Jay Z may not have bought Hot 97 but he did purchase the Norwegian streaming service Wimp, paying nearly $70.8 million for the company. It's obvious that the emcee and his company Project Panther Bidco have been looking into the music streaming industry for some time now (from NME).
"Panther believes that the recent developments in the entertainment industry, with the migration to music and media streaming, offers great potential for increased entertainment consumption and an opportunity for artists to further promote their music," read a statement from the company.
No doubt that Hov was inspired by fellow hip-hop icon Dr. Dre, whose Beats Electronics was acquired by Apple, resulting in a $620 million payday for the founder, making him the highest-oaid musician in the world, according to Forbes. Although Beats made most of its money from its popular headphone line, most accept that it was Beats Music, the internet radio program developed by the company last year, that was most intriguing to Apple, looking to compete with other streaming goliaths such as Spotify.
Dre may have made off well from the deal but that shouldn't fool the everyday investor into thinking that streaming is a highly profitable business at the moment. Spotify brought in more than $1 billion in revenue during 2014 but has yet to turn a profits from operations, according to The New York Times.
Jay probably aims to take Wimp's decent numbers, with more than 500,000 subscribers across Scandinavia and Central Europe, and elevate them further, hoping to turn a profit along the way. Wimp has a competitive number of songs compared to Spotify—25 million comparable to Beats—but probably won't be making a jump to the United States anytime soon.
Jay can add it to his docket of entrepreneurial endeavors, along with his sports management company and champagne brand.
