Jay Z just fired the boss of his streaming music service

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Jay Z
Jay Z's got 99 problems, and Apple Music is one.
Photo: Flickr/NRK P3

Jay Z’s new streaming music service barely launched at the end of March, and while the company has been trying to use exclusive music videos and concerts to gain traction, subscriptions are still low, so Hov just decided to fire Tidal’s CEO.

Tidal announced this morning that it has fired Peter Tonstad as interim chief executive, just three months into the job.

“We are thankful to Peter for stepping in as interim CEO and wish him the best for the future,” a Tidal official told the Wall Street Journal. Officials at the Jay Z-owned music streaming service say that until a replacement is found, the company will be run by executives in New York and Olso.

Tonstad’s exit is the second time Tidal has lost a CEO since Jay Z and his consortium of super star artist took over the company. Andy Chen was removed as CEO in April in an effort to ‘streamline’ resources. Tidal touted Tonstad’s ‘clear vision for how the company is looking to change the status quo’ when he took over, but barely got started before being shoved out the door as well.

With less than 1 million paid subscribers, Tidal is struggling to compete against the likes of Spotify and Pandora. Jay has said in numerous interviews that he’s playing the long game in his approach to revolutionize the music industry, but it looks like he doesn’t have the time or patience to do the same with his top executives.

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