Aspiro AB was a Norwegian-based, legally Swedish-domiciled

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to '' ...

founded in 1998. The company mainly provided subscription-based

lossless Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistic ...

music streaming A music streaming service is a type of streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to stream d ...

services under its two brands,

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

and

WiMP Wimp, WIMP, or Wimps may refer to: Science and technology * Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical particle of dark matter * WIMP (computing), the "window, icon, menu, pointer" paradigm * WIMP (software bundle), the web stack of Wind ...

. The company was headquartered in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, with additional offices in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, Sweden,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. As of the end of December 2014, Aspiro's music streaming services had 500,000 paying customers.

History

The company was founded in 1998 by Jörgen Adolfsson, Christer Månsson and Klas Hallqvist. The founders knew each other from working together at Europolitan, one of Sweden's three largest mobile phone operators at the time, which was partly owned by

Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vod ...

. It was not until Adolfsson and Månsson moved to

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

, where they worked for Telenor Mobil's division for Value-Creating Services, they realized the changes that

Wireless Application Protocol Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the protocol. Introduced in 1999, WAP achieve ...

would mean for mobile communications, immediately they contacted Hallqvist, who remained in Sweden as head of quality at Europolitan, and founded Aspiro. In May 2000, Aspiro was listed on

Stockholm Stock Exchange Nasdaq Stockholm, formerly known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange ( sv, Stockholmsbörsen), is a stock exchange located in Frihamnen, Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1863, it has become the primary securities exchange of the Nordic countries. As ...

's New Market and later in June 2001, began trading on the main list. Between 2000 and 2008, Aspiro acquired at least 13 companies which are Midab Data, InfoCreator, Mgage Systems, Picofun, Melody Interactive Solutions, Emode, Cellus, Inpoc, Boomi, Mobile Avenue, Rubberduck, Voolife and Mobile Entry. However, it wasn't until 2009 they developed their first music streaming service, which is the core business today. On 30 January 2015 it was announced that Aspiro had received a $56 million takeover bid from Project Panther Bidco Ltd., which is indirectly owned and controlled by rapper and businessman Jay-Z. Although some minority shareholders opposed the takeover and argued that Project Panther undervalued the growth potential in their bid, the acquisition was announced and finalized on March 13 after being accepted by over 90 percent of the shareholders. WiMP merged with Tidal under the Tidal name in March 2015. Majority ownership of Aspiro was later acquired by Square Inc. in March 2021.

References

External links

* {{url, aspiro.com, Official website Jay-Z Online music stores of Norway