As the craziness of Kanye West dies down, so rises the amount of crazy news regarding Tidal.
It was reported last week the Samsung was in talks to buy out the streaming platform, though no official word has been issued by the tech giant. This week, we get news that Tidal has been sued by Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the band, the American Dollar, in a class-action suit for $5 million.
The suit argues that “Tidal streamed 116 of the band’s copyrighted songs without paying back any royalty payments in the process.” However, the lawyer in the case, Richard Garbarini, told Complex over the phone “that the band received no royalties for their work until this past Nov.,” so the band has been paid. Unfortunately, the suit also alleges that Tidal “used faulty numbers to make payments to artists and may have undercut the money they owed to artists by as much as 35 percent.” 
Tidal responded, refuting the allegations, stating that “TIDAL is up to date on all royalties for the rights to the music stated in Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele’s claim and they are misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty payments to them.”
You can read Tidal’s statement in full below, as well as the lawsuit.
Statement from TIDAL
TIDAL is up to date on all royalties for the rights to the music stated in Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele’s claim and they are misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty payments to them. As Yesh Music, LLC admits in their claim, TIDAL has the rights to the Master Recordings through its distributor Tunecore and have paid Tunecore in full for such exploitations. Their dispute appears to be over the mechanical licenses, which we are also up to date on payments via Harry Fox Agency our administrator of mechanical royalties.
The entire catalogue in question streamed fewer than 13,000 times on TIDAL and its predecessor over the past year. We have now removed all music associated with Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the service. This is the first we have heard of this dispute and Yesh Music, LLC should be engaging Harry Fox Agency if they believe they are owed the royalties claimed. They especially should not be naming S Carter Enterprises, LLC, which has nothing to do with Tidal. This claim serves as nothing other than a perfect example of why America needs Tort reform.
Yesh Music v. S Carter Enterprises – class action complaint royalties TIDAL.pdf by Mark H. Jaffe
via Complex
