You'd think Kayne West opening up his previously Tidal-exclusive album to other platforms would be met with open arms. However, one fan is so unhappy about The Life of Pablo appearing on other services like Apple Music and Spotify that he's filing a class action lawsuit.
The Guardian and Associated Press report that one Justin Baker-Rhett from San Francisco, Calif. is suing the acclaimed rapper/producer/rabble-rouser/mogul for breaking his insistent promise that the album "will never never never" appear outside of Tidal...
...only to pop up on Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify a little over a month later.
The lawsuit claims that making The Life of Pablo exclusive was a ruse to get more subscribers over to Tidal, which it certainly did. It might be hard presenting West's Twitter ramblings as grounds for false advertisement, but the lawsuit is also roping in Tidal for the flip-flop.
The class action suit is also alleging Jay-Z's music streaming service with using the "exclusive" album to get personal information from all the users who flooded the service when Pablo dropped, which is estimated as being worth $84 million.
Since listening to Yeezy's latest would require signing up for a Tidal account, the suit's logic is that the stunt artificially inflated Tidal's user base, boosting its value to stockholders when compared to competitors like Apple Music and Spotify, despite not being able to actually retain those users once West's album jumped ship.
Even if the lawsuit manages to take off, Baker-Rhett and his lawyers may want to have some low expectations for a payout, as Kanye is also claiming to be $53 million in the red these days.
Top image credit: LupEnd007/Wikimedia Commons
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