Published
Wed, Dec 6, 2023, 19:10
- The layoffs come as the US company shifts its primary focus away from music.
Music streaming platform TIDAL has laid off 40 employees worldwide, a source has confirmed to Resident Advisor.
According to a leaked Slack conversation seen by RA, staff in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Spain, Norway and the US have been affected. The conversation also reveals how a "strategy document" in October "laid the groundwork for a product-centric approach" to the company's "content creation." "We'll be continuing along that path by eliminating a substantial amount of our current work while adding some exciting new projects," the conversation continued.
One anonymous source close to TIDAL told RA that this shows the company is making a clear shift from "being music-centric to product-centric–pushing tech initiatives instead of anything related to music, labels, distributors or artists."
Yesterday, December 5th, music journalist Jeff Benjamin confirmed via X (formerly Twitter) that he was one of the employees to lose their jobs. "I won't speak for anyone else but please look out for me and my talented co-workers who were let go," he wrote in another tweet below.
TIDAL is owned by former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's parent fin-tech company Block–now known as Square. Launched in 2009, the multinational conglomerate sells point-of-sale products and apps for processing electronic payments. Dorsey acquired TIDAL from US rap mogul Jay-Z for $297 million in 2021.
News of the layoffs at TIDAL follows Square's announcement last month that it will be laying off ten percent of its staff, amounting to around 1,300 redundancies globally. According to its most recent financial report, Square generated $899 million gross profit last quarter.
Earlier this week, another streaming giant, Spotify, confirmed it was cutting 17 percent of its workforce—more than 1,500 jobs. In a statement, CEO Daniel Ek said "economic growth has slowed dramatically."
Read more about the impact of TIDAL job losses. We'll report more on this story as it evolves.