When we think about streaming music services, a few come to mind: Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Pandora and, heck, Rhapsody. Rdio might even still come to mind, even though it’s now defunct. Another service, Tidal, may pop into your brain if you’re interested in streaming an album that it holds exclusively, as was the case with Kanye’s The Life of Pablo until today. It’s just not a very popular service. Apparently Jay-Z thought it was more popular than it really was when he bought it, and now he’s suing for damages.
According to AFP, Jay-Z was under the impression that Tidal had about 540,000 customers when he acquired the service for about $56 million last year. That’s a pretty tiny figure as it is, and even that seems to have been inflated. “It became clear after taking control of Tidal and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reporters to us by the prior owners,” Tidal said.
Jay-Z and Tidal didn’t disclose how much of that original $56 million they want back, or how much lower the actual subscriber figures were. The previous firm has apparently denied any inflation.
Jay-Z said Tidal now has 3 million customers, a bulk of which we’d bet have signed up for exclusives offered through the service.
Source: Yahoo