Another few months, another story about a Tidal CEO stepping away from the embattled streaming service owned by rapper Jay-Z. According to Billboard, this time it is Jeff Toig who is leaving. He took over the executive position in January of 2016. He replaced Peter Tonstad, the man who in June of 2015 replaced Andy Chen, who was appointed in April of 2015 and only served for few months before stepping down. Billboard reports that it is likely Toig has been out of the role since March 2017.
The article leads with news that Toig’s replacement will be announced soon. Tidal put a pretty rosy spin on the news: “As part of Tidal’s continued expansion this year we will be announcing a new CEO in the coming weeks,” the streaming service said in a statement to Billboard. “We wish [Toig] all the best in his future endeavors.”
Toig took over a company headed through turbulent waters when he was announced as CEO by Jay-Z. It was reported that in 2015 the company had $28 million in losses and there were rumors the company’s arch-nemesis, Apple, would be buying the organization.
However, Toig was able to stabilize the operation over his year-plus tenure, which included the sale of 1/3 of the company to telecommunications giant Sprint in 2017 (even after they denied their financial stake in the company in April 2015).
Before his role at Tidal, Toig worked for one of the streaming world’s pioneers, the site Soundcloud. Over the course of two years, he served as the organization’s chief business officer.
Tidal has always struggled with customer retention, at this point only able to claim 1 million paying customers versus 20 million for Apple Music and Spotify with 50 million.
Leave a Comment