Remember when musician Kanye West released his Life of Pablo album and he said that it was only exclusive to Tidal, only to have it be released on other platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music later? Turns out that at least one fan isn’t too pleased by this and has since filed a lawsuit against both West and Tidal.
The fan who goes by the name Justin Baker-Rhett claims that because of what West had publicized, which is that his music will only ever be on Tidal, that he went ahead and signed up for the service. He claims that he was “tricked” and is hoping to turn his lawsuit into a class-action one that will involve others who felt that they too were similarly tricked into joining Tidal because of West’s statement.
He goes on to allege that West never had plans to make the album an exclusive to Tidal and he only said that he did just so that fans would sign up for the service. While we can’t say for sure that was their plan all along, if anything we can at least confirm that following West’s statement a couple of months ago, Tidal did shoot up the app rankings to become number one.
Whether or not customers continued to renew their subscription after that remains to be seen, but we do know that at the very least many had their interests piqued. Unsurprisingly Baker-Rhett is asking for his money back as well as asking the courts to ensure that Tidal’s free trial will not automatically become a paid subscription once it is over.