Jay Z loses third Tidal CEO in two years

Jay Z’s streaming service Tidal has lost its third CEO in just two years.

Jeff Toig exited the struggling streaming rival in March, ending a 14-month stint at the company.  Toig took over from interim executive Peter Tonstad, who famously replaced Tidal’s original CEO Andy Chen, when the company was still finding its feet.

“As part of Tidal’s continued expansion this year we will be announcing a new CEO in the coming weeks,” the company said in a statement to Billboard. “We wish [Toig] all the best in his future endeavors.”

Toig was SoundCloud’s Chief Business Officer and is the founder and former VP of Cricket Wireless’s music service Muve Music, which was sold to Deezer in 2015.

Toig, Tonstad and Chen all failed to give Tidal the push it needed to keep up with its competitors. Currently, Tidal has 1 million paid subscribers and is struggling to retain them; that figure is nowhere near Apple Music’s 20 million or Spotify’s 30 million.

Tidal’s lagging market position isn’t due to a lack of trying. In January, US telco Sprint purchased a 33% stake in Tidal for a reported US$200M, offering Sprint’s 45 million customers with “unlimited access” to exclusive artist content. In February, the firm hired two industry players in former Billboard editor Tony Gervino and ex-XXL editor Elliott Wilson.

Spotify and Apple Music are always one step ahead though, with heavyweights like Lady Gaga’s ex-manager Troy Carter as global head of creator services at Spotify and former Epic and RCA exec Scott Seviour joining Apple Music’s content team.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.