Jay Z‘s outing in the streaming arena has been far from a walk in Central Park. But could the media mogul be staging a unique turn-around for his embattled TIDAL platform.

It’s starting to seem so.

Details below…

According to Billboard, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn has signed a name-in-title sponsorship deal with subscription streaming service that will see the arena’s theater configuration operate as the Tidal Theater.

The report explained:

The Barclays cut-down theater configuration, which features an advanced curtaining system located in the bowl, had operated as the Cushman & Wakefield Theater since the arena opened three years ago. The theater officially becomes the Tidal Theater today, and Cushman & Wakefield has been “repositioned” into other areas of Barclays Center, according to Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark, who describes the Tidal partnership as a “content deal.”

The relationship will tap into Tidal’s artist development platform Tidal Discovery, as well as serving up unique experiences via Tidal X. As part of its naming rights agreement, Tidal will be curating events in the Tidal Theater with emerging and established artists. “[Tidal] will put a minimum of eight events into the theater annually,” Yormark says, “but we’ll compliment that with other events.”

The move, which is the first time a digital platform has sponsored a venue, comes one week after TIDAL staged its wildly successful charity concert TIDAL X 1020. Streamed by 3.3 million people across 198 countries, the show boasted performances from the likes of Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, and Usher.

And under the new deal, it’s expected more of such events will be staged at Barclays – both in the TIDAL Theatre setup as well as the bigger arena.

*************

Not sure who’s Olivia Pope-ing this TIDAL situation, but they’re doing an awesome job. Echoing what we’ve been saying for months, the platform’s best bet at success is to establish itself in unique ways outside of the streaming race – as ironic as that sounds. Gamer friends, think Nintendo vs XBox and Playstation).

Put simply, run a different race and reap the rewards.

Your thoughts?