Despite its massive launch and backing from major artists, Tidal has continued to trail Apple Music and Spotify. That may change soon. Sprint has purchased a 33 percent stake in Tidal, and intends to offer the streaming music service to its mobile network subscribers.

Sprint, the fourth largest mobile carrier in the United States, will reportedly give access to the service to its 45 million users.

It’s not clear if the service will be offered for free or at a discount to Sprint users or if Sprint will embrace the AT&T model with its DirecTV Now streaming television service and not count Tidal streaming against a user’s data cap—a practice known as zero rating that would likely be in violation of net neutrality. In a press release, Sprint promised customers “unlimited access” to Tidal, which would suggest the latter.

In exchange for Sprint’s considerable investment in Tidal, the streaming service will start producing content available exclusively to Sprint customers. Tidal already offers a library of about 42.5 million songs and 140,000 videos.

"Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential," said Jay Z said in a press statement. "[Sprint CEO] Marcelo understood our goal right away and together we are excited to bring Sprint's 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience."

Neither Sprint nor Tidal provided financial figures for the transaction. Music Business Worldwide reported the sale cost Sprint $200 million, giving Tidal a valuation of $600 million. At launch, the subscription music service was valued at about $250 million.

The purchase by Sprint comes after months of rumors suggesting major tech companies have been looking to take on Tidal. Samsung was rumored to be looking into buying Tidal last year, and Apple reportedly into entered talks about buying Tidal with the intention of rolling it into its own Apple Music service.

Tidal has been floundering somewhat on its own. Despite plenty of noteworthy artists backing the platform at launch, it failed to find a userbase anywhere near the size of Apple Music or Spotify.

Apple Music broke the 20 million paid subscribers barrier last year, and Spotify boasts more than 40 million paid and 100 million total users ; Tidal reported last year it had 3 million subscribers, but reports have called that number into question and suggested the service has closer to 1.2 million active accounts. The Sprint deal just might help Tidal play some much-needed catch up.

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