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Fan Sues Kanye West Over ‘Life of Pablo,’ Says Album Used as Bait to Get Tidal Subscribers

Posted byBy Ricky Riley | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

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A Kanye West fan filed a lawsuit Monday claiming the rapper and Jay Z’s music streaming service Tidal lied about the accessibility of West’s latest album, The Life of Pablo.

Plaintiff Justin Baker-Rhett claims that West and Tidal used false advertising to reel him and 2 million others into subscribing to Tidal.

Baker-Rhett is basing his lawsuit on West’s proclamation in February that his latest album would only be available on Tidal.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699376240709402624

However, within two months the album was also available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other Tidal competitors.

“Consumers were uniformly tricked into handing over their private data and credit card information by a singular mistruth,” the 26-page complaint states.

The basic subscription price for the streaming service is only $9.99, but Baker-Rhett wants justice and financial compensation.

He states that the company’s misleading marketing strategy convinced many fans and users to hand over their private information and credit card numbers to the streaming service. According to Reuters, Baker-Rhett called the exclusivity promise a ploy to add millions of subscribers to the struggling Tidal.

The “ploy” worked. The album was streamed 250 million times in the first 10 days of its release all the while it topped music charts.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/715181821659455488

“In reality, neither Mr. West nor SCE ever intended ‘The Life of Pablo’ to run exclusively on the Tidal platform,” the complaint states. “To the contrary, they — knowing that Tidal was in trouble but not wanting to invest their own money to save the company — chose to fraudulently induce millions of American consumers into paying for Tidal’s rescue.”

Baker-Rhett wants an order directing Tidal to delete all class members’ personal data. He also wants the company to cancel any outstanding fees and to stop using his and other personal information to make money.

The California man has gone on record stating that he only subscribed to Tidal for The Life of Pablo.

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