As Tidal loses interim CEO Peter Tonstad, the company needs to decide who is really in charge

Peter Tonstad, the CEO of Tidal, has left his position at the company in what is yet another setback for the music streaming service. 

Tonstad became Tidal’s interim CEO less than three months ago following the departure of Andy Chen, the company’s original CEO, immediately post-acquisition.

The company wrote in a statement that it would be transitioning to a permanent CEO and in the meantime will rely on its current executives in New York and Oslo to lead Tidal.

Tonstad himself has not commented on the new development aside from confirming that he has resigned from the position. 

Tidal now faces a growing set of challenges not just in terms of its competition and the general backlash that followed the launch of the service but also at the executive level. 

The fact that two CEOs left in four months shows that there are either deep disagreements as to the way the company is run or that the CEOs were not able to carry out their job effectively as decisions were taken out of their hands. 

Either way, Tidal needs a new CEO - fast - and the people who invested in the company need to decide whether they are going to look for someone who will be happy to take directions from Jay-Z and the rest of the investors involved in Tidal or for someone who can truly lead the company to become a serious competitor to Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Rhapsody and Rdio. 

In other words, Tidal needs to decide who is in charge because  - a tired saying perhaps, but a true one -  too many cooks spoil the broth. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli)