Tidal Cuts Two More Execs, as Revolving Door Keeps Spinning

Jay Z’s streaming music service cuts its chief financial officer and chief operating officer

Jay Z
Getty Images

Jay Z’s streaming music service Tidal is culling executives again.

Tidal said it has terminated chief financial officer Chris Hart and and chief operating officer Nils Juell, in a statement emailed to TheWrap on Tuesday. “As Tidal has grown into a global operation serving 46 countries, we have moved our accounting and operations team to New York, while our technology team and key support staff remain in Oslo,” the company said.

Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv earlier reported the executive departures.

Jay Z purchased Tidal last year in a deal worth $56 million after the service was launched in the United States in late 2014 by its previous owner, Norway’s Apero.

The rapper and a slew of top music stars relaunched the service in a splashy event last year. But their proclamations about being an artist-advocate streaming option drew criticism from some, rubbed the wrong way by the music industry’s richest artists asking for $19.99 subscriptions to Tidal’s high-definition streams.

Since then, Tidal has cycled through three CEOs and the departures of other executives. More recently, it mishandled Rihanna‘s album release, and faced technical snafus with Kanye West’s exclusive record release through the service.

Comments