Tidal is instigating another round of downsizing that will reportedly impact on up to a quarter of its employees, which is about 100 people.
According to Fortune, the CEO of parent company Block - Jack Dorsey - yesterday told the music streaming service’s team that Tidal needs to operate “like a start-up again”, which means reorganising the business so that it is run by a “much smaller team”.
Dorsey wrote, “we’re going to part ways with a number of folks on our team”. Although he didn't state how many jobs would go, he did give an indication on which departments will be most affected, with the restructure involving the removal of the “product management and product marketing functions entirely”.
In addition to that, “we’re reducing the size of our design team and foundational roles supporting Tidal, and we will consider reducing engineering over the next few weeks as we have more clarity around leadership going forward”.
Tidal made about 10% of its staff redundant late last year, around about the same time Spotify announced that 17% of its employees would be laid off. Tidal had a much smaller workforce to begin with, meaning the 10% job cuts affected about 40 people. A Tidal insider has told Fortune that the latest cutbacks are more significant and could see a quarter of the workforce go.
Block acquired a majority stake in Tidal in 2021. Having begun as the Nordic streaming service WiMP, Tidal got a lot of attention following Jay-Z’s acquisition of the company in 2015. However, despite all that attention, the service has struggled to compete in a market dominated by the likes of Spotify, Apple, Amazon and YouTube.