Ex-Kobalt President Richard Sanders takes top job at TIDAL

Former Kobalt Music Group president Richard Sanders is the latest to stroll through the revolving door to the Tidal CEO’s office, Variety has reported.

Sanders left Kobalt in May after five years with the rapidly growing company.

He was previously president of global marketing at Sony, and also spent time in exec roles at RCA and Arista.

Also back in May, then-CEO Jeff Toig left the streaming company’s top job after just 18 months in the role; the two previous CEOs were Andy Chen, who left in April 2015, and interim CEO Peter Tonstad, who bailed two months later.

Tidal is undergoing a period of renewal this year, with Sprint acquiring 33% of the company and a board seat for its CEO Marcelo Claure in January.

Claure is reportedly working closely with JAY-Z – whose 4:44 album received widespread critical acclaim and a platinum certification despite some accusations of anti-Semitic lyrics and, ahem, creative counting of “sales” on the Sprint/TIDAL exclusive – to revamp the embattled premium, artist-owned platform.

The addition of Sanders to the team may bode well for its next steps, though. The experienced exec joined Kobalt in 2012 to help with a serious global expansion push, which saw the company narrow their operating losses to post a year-on-year revenue jump of 15% in the 2015/16 financial year, roll out the innovative AWAL app, and raise $75 million in its most recent funding round four months ago.

Sanders stayed at Kobalt for a few weeks after Laurent Hubert took over as president to wrap up his former role, working alongside founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz.