Fan sues Kanye and Jay Z’s Tidal over album

The lawsuit cites Kanye West tweets that indicated his album, The Life Of Pablo, would “never never never” be on Apple Music.

A Kanye West fan has sued the rapper and Jay Z’s music streaming service Tidal, claiming they duped customers over the release of Kanye’s latest album.

In the pending class-action lawsuit, Justin Baker-Rhett contends he signed up for the $9.99 a month Tidal based on West’s promise that the service would be the exclusive outlet for his album.

West’s The Life Of Pablo has since been released for free on Apple Music and Spotify.

Mr Baker-Rhett’s lawsuit claims the fraudulent promise sent millions of customers flocking to Tidal ahead of the album’s release in February.

The lawsuit includes references to West’s tweets, including one in which he proclaimed: “My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.”

Mr Baker-Rhett accuses West and Tidal of promising exclusivity as a ploy to boost the struggling service and to collect personal information that the lawsuit claims could be worth as much as $84m (£59m) for Tidal.

He is asking a judge to order Tidal to delete information collected from users, including credit card details, music preferences and other personal information.

In a statement, Mr Baker-Rhett’s attorney, Jay Edelson, said: “We fully support the right of artists to express themselves freely and creatively, however creative freedom is not a licence to mislead the public.

“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.”

Tidal and West have not commented on the lawsuit.

West is one of the service’s “owner-artists” who has a stake in the company.

:: Jay Z’s Streaming Service Tidal ‘Not For All’

After purchasing Tidal in March 2015 from Scandinavian company Apsiro, Jay Z enlisted some of the music industry’s biggest stars, including West, Madonna, Rihanna, Beyonce and Alicia Keys.

Tidal has since threatened legal action against Apsiro after accusing the firm of overinflating its subscriber figures. SkyNews

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