Kanye West and Tidal Sued for Deception Over "Life of Pablo" Album Exclusivity
Kanye West's latest album "Life of Pablo" has been the collection of songs that many fans have been waiting for. But its success after its release has now turned sour as reports say that the hip hop recording artist is now facing a lawsuit because of it. According to a report by Los Angeles Times, a fan named Justin Baker-Rhett sued the rapper and streaming service Tidal for allegedly deceiving fans into subscribing to what was claimed as the only platform they would be able to listen to West's new album.
Tech Crunch detailed that West previously announced that the album would only be available on the struggling streaming service Tidal in which the artist is a partner with Jay Z, Rihanna, Beyoncé and many other prominent musicians.
"My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal," wrote West on Twitter on Feb. 16. Many of his fans believed his word which is the reason why they signed up to the service just to get the album. It basically meant that they legally had no choice but to turn to Tidal for "Pablo."
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Apparently, West's word was empty as it was later found out that he released the songs on his own website as well as on iTunes, Spotify and other streaming services by March. Pitchfork noted that the album even landed at number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
The lawsuit, which is filed by Edelson PC, claims that the deception gained the streaming service a total of $84 million in personal data and credit card information. Tidal also exceeded 250 million streams on its service in its first 10 days of release. Aside from that, the subscription-based streaming service garnered around 2.5 million new subscribers within just 10 days.
"Mr. Baker-Rhett believes that superstars are required to follow the same rules as everyone else. Even if their streaming service is struggling, they can't trick millions of people into paying money (and giving up personal information) just to boost valuation numbers," said Jay Edelson, lawyer for Baker-Rhett. As of the moment, Tidal and West has not made any comment over the lawsuit yet.
