Tidal CEO Today Gone Tomorrow
Christopher Files / 9 years ago
Upheaval continues as the new kid on the streaming block, Tidal have announced their interim CEO, Peter Tonstad has left the company. Although by labeling your new CEO who only joined in April 2015 “interim” it does not give you much confidence of staying with the company either,
Tidal released a statement to the Wall Street Journal, before I go on; I bet you’re wondering why I have used a source which differs from the original source? I do have a valid reason; see the Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corporation which is then owned by the dark lord himself, no not Peter Mandelson, Rupert Murdoch. Who in turn has made news sites, which he owns, for example the Wall Street Journal subscription based, nothing wrong with that, it’s just I don’t particularly want to pay for two-thirds of a story which I can find somewhere else for free.
Where was I? Oh yes Tidal released a statement to state “We are thankful to Peter for stepping in as interim CEO and wish him the best for the future,” Tidal which is owned by Beats creator Dr Dre, purchased Tidal for $56 million in March. Since then the aspiring Spotify killer has garnered 770,000 paying subscribers, this compares to Spotify’s 20 million subscribers. While relating both market shares it’s important to take into consideration Tidal has only been operating since 2014, while Spotify has been streaming music since 2008. Spotify also has a free option while Tidal only has a free trial, these factors contribute in an extremely slow start for Tidal.
I also think Tidal is banking on a higher quality music sound which is combined with an ownership structure which places artists in the driving seat. The problem is how many consumers can tell the difference between Tidal’s music qualities and say for example YouTube, Deezer or Spotify. True connoisseurs of music will tell instantly while casual fans will not, if Tidal is to gain a bigger market share, it will need to be a bit more open to fans instead of marketing itself as the millionaires music elite.
Thank You ABC News for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of A Gambiarra
