Rapper Jay Z is suing the former owners of his music streaming service, Tidal, claiming they gave him an exaggerated figure of subscribers ahead of the sale.
According to reports, Jay Z filed paper work against Swedish venture capital company, Verdane claiming Aspiro and the music streaming platform WiMP, which would later become TIDAL, had far fewer than the 503k subscribers the company had claimed they had at the time of the sale.
Jay Z bought Aspiro for $56 million in March 2015. Jay Z is said to be seeking about $15m, according to Norwegian media.
Tidal released a statement saying: “We are excited that one year after Tidal launched, we have surpassed 3 million subscribers globally. The growth in our subscriber numbers has been even more phenomenal than we’ve previously shared.
“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. As a result, we have now 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.”
Tidal’s celebrity backing has helped it rapidly make a mark on the streaming industry. It recently announced it has 3 million subscribers and had delivered 250m streams of Kanye West’s latest album, which launched exclusively on the service in February. Other artistes such as Beyonce, T.I, Lil Wayne, Damian Marley have recently signed up to the service.
