Update:
TIDAL representatives reached out with the following statement:
TIDAL has terminated CFO Chris Hart and COO Nils Juell. 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.
Original post below:
For those keeping up with JAY Z‘s music streaming service TIDAL, there seems to be equal parts progression and digression since its launch in 2015, especially in the last couple weeks alone.
To start with some good news, Kanye West giving the exclusive on his album, The Life of Pablo, reportedly doubled TIDAL’s subscriptions. Kanye also has been ride or die from the jump, expressing on his Twitter that he won’t sell the album and repeatedly shouting out TIDAL during his infamous rants. He even yelled back at a fan who said “Nobody likes TIDAL” in his presence.
Then, getting into more of the business side of things, Samsung is reportedly a major interested player, looking to buy out the service from Jay. Details still haven’t surfaced regarding an update, but it’s out there.
Yesterday [February 29] rumors of a $5 million class action lawsuit surfaced, which the company later responded saying that they are all caught up on royalties and dismissed the allegations in a statement.
Today [March 1], it has been reported two key executives have left the company.
As reported by Norwegian newspaper, Dagens Næringsliv, the chief financial officer, Chris Hart, and the chief operating office, Nils Juell, have been removed from their positions. It was reported that Hart was fired because of his involvement in company policy of not sharing the streaming data with Nielsen Music, which as a result meant that West’s album wouldn’t be factored into the Billboard Charts.
The news of these two executives parting ways is another example of the challenges the company has faced. TIDAL also has lost two CEOs within the span of one year, Andy Chen and Peter Tonstadt.
