“After less than three months in the job, the interim chief executive has been swept out at Tidal, Jay Z’s Scandinavia-based music-streaming service,” Jens Hansegard reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“In announcing on Tuesday that Peter Tonstad was let go, a Tidal official said, ‘We are thankful to Peter for stepping in as interim CEO and wish him the best for the future,'” Hansegard reports. “Tidal, closely held by Jay Z and a group of other musicians, will be run by executives in New York and Oslo until a new chief is in place, the official said.”
“In March, a grandiose news conference was held to unveil and promote the service, but it fell flat as many music fans thought the company’s new pop-star owners came off as greedy and out-of-touch,” Hansegard reports. “At 770,000, Tidal’s base of paying subscribers pales in comparison Spotify’s. Nor does Tidal have anything like Apple’s marketing firepower. And despite its artist-owned pedigree, Tidal may not be able to match the extensive music-industry relationships that Apple has built up during the 12 years in which its iTunes Store has become the world’s biggest music retailer.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: At least Peter Tonstad will be spared the carnage that will be unleashed upon Tidal in 6 days, 9 hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds.
