On Monday, a Kanye West fan has filed an $84M lawsuit against the rapper and a streaming service he co-owns, Tidal. Plaintiff claims West fraudulently promised fans that his album, The Life of Pablo, would be available only on Tidal. So, many fans signed up for Tidal because they believed it was the only way to hear the album.
But a month and a half later, the album was subsequently released for free on Apple Music and Spotify. West also began selling the album through his own online marketplace. Complaint alleges that, because of West’s false promise, Tidal subscriptions tripled from 1 million to 3 million subscribers in just over a month. Plaintiff claims that the 2 million new subscribers and their personal information are worth $84 million, based on “publicly available acquisitions as a comparable metric.” Plaintiff has asked the court to certify his proposed class action lawsuit, which would enable those two million new users to join in the lawsuit and share in a settlement. Plaintiff also asks for an “order requiring Tidal to delete the private information of Plaintiff and the Class members that it collected, cancel all outstanding negative options of any free trials created during the class period, and cease any monetization efforts relying on the illegally obtained information.”
Tidal and Kanye West have 30 days to respond to the complaint.
