Jack Dorsey hits Tidal with another mass layoff: “We need to build like a startup again”

The CEO of Block, which owns the music streaming platform, said in a note to staff Wednesday morning and viewed by Fortune that Tidal needs to operate “like a startup again.” This requires organizations across the company to operate with a “much smaller team,” Dorsey said.

“So we’re going to part ways with a number of folks on our team,” Dorsey explained in the note. “We’re going to lead with engineering and design, and remove the product management and product marketing functions entirely. We’re reducing the size of our design team and foundational roles supporting TIDAL, and we will consider reducing engineering over the next few weeks as we have more clarity around leadership going forward.”

Dorsey did not provide a number of the amount of people to be affected by the job cuts, but speculation among company insiders is that as many as 100 employees could be laid off, which would amount to roughly a quarter of Tidal’s staff.

This is the second layoff at tidal in less than a year. The streamer cut 10% of its staff in December 2023. And in July, Dorsey told Block staff to prepare for a reorganization of the entire company, in order to take Block back “to how we started as a company,” as Fortune reported at the time.

Block acquired a majority stake in Tidal for roughly $300 million in 2021. The streaming music service was at one time under the majority control of Jay-Z, who remains on the company’s board, but struggled to gain traction amid competition from Spotify and Apple music. In 2023 a judge dismissed a shareholder lawsuit against Block over the acquisition according to Reuters, but noted that “it seemed, by all accounts, a terrible business decision.”

A Tidal spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune: “We have made some internal changes to our TIDAL team to focus on serving artists in the most meaningful way. This involved the elimination of some roles across our business and design teams. We are going to be smaller, focus on fewer things, and move with a relentless approach to product development.”

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