Report Alleges That Tidal Is Almost Out of Money

Tidal may have lost many millions of dollars in 2016.

December 13, 2017

Tidal reportedly lost roughly $44 million in 2016.

The hefty loss estimates arrive view a new Verge-spotted report from Norway's Dagens Næringsliv, the same business-centric newspaper that earlier this year alleged that Tidal had been exaggerating its subscriber stats. The new report also claims the streaming service, which was acquired by Jay Z back in 2015 and secured a Sprint stake this January, has about six months of capital remaining.

Of course, other streaming services reported losses during 2016. Spotify, for example, lost an estimated $581 million last year against revenue of $3 billion. Prior to this year's Sprint deal announcement, Tidal claimed to have surpassed 3 million paid subscribers. Of those users, Tidal said at the time, 45 percent had selected the lossless $19.99 per month plan. Dagens Næringsliv later disputed these figures.

"We have experienced negative stories about Tidal since its inception and we have done nothing but grow the business each year," a Tidal spokesperson told Verge Tuesday. Tidal is reportedly still expecting to achieve profitability by the middle of next year.

In August, Tidal bagged its fourth CEO in just over two years. Former Kobalt Music Group boss and Sony Music global marketing prez Richard Sanders took over for Jeff Toig, whose exit was announced in March. Toig, a former SoundCloud exec, had been CEO since January 2016.

Jay's Grammy-nominated album 4:44 launched as a Tidal x Sprint exclusive in June, the latest in a series of exclusives for the platform that's previously given similar rollouts to Kanye West's The Life of Pablo and Beyoncé's Lemonade.