Tidal Execs Jumping Ship Because Of Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne and other celebrities are sending their condolences to Paris following the terrorist attacks on November 13. While artists continue to send their condolences, it appears that Lil Wayne may have some trouble brewing closer to home.

Reports claim that Lil Wayne and Tidal — a subscription-based music streaming service — has been dealing with some troubles for many months, though the press only caught wind of it all on November 13.

Along with news that Lil Wayne and Tidal are having some serious top-level staffing issues, Yahoo Australia says that the rapper is taking time to tell the people of Paris that he wishes them well. On Twitter, Lil Wayne writes, “My prayers go up for those and the families of those involved in the senseless tragedy in France.”

Regardless, the real news may be that Lil Wayne’s involvement with Tidal is in trouble. According to the New York Times, Vania Schlogel, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Tidal, quit months ago. Vania Schlogel said the following in a statement to the NYT.

“Earlier this summer, I resigned from Tidal. While I am excited about my next venture, which is outside the music industry, I wish Tidal nothing but the best and am proud of the dialogue it has catalyzed to date. I hold the highest degree of respect for each of the artists who have advocated for this dialogue and who display a genuine care for the industry.”

Sadly, people have noticed that Vania was missing from Tidal, co-owned by Lil Wayne, for some time now. For example, Billboard wrote the following on August 3.

“Vania Schlogel, the company’s chief investment officer and public face for Tidal’s bumpy rollout in March and April, has been keeping a low profile since a no-show at a scheduled appearance at the New Music Seminar on June 23 in New York.”

Unfortunately, it appears that the reason for Vania Schlogel’s “low profile” was the fact that she quit Lil Wayne’s business — and this is somewhat surprising.

Earlier in the year when Lil Wayne joined the Tidal company with a hefty financial investment, Vania Schlogel was at the forefront and speaking out for Tidal. For example, on April 30, Variety wrote that Vania Schlogel defended Tidal’s employee layoff rumors as “overblown” while speaking at the site’s Entertainment and Technology Summit.

On May 28, the Huffington Post wrote about Tidal about a week before Lil Wayne joined and highlighted Vania Schlogel. As it appears, the emphasis they placed on Schlogel is that she was “working on Tidal before it was even Tidal,” and placed her as one of the primary minds behind the shaping of Tidal.

On June 3, Forbes announced that Lil Wayne had joined Jay Z as co-owner of Tidal — and Vania Schlogel’s days at Tidal were number shortly thereafter.

On June 5, Billboard quoted Vania Schlogel talking in Cannes, France, about Lil Wayne’s Tidal streaming service at the MIDEM Conference. At the time, Billboard insinuated that things did not go well for Vania and stated that “It was the sort of talk that probably would go over like gangbusters with investors, but was less suited to a music-industry conference.”

Oddly, Vania Schlogel stated that she quit working for Tidal in the summer — but was at a conference representing Tidal in mid-October. Miami.com reported that Vania Schlogel was part of Diddy’s celebrity music industry panel at the Second Annual Revolt Festival — and explicitly lists Schlogel as representing the Lil Wayne Tidal venture.

Sadly, after working with Tidal since its infancy, Vania Schlogel was probably not a part of Tidal when it was announced by Jay Z, on Twitter, that the service had hit one million subscribers as of September 29.

To celebrate their victory, Lil Wayne, Jay Z, and others threw a charity concert on October 20, in New York City, according to AOL — but there is no evidence that Vania Schlogel attended the $1.5 million fundraiser.

SOURCE