Jay Z Wants Digital Music Company

The rap mogul’s company Project Panther Bidco has offered $56.1 million in cash to buy Aspiro, the Stockholm company that is bringing its digital services to North America to compete with Spotify.

Aspiro is the parent company of streaming music services WiMP and Tidal. WiMP, founded in 2010, operates in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The Jay Z investment comes as Spotify – founded in Scandinavia – is seeking to raise $500 million. The Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify hired Goldman Sachs to help it work on the new round of fundraising.

WiMP has a basic music-streaming service but it also has a premium monthly service at $19.99 – twice Spotify’s price for its ad-free service – but it offers high-fidelity audio. Tidal includes editorial features.

As the digital music market continues to be diluted, the news also comes as Pono hits the market. Neil Young’s inspiration, Pono is a hand-held music player that, like WiMP, promises “high definition” digital music. Pono’s price tag, like WiMP’s, is premium. And, as it hits the marketplace, Yahoo Tech posted a devastating review saying “The emperor has no clothes.”