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JAY Z & TiDAL Are Being Sued For Millions Of Dollars

blame it on Meka February 29, 2016
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Despite the varied criticisms the company has received since he acquired it in 2015, the much-talked about streaming service from JAY Z has achieved some level of success thanks in part to strategies such as artist-ownership (which recently included T.I. to the roster) and various exclusives (most recently, Beyoncé’s “Formation” and Rihanna’s “Work“) as well as Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo, the latter of which helped boost subscriptions up 150% since its release. However that has not quelled the controversies (TLOP failed to reach the Billboard charts), and now TiDAL and Jay are the subject of a new lawsuit.

The two are facing a $5 million class-action lawsuit from both The American Dollar band member John Emanuele and the Yesh Music, LLC publishing company, claiming that he and TiDAL illegally put their songs up on the service then did not pay them any royalties. It sounds like some elaborate cluster-screwup, to be honest… the 41-page document alleges TiDAL of putting The American Dollar’s catalog — roughly 116 songs — on the site without their knowledge or approval, refusing to reveal those statistics to artists, and also miscalculating the per-stream royalty rates to the artists as well. This could not have come at a problematic time, as Samsung is rumored to be among various companies interested in purchasing TiDAL.

Who knows what’s really going on over there with TiDAL. However, unlike The Carters’ intensely private lives, the allegations of the service not revealing their statistics to the very artists they provide for isn’t great for business.