Streaming service Tidal has definetly seen some ups and downs during its existence. Just as they began to see a rise in membership subscriptions thanks to Kanye West having his album exclusively on Tidal, they face a lawsuit yet again.
This time they face a 5 million class-action lawsuit. The suit was brought upon by Yesh Music and John Emanuele of the act American Dollar. They name Jay-z’s S. Carter Enterprises in the suit as well. They allege that the service did not pay the proper royalties and violated copyright.
According to John Emanuele, Jay-Z’s businesses allegedly created Tidal’s library bu dumping independent artists into the service without filing the proper notices.
They parties are seeking $30k-$150k for each othe the alleged 118 infringements.
Tidal wasted no time and released a statement about the lawsuit saying :
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“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 statement says. “As Yesh Music, LLC admits in their claim, TIDAL has the rights to the Master Recordings through its distributor Tunecore and have paid Tunecore in full for such exploitations. 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.
“The entire catalogue in question streamed fewer than 13,000 times on TIDAL and its predecessor over the past year,” it continues. “We have now removed all music associated with Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the service. This is the first we have heard of this dispute and Yesh Music, LLC should be engaging Harry Fox Agency if they believe they are owed the royalties claimed. They especially should not be naming S Carter Enterprises, LLC, which has nothing to do with Tidal. This claim serves as nothing other than a perfect example of why America needs Tort reform.”
Source:
http://m.pitchfork.com/news/63861-jay-z-sued-over-tidal-royalty-payments-tidal-responds/
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