Since becoming involved with TIDAL less than a year ago, JAY Z has experienced some highs and lows with the music streaming service. With stiff competition in the form of Spotify and Apple Music, TIDAL is looking to double down on their progress since revealing they have reached 1 million subscribers back in September. Today, Hov makes another power move by hiring Jeff Toig as the company’s new CEO. Toig is a former Soundcloud and Muve Music executive who has over 20 years of high level experience.
Though some may feel that TIDAL may be fighting a losing battle, Toig told Billboard magazine that the company has a very high upside considering the amount of success in it’s infancy stage.
Other than there being a limited number of these jobs available in the world, what prompted you to take the job?
In terms of why I decided to take it, for me there were really three main reasons. At a high level, this was a great opportunity to do something differentiated here. Jay Z and the artist-owners are deeply committed to Tidal and the vision they have for the business.
Let me break each of those down. As I evaluated the business and the opportunity, Tidal has a really unique set of assets. It has exclusive content, deep connection with the artists — A-list artists — live events like Tidal X, and a unique set of assets. It’s early in the game, but the seeds have been planted and it creates a really fascinating foundation.
Second, through the interview process I was fortunate to spend quite a lot of time with Jay Z, learning more about his vision for Tidal and why he made such a significant investment in this business. It became clear to me that Jay and the artists behind the company are deeply committed to developing an amazing music experience for fans. I share a belief that this has been lost with many services, and it will be critical as we build Tidal into a leader in this space.
The third thing is the momentum. The company just launched six, seven months ago and it’s already grown to over a million subscribers. When you see a business like this gaining that kind of momentum, you start to think there’s something quite interesting happening. I’ve seen this before, and I’m intrigued by the growth and the potential the business has.
