Sprint to Buy 33% of Jay Z's Tidal Music Service

Sprint will buy one-third of Tidal, the streaming-music service run by rap mogul Jay Z, the latest content deal secured by a network provider.

The companies said Monday the deal will give Sprint's 45 million customers access to the Tidal streaming service as well as exclusive content. Tidal's current management team will keep running the service and Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure will join its board.

Jay Z bought the service in March 2015 for $56 million from Swedish company Aspiro, which had created the Tidal brand. He has given famous artists and bands small stakes in Tidal and promised each millions of dollars worth of marketing, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Streaming music through the internet is one of the more common tasks used by smartphone owners. Pandora Media Inc., Spotify AB and Apple Inc. all have competing streaming music services.

Network service providers have also been striking content deals to attract and retain new customers. AT&T Inc. made a deal with singer Taylor Swift to share exclusive videos with its customers. Verizon Wireless has a deal to stream NFL games to its customers.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com