Jay Z Secretly Met With Stars About Aspiro Buy

Is Jay Z is making a move against Spotify with the help of his superstar pals?

Project Panther Bidco, the investment vehicle the rapper used to make a $56 million bid for the Swedish music firm Aspiro, announced Friday that the bid had been accepted. The group made the bid in January for the company, which is behind the high-definition music streaming services WiMP and Tidal.

“All conditions for completion of the offer have been fulfilled, and the offer is therefore declared unconditional,’’ Project Panther said in a statement. “Accordingly, Panther will complete the acquisition of the shares tendered in the offer.”

The statement did not offer details on the “99 Problems” rapper’s intentions for the streaming technology beyond a January statement about plans for “global expansion and upscaling of Aspiro’s platform, technology and services.”

But according to a new report, Jay Z has plans to relaunch the service with the input of some of the biggest music stars in the business.

Jay Z reportedly hosted a meeting in Los Angeles attended by Kanye West, Rihanna, Madonna, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jack White, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj and wife Beyonce a few days before the Grammy Awards to discuss the bid, according to Showbiz 411.

The rap mogul is said to have held the “music version of The Avengers,” which also included some country music stars and representatives from his music label Roc Nation, in order to discuss his vision for Aspiro, which will be known as TidalHifi when it relaunches in the U.S.

The site reports that Jay Z envisions TidalHifi as streaming service that could compete with Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music and similar services – but with the difference that music stars could actually profit from it and use it distribute their own work.

The majority of the meeting was said to have focused on “videos, artists rights and how music has been diminished by crass commercialism.” Daft Punk reportedly made "persuasive arguments" during the meeting on these topics.

The meeting was described as “lively,” with Jay Z’s pal West so excitable that he “can’t calm down, even among friends.”

“Kanye is out of control,” an insider said. “He blurts things out. Jay Z kept him by his side and joked that he was his ‘interpreter.’”

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