Jay Z Bids on Aspiro, a Swedish Music Streaming Company

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The deal for Aspiro would give Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, a foothold in the expanding world of streaming music. CreditEvan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press

Jay Z’s bid, made through his company Project Panther, was revealed in a statement early Friday by Aspiro, which is publicly traded in Sweden. According to the statement, negotiations began in December, and Jay Z’s offer — representing a 59 percent premium over the stock’s closing price on Thursday — has already received preliminary acceptance by Aspiro’s board.

The deal would give the rapper and entrepreneur Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, a foothold in the expanding world of streaming music, and also would likely offer an expanded profile for his entertainment and sports company, Roc Nation.

Jay Z’s pursuit of Aspiro may suggest an interest in what so far has remained a niche side of the digital music market: high-fidelity audio. WiMP, available in a handful of European countries, and Tidal, which arrived in Britain and the United States in September, stream music in so-called lossless audio formats that are much higher in quality than what is offered by Spotify and most other similar outlets.

WiMP has 512,000 paying users, according to Aspiro’s most recent quarterly report; it has not said how many customers it has for Tidal, which sells subscriptions at $20 a month, twice the going rate of Spotify and most other streaming outlets.

The number of companies offering higher-quality digital audio has grown substantially recently. In addition to Tidal and WiMP, Deezer offers its Elite version through a deal with Sonos speakers; the new PonoMusic player from Neil Young recently went on sale; and Sony has been drawing attention for its high-resolution new Walkman, at prices over $1,000. But analysts say that for the most part, consumers have shown little interest in these products.

For Jay Z, another attraction in buying a streaming service might be to further expand the media portfolio of Roc Nation. Started in 2008 as a joint venture with Live Nation Entertainment, the company already operates in a number of areas in music, covering recordings, music publishing and artist management, and in 2013, it also expanded into representing top athletesthrough its Roc Nation Sports division.

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