Jay Z Suing Aspiro, Previous Owner Of Tidal Music Streaming Service

After a year of owning the Tidal music streaming service, Jay Z has filed a lawsuit against the former owners, saying he was given inflated subscriber numbers.

He is seeking $15 million from the Scandinvian company Aspiro, which sold Tidal to Jay Z for $56 million.

“It became clear after taking control of TIDAL and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the prior owners,” the company said in a statement sent to USA Today. “As a result we have no served legal notice to parties involved in the sale. While we cannot share further comment during active legal proceedings, we’re proud of our success and remain focused on delivering the best experience for artists and fans.”

In response, a representative of Norway’s Schibsted Media Group, one of the major shareholders of Aspiro, Anders Rikter, said, “we want to point out that it was a publicly traded company that was acquired, with what it means by transparency of financial reporting.”

Tidal announced last week that it had surpassed 3 million subscribers globally, with 250 million streams of Kanye West‘s The Life of Pablo in the first ten days of its exclusive availability. The appeal to the involved artists is that they own 3% equity with Tidal. But competing against free streaming services like Spotify (which also boasts 30 million paying subscribers), their development has been indubitably tough. Tidal offers a $19.95 monthly plan for CD-quality audio, and a $9.95 monthly subscription for a high quality audio that is below CD-quality.

Tidal has also incorporated music videos and live video events into its services, and reportedly could be adding movies in the future.