Tidal is firing back at claims that it overstated streaming numbers for Beyoncé‘s album Lemonade and Kanye West‘s album The Life of Pablo. According to Jay-Z’s music streaming service, it’s all a “smear campaign” against them.
Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published a report that said both albums were “manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays.” Tidal exclusively held the rights to both records in 2016, and reported 306 million and 205 million plays respectively within a 15-day period.
The publication reportedly got its hands on data so detailed that individual users and streaming stats could be researched and cross-referenced. Some just didn’t add up, e.g., law student Jane Doe listened to Bey’s Lemonade 180 times within 24 hours. Dagens Næringsliv argues such manipulated numbers have “generated massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists.”
Tidal, however, is denying it messed with any of its streaming numbers and is taking this as a personal attack. Here’s what a spokesperson has to say, via Business Insider:
“This is a smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee as an ‘Israeli Intelligence officer’ and our owner as a ‘crack dealer.’ We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies and falsehoods. The information was stolen and manipulated and we will fight these claims vigorously.”
Still to this day, Beyoncé’s 2016 record hasn’t hit Spotify. But, since we brought you here, you might as well check out Kanye West’s from that same year. Here’s The Life of Pablo in all its glory.
Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
Source: Business Insider