Beyonce, Daft Punk, Jack White, J. Cole, Jason Aldean, Kanye West, Deadmau5, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher.

In a pompous declaration-signing ceremony, Tidal made these stars co-owners in exchange for them giving it first crack at releasing their music. While that arrangement seemed unlikely to pan out at first, Tidal was the only place to stream Kanye's new album "Life Of Pablo" for several weeks, and is still the only place you can stream Beyonce's visual album "Lemonade."

Apple sees music as a big part of the future of mobile, and as a way to encourage sales of its flagship iPhones. Even if it had to pay a steep price for Tidal, its exclusives could give it a big edge over Spotify, which has concentrated on listening features like Discover Weekly instead.

To read the complete TechCrunch article, click here.

Additional Resources
• Here's Why Apple Should Buy Tidal at Fortune.
• Apple Rumored to Be Launching 24/96 Streaming in 2016 at HomeTheaterReview.com.