Rumor: Apple Hurts Tidal To Help Beats Music Launch

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be sabotaging the streaming music service Tidal in order to nip competition ahead of the relaunch in June of Apple's Beat Music, according to a recent report.

The New York Post's Page Six, typically reserved for celebrity gossip news, quoted an unnamed source Saturday who claimed that Apple "deliberately took a long time to approve Tidal iOS app updates."

Tidal, launched in March by music star Jay Z and a phalanx of other musical celebrities, has hit a patch of bad press in recent weeks, including news that the service is poorly ranked in U.S. app sales.

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Jay Z defended the music service on Sunday in a series of comments on Twitter that made no mention of the alleged interference from Apple.

Tidal's Chief Executive Andrew Chen resigned earlier this month and the company reportedly dismissed 25 employees at the same time.

Tidal was formed in March when a group of pop stars acquired the Swedish streaming music service Aspiro for $56 million.