MUMBAU: Tidal, the music streaming service that was launched by rap mogul Jay Z, has named a new CEO - its third – since launching in March this year. The company has announced Jeff Toig, former SoundCloud chief business officer as its new CEO, effective January 2016.
Toig will replace Tidal’s former CEO- Peter Tonstad, who earlier this year took up the post as the company’s interim leader, and eventually resigned in June 2015. Prior to his stint with the music service, Tonstad served as CEO to Aspiro, the company which owned Tidal before Jay Z acquired it and brought it to the US.
When the music streaming service first launched –to big fanfare – Andy Chen, another executive who previously lead Aspiro, was put in charge of Tidal. However, not long after taking the reins, Chen and a number of other employees were let go from their services. Over the summer, Vania Schlogel – who was previously an executive at Jay Z’s management company, Roc Nation - also resigned from her post as chief investment officer from Tidal.
Apart from a number of departures from people in important posts, Tidal is facing stiff competition from other music streaming services. Tidal, which offering high fidelity quality of its 40 million-song catalogue at $20 a month, was launched to rival music services like Spotify and Pandora. Since its launch, it has also offered users exclusive content from artists like Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Prince and Rihanna, among others.
However, Tidal, which also offers a $10 monthly package, managed to register a million subscribers until September this year. The number is a rather small one, considering the reach of its competitors like Spotify, which has about 22 million paying customers, and Apple Music, which was launched in June this year and accounts for over 6.5 million subscribers. Apart from these, the two services also have million of non paying users as well.
There is hope that Toig’s appointment in the music service will bring some stability to the rather shaky foundation that Tidal has been built on, considering his knowledge and success in building new businesses. In an interview with Billboard, Toig, who co-founded Muve Music – a service owned by Cricket, a mobile company – said that Jay Z is “committed” to the business, and that it is a long term investment. He will assume his duties at Tidal in early January next year.