RAP LEGEND JAY Z IN TALKS TO BUY SWEDISH MUSIC STREAMING COMPANY ASPIRO FOR $56 MILLION

JAY Z

Jay Z may be getting ready to do battle with Dr. Dre.
The New York rapper is in talks to buy a small, Swedish music streaming company called Aspiro for $56 million, according to a report.

Aspiro is the parent company behind Wimp, a music streaming service currently available only in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden. It has 500,000-plus subscribers.

Wimp competes with Spotify, the giant subscription music streamer, which has 15 million paying subscribers and 45 million fans listening to its free version, and with Beats Music.

Beats, co-founded by Dr. Dre, was sold to Apple last year for $3 billion. If Jay Z — whose real name is Sean Carter — succeeds in buying Aspiro and expands it into the US, it will go head-to-head against Dre’s Beats.

Spotify is available in 58 countries, including the US.

Jay Z made the offer through Project Panther Bidco, a company he set up to make the deal happen, according to the report in the Financial Times.

“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,” Panther said in a statement, according to the FT.

“Panther’s strategic ambition revolves around global expansion and up-scaling of Aspiro’s platform, technology and services.”