Jay Z’s Tidal fires 25 staff, CEO departs

Jay Z's Project Panther Bidco has made its first big structural splash with the reported axing of 25 staffers at the rap mogul's recently acquired streaming service Tidal, and the departure of its CEO Andy Chen.

The Scandinavian company announced Chen’s departure over the weekend, categorising firings as “redundancies” and “streamlining resources,” and announcing Chen’s interim replacement Peter Tonstad. Tonstad was CEO of Tidal’s parent company Aspiro for two years before Chen joined the company. Tonstad then took on the role of Chief Commercial Officer.

“He has a better understanding of the industry and a clear vision for how the company is looking to change the status quo,” read Tidal’s statement.

Interestingly, the restructure follows a less than smooth launch. Tidal may have been introduced and re-introduced into 35 markets - including Australia – with its 17 artist shareholders propelling the hype, but the launch was met with a backlash from potential customers, artists and industry figures. Lily Allen, Deathcab for Cutie and Mumford & Sons voiced concerns for emerging artists and the state of piracy. “People are going to swarm back to pirate sites in droves,” said Lily Allen. Meanwhile veteran producer Steve Albini was quoted in an interview with Vulture expressing his disdain at Tidal's pricing tier for its audio quality: “If you want your music to play at the push of a button, convenience is going to trump sound quality 100% of the time”.

While the service has promised exclusive content from its big-name backers; Jay Z's track Glory went straight to YouTube and Rihanna also backtracked on her Tidal exclusive. The clip for her video American Oxygen was published on YouTube following requests from her fans.

Read Tidal’s full statement below:

TIDAL’s new interum [sic] CEO is Peter Tonstad – a former CEO of parent company Aspiro Group. He has a better understanding of the industry and a clear vision for how the company is looking to change the status quo. He’s streamlining resources to ensure talent is maximized to enhance the customer experience. We’ve eliminated a handful of positions and refocused our company-wide talent to address departments that need support and cut redundancies. TIDAL’s offices globally will remain and grow: we are already hiring for several new positions now. We’re excited about our future and what’s in-store for fans who want the best listening experience.