If you haven’t heard, but I’m sure you have, Jay-Z’s 4:44 album dropped overnight and is available to stream over Tidal. The album became available to Tidal and Sprint Customers at 12 a.m. and was already trending on Twitter even before it dropped.
On Thursday night, people made a mad dash to subscribe to Tidal, and maybe some even subscribed to Sprint, which offered a free six-month membership to the music-streaming service. Although some may see only the music aspect behind Jay-Z’s partnership with Sprint, there’s a bigger story behind it.
In addition to Jay-Z’s partnership with the mobile service, both Jay-Z and Sprint are aiming to help low-income high school students as part of the 1Million Project, an initiative from Sprint and the Sprint Foundation that will connect 1 million low-income U.S. high school students who don’t have internet access at home to help level the playing field and eliminate the “homework gap.”
Students participating in the program will receive free mobile devices and free high-speed wireless internet connectivity while in high school for up to four years. Sprint will donate $2 from every new line activation with a device purchase or lease—up to $1 million—to support the 1Million Project.