Contrary to prior rumors and reports, Beyoncé is not in jeopardy of having her catalogue of music pulled down from the music service she has invested in and the one her husband Jay Z owns, TIDAL. This according to a statement by Sony Music CEO Doug Morris who says the label has "no plans" to take her music down from TIDAL.
"Jay Z is a friend and business associate for many years. I have always admired his business acumen, his entrepreneurship and his passion for music," stated Morris via Rolling Stone.
"All of our content, including Beyoncé, is available through the Tidal service, and we have announced no plans to remove our catalog from Tidal. Like all of our other partners, we are rooting for Jay and Tidal to succeed."
His comments came after a Bloomberg report claimed that during current tight negotiations between Sony and TIDAL, the label could use important artist's catalogs as leverage to try and earn a higher licensing fee. Beyoncé's music is currently on the service as one of the 16 signing co-owners of the service and she has premiered several pieces of content through TIDAL including the love ballad "Die With You." Sony currently has a deal with TIDAL as Aspiro, but the two parties are renegotiating.
The move would be very embarrassing for TIDAL since Beyoncé is one of the original 16 big name artist signees who bought in and the wife of its new owner. The issue underscores one of the problems that TIDAL and all streaming services face - negotiating with major labels, who are trying to get the most money possible from them.
The comments from Morris could just be to save face, but it wouldn't make sense for Sony to pull their music from a service that makes them money per stream. They have already started removing content from Soundcloud over "lack of monetization opportunities," but a move like this would show that negotiations are at a real low.
