Tidal Lays Off 10% of Staff As Owner Block ‘Right-Sizes’

Streaming service Tidal lays off 10% of its staff as its owner, Jack Dorsey’s company Block, ‘right-sizes’ its team to ‘continue to build and invest in critical areas of the business.’

Just days after Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced plans to lay off around 1,500 employees, Jack Dorsey’s company Block — which owns Square, Cash App, and Tidal — has begun the first stage in a planned widespread staff reduction across its subsidiary companies that will continue into next year. As a result, approximately 40 staffers across multiple departments at Tidal, or 10% of the staff, have been laid off.

“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,” reads a statement from a Tidal spokesperson, who has denied media requests as to the exact number of layoffs.

Jeff Benjamin, a former member of Tidal’s editorial team, announced that his job was among those affected by the cuts, and that other editorial staffers were similarly affected.

“My music and editorial teammates and I were affected today and I’m no longer at Tidal,” writes Benjamin. “It was so great adding streaming, distribution, and new industry areas into my journalism and media world.”

Meanwhile, Spotify’s plans to lay off around 1,500 employees will amount to one-sixth of its workforce. “Economic growth has slowed dramatically and capital has become more expensive,” explains Ek. “Despite our efforts to reduce costs this past year, our cost structure for where we need to be is still too big.”

Spotify shares jumped by over 7% this week after the streaming giant said it would slash 17% of its staff; Ek insists that the company invested too much in 2020 and 2021, and had to “right-size” — a term also used in Tidal’s statement — its costs to face a new economic reality. Of course, that’s despite Spotify reporting a more than $70 million profit in Q3 following lower spending on marketing and personnel.