Jay Z’s Tidal Streaming Service Hit With $5 Million Lawsuit

by Crystal SmithMarch 1, 2016, 10:55 pmNews, News Feed >

Jay Z‘s company, Tidal, was recently hit with a $5 million lawsuit from Yesh Music Publishing and John Emanuele, members of the duo The American Dollar.

The lawsuit alleges that the music website licensed 118 songs by American Dollar without permission, without payment and deliberately miscalculated the number of streams of the band’s songs by tens of millions.

The company suggested that the songs in question have been streamed less than 13,000 times during the last year.The service has since removed all music associated with Yesh Music and Emanuele.

“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,” the company said in a statement. “The entire catalogue in question streamed fewer than 13,000 times on TIDAL and its predecessor over the past year.”

After Jay Z took over the company and promised artists 75% of the royalty rates. Kanye West and Rihanna made their newest albums available on the website.

West recently commented his work will never hit the Apple’s iTunes. The rapper has released song from his newest album, Life of Pablo, on Tidal.

“My album will never never never be on Apple,” West said. “And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.”

The rapper tweeted back in 2015, “Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers and producers — not just the founding members on stage.”