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Jay Z Is Being Sued Over Underpaying Tidal Royalties, Denies Claims

Another day, another troublesome Tidal story, this time regarding accusations that the streaming service have been underpaying royalties.

As Complex reports, Tidal and its owner Jay Z are facing a $5 million class-action law suit filed by Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele​ from the band the American Dollar.

The lawsuit claims that Tidal streamed 116 of the band’s copyrighted songs without paying any royalties. They’re also claiming that Tidal fudged their numbers to make payments to artists and may have short-changed them by 35 per cent.

They band further said that they were supposed to get monthly streaming and royalty reports, however, nothing was ever sent.

When Tidal started it preached that it would be paying higher royalties than any other streaming service with a 75 per cent royalty rate.

Tidal has since responded, essentially denying the claims.

“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,” a representative told Pitchfork.

Apparently Tidal has the rights to Yesh Music’s master recordings through its distributor Tunecore.

“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.”

Tidal have since removed “all music associated with Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele”.

They have also stated that they were wrong to name S Carter Enterprises in the lawsuit because it has nothing to do with Tidal.

It’s been a big month for Tidal. Their subscription numbers jumped when Kanye West made his latest album The Life Of Pablo exclusive to the service and they are also reportedly in talks with Samsung who are interested in acquiring it (according to the New York Post).



Watch: The American Dollar – Mosaic


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