On-demand, Jay Z-backed music service Tidal on Tuesday announced the departure of interim CEO Peter Tonstad, marking the second CEO departure for the struggling service since April.
The company offered few other details, according to Bloomberg. It did say, however, that until a replacement is found, executives in New York and Oslo will assume necessary responsibilities.
Tonstad took over the CEO position in April after the departure of Andy Chen.
Tidal has undergone significant turbulence in the past year. In January the service's creator, Aspiro, was bought by rapper Jay-Z for $56 million. The platform relaunched in March, promising advantages over Spotify like exclusives, a high-fidelity tier, and superior artist royalties, but has often been derided in the press and made little headway in attracting subscribers.
After Spotify its greatest challenge will likely be Apple Music, which is launching on June 30. While Apple Music streams will top out at just 256 kilobits per second, default inclusion in iTunes and iOS 8.4 will likely give Apple an automatic competitive advantage.
Some artists and labels were initially angered by Apple Music's royalty terms. Though the service should ultimately pay better than Spotify, Apple at first planned to skip paying any money from streams during a listener's three-month free trial.
The company suddenly reversed course on Sunday following an open letter by pop musician Taylor Swift. Rights holders will now receive a per-stream fee for trial listeners, switching over to a percentage of revenue if and when someone becomes a paid subscriber.
21 Comments
Place your bets, folks. Does Tidal make it through the end of next year? I'm betting they don't.
DOA.
Jay-Z just lost $56 million.
Good thing is he can use it as a tax deduction on his wives income.
How many does he have?
Again with the "just 256 kilobits per second" nonsense... Apple uses AAC to stream audio, everyone else uses MP3. Apple Music's 256k AAC playback is higher quality than the 320k MP3 format that competitors are using -- and on top of sounding better, AAC also has the added bonus of smaller file sizes.
They built what they wanted.
They didn't build what a lot of people were willing to pay or use.
Listen to your customer. They are right always, even when they are wrong...
Place your bets, folks. Does Tidal make it through the end of next year? I'm betting they don't.
End of next year? I'm betting they don't survive to the end of the Apple Music 90 day free trial.