Tidal announces layoffs to over 10% of staff

Tidal, the music streaming platform owned by Jack Dorsey’s Block, has fired over 10% of its staff — about 40 positions. The news, first reported by Bloomberg, comes the month after Dorsey revealed plans to axe over 1,000 jobs at Block, as the company pursues a cap of 12,000 employees. The cuts were spread across Tidal’s operations, and included employees charged with editorial curation, including playlists.

Tidal’s head of global communications Sade Ayodele issued a statement on the news to Variety: “We can confirm, as part of Block and its recent announcement to cap the number of employees at the company to focus on business growth, Tidal has carefully considered how to right-size our team to ensure we are able to continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business. We do not take these decisions lightly, and we are sincerely grateful for the contributions of our impacted teammates.”

In 2021, Dorsey’s digital payments company Block (then called Square) paid an estimated $302 million for an 80% stake in Tidal to Jay-Z, who purchased the company in 2015 for $56 million.

Last week, Spotify revealed plans for 1,500 job cuts, approximately 17% of the streamer’s workforce. Chief executive Daniel Ek said “substantial action to rightsize our costs” would be required in order for the company to meet its financial targets.

The FADER has reached out to Tidal for additional information.