Kanye West’s unorthodox rollout for The Life of Pablo was a huge success for Tidal. However, fans were not satisfied when he decided to share the wealth.
Earlier this month, West made Pablo widely available for downloading and streaming after previously promoting it as a Tidal exclusive. And one disgruntled Kanye fan, Justin Baker-Rhett, has had enough. On Monday, Justin filed a proposed class action lawsuit against ’Ye and Jay Z’s music streaming service, according to TMZ.
Baker-Rhett feels like he and other fans were tricked into “paying for Tidal’s rescue.
“We fully support the right of artists to express themselves freely and creatively, however creative freedom is not a license to mislead the public,” wrote Jay Edelson, Baker-Rhett’s attorney, in a statement. “We believe that we will be able to prove to a jury that Mr. West and Tidal tricked millions of people into subscribing to their services and that they will ultimately be held accountable for what they did.”
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
The lawsuit also contends that the Pablo release gave Tidal a flood of personal information about its new subscribers, which raises privacy concerns. According to the lawsuit, “Mr. West’s promise of exclusivity also had a grave impact on consumer privacy,” with users’ credit card information and other personal information taken. The lawsuit claims the value of all the personal information from subscribers could amount to $84 million for Tidal.
So far, no word from either Kanye West or TIDAL on the matter.