Tidal hit with lawsuit over "exclusive" Kanye West album

It said that fans could only hear The Life Of Pablo on Tidal, but it wound up on other services

Editor's Note: Our annual Vator Splash Spring 2016 conference is around the corner on May 12, 2016 at the historic Scottish Rite Center in Oakland. Speakers include Nigel Eccles (CEO & Co-founder, FanDuel), Andy Dunn (Founder & CEO, Bonobos), Mitch Kapor (Founder, Kapor Center for Social Impact); Founders of NextDoor, Handy, TubeMogul; Investors from Khosla Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kapor Capital, Greylock, DFJ, IDG, IVP and more. Join us! REGISTER HERE.

There are many reasons to dislike Kanye West. Take your pick: his "feud" with Taylor Swift; his Twitter tirades; the fact that he's now a Kardashian. While those are all legitimate, and very worthy, reasons to not like someone, they don't affect any of us personally. We can all go about our days and never think about them, thankfully. 

Now, though, Kanye has finally done something to actually hurt his fans, and at least one of them wants revenge.

West, along with Tidal and  S. Carter Enterprises, both of which are controlled Jay Z, are named in a class-action lawsuit, accusing them of fraud.

It all stems from the release of West's new album, The Life of Pablo, which was released on Tidal as an "exclusive" in February, meaning it would only be available on that service if you wanted to hear it, and nowhere else. 

West even went so far as to declare, in a Tweet, naturally, that it would only be available on Tidal, and never on Apple. Never, he said!

My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

As a result, downloads of Tidal shot way up, even making it "the number one app in the world," according to another Kanye Tweet.

Man thank you so so so much everyone for signing up to Tidal. Tidal is now the number one app in the world!!! pic.twitter.com/O3r9DkX03R

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

Of course, it turned out that was not true. The Life of Pablo became available on Apple, as well as Spotify and Google Music, and even West's own website, by the beginning of April. And those that had signed up for Tidal just to hear Kanye's album were left holding the bag.

The lawsuit says that The Life of Pablo was streamed 250 million times in the first 10 days, resulting in the service tripling its user numbers, from one million to three million, in around a month. Those new users are worth $84 million to Tidal. 

It actually goes even further than, accusing Tidal of using the allure of Kanye West's music to trick users, including minors, into giving up their personal information.

"Mr. West’s promise of exclusivity also had a grave impact on consumer privacy. For each new Tidal subscriber who signed up as a result of Mr. West’s claims, Tidal obtained that consumer’s email address, social media account information, and other personally identifiable information. Alarmingly, Tidal specifically targeted the 'personal information' of minors as young as 13 years old," the suit alledges.

It goes on to accuse th service of never actually intending to have the album be exclusive, and just used the promise" to fraudulently induce millions of American consumers into paying for Tidal’s rescue."

The defendant is asking that Tidal delete the private information of the people who signed up for the service, to cancel any outstanding free trials that were signed up while The Life of Pablo was still being labeled as an exclusive, as well as damages. 

VatorNews reached out to Tidal for comment on this lawsuit. We will update this story if we learn more. 

Tidal has also had a particularly rocky history. First launched in 2014 by Aspiro, it was bought by Project Panther, a company owned by Jay Z, in 2015. In March, a press conference, which also featured appearances by Madonna and Beyonce, was widely criticized for featuring a bunch of rich people criticizing their fans for not giving them enough money.  

The music streaming space has become very crowded in the last couple of years. There are only so many ears for listening, and hours in the day for users to stream music, so, like so many other, Tidal has struggled to get its user numbers up.

Late last month, Jay Z filed a lawsuit against Aspiro, alledging that the company had lied about the number of users it had when it sold Tidal. 

There's a lot of competition in the music space right not, and companies have to do whatever they can to get customers. Companies also have to be careful about not burning their users. Whether or not this lawsuit goes forward, one thing is probably true: one of Tidal's biggest selling points, its ability to offer users exclusive music they can't get anywhere else, is now out the window. 

(Image source: slate.com)