Kanye West & Tidal face lawsuit over TLOP exclusivity

[Chelsea Press 2]

Kanye West & Tidal Must Face Fraud Suit Over 'The Life of deleted' Exclusivity Claims
6/25/2018 by Colin Stutz

A judge dismissed portions of a proposed class-action lawsuit, but said the claim does cross "the line from conceivable to plausible."

A fraud lawsuit against Kanye West and Tidal is being trimmed but will continue on, following a judge's ruling last week.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Woods granted parts of Tidal's motions to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit originally filed by Kanye West fan Justin Baker-Rhett in 2016, but refused to scrap the whole thing. In his suit, Baker-Rhett alleges that West and Tidal tricked the public into subscribing to the streaming service through false claims it was the only place to hear West's highly anticipated seventh studio album, The Life of deleted, while it showed up on other platforms less than two months later.

Per Woods' ruling, the lawsuit will move forward as it relates to a tweet by West on Feb. 15, 2016, when he said the album "will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal." Six weeks later, The Life of deleted was available through Apple and other services.

Kanye West attends LACMA Director's Conversation With Steve McQueen, Kanye West, And Michael Govan About 'All Day/I Feel Like That' presented by NeueHouse in association with UTA Fine Arts at LACMA on July 24, 2015 in Los Angeles.

With note to Tidal's struggle to turn a profit, the lawsuit alleges that the claims about West's highly anticipated album helped boost the streaming platform's subscribers from 1 million to 3 million within the first 10 days of its release. And because West was a celebrity shareholder with a 3 percent ownership stake in the Tidal, it asserts he was an agent of the company when he made his statement, which was described as a "reaffirmation" of a tweet from Tidal's Twitter account the day before announcing the company was bringing The Life of deleted "to fans around the globe" with exclusive streaming. (Woods deemed that statement true on its face, since the album was exclusively streaming the album for six weeks.)

"These allegations, together with the complaint's description of the business relationship between Mr. West and Tidal, are sufficient to nudge this claim across the line from conceivable to plausible," wrote Woods.

Last year in a motion to dismiss, West argued that his "never never never" statement was technically true, since The Life of deleted was "updated and remixed numerous times, with different vocals, lyrics, and arrangements" since its initial release and the only place to get hear that original version was on Tidal. Woods responded to this assertion, saying, "Mr. West's argument is tenuous, and certainly does not pass muster in the context of a motion to dismiss."

Kanye West Returns Fire in Lawsuit Over 'The Life of deleted' Exclusivity
The judge did, however, throw out parts of the lawsuit claiming that West and Tidal violated New York state law since Baker-Rhett's transaction with the streaming service did not take place in New York. Woods also dismissed claims based on Tidal's tweet about the album's exclusivity and claims that the streaming service falsely concealed plans about the album's limited exclusivity from fans.

In accordance with the judge's ruling, Baker-Rhett's attorney Jay Edelson told Pitchfork they would amend their pleadings and would likely be bringing "a bunch of state-by-state class actions."

www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8462809/kanye-west-tidal-life-of-deleted-exclusivity-lawsuit-continue?utm_source=twitter&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

[owenlovesmusic]

Ugh this is so stupid.

[Chelsea Press 2]

Jun 27, 2018 13:39:07 GMT -5 owenlovesmusic said:

Ugh this is so stupid.

If they really cared enough to pursue legal action over this, it should have happened right when the album was made available on other services because it seems so desperate now.

I can understand why they chose to file it because you can't say "It will never ever be available everywhere else" because that's a very final statement but then you put it on other services a few weeks later, altered slightly. And if that was intentionally done to mislead investors into thinking that Tidal has a lot of users and that the demand is there but it isn't, then that's a problem.

[Choco]

Who even pays for TIDAL...

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2018 14:58:31 GMT -5 Chelsea Press 2 said:

Jun 27, 2018 13:39:07 GMT -5 owenlovesmusic said:

Ugh this is so stupid.

If they really cared enough to pursue legal action over this, it should have happened right when the album was made available on other services because it seems so desperate now.

I can understand why they chose to file it because you can't say "It will never ever be available everywhere else" because that's a very final statement but then you put it on other services a few weeks later, altered slightly. And if that was intentionally done to mislead investors into thinking that Tidal has a lot of users and that the demand is there but it isn't, then that's a problem.

I agree with your second paragraph.  There needs to be accountability and precedent for this kind of false advertising/gimmick in the streaming era.

As for the timing of the legal action, many lawsuits take time (years) to work their way into something. Rarely do I ever see someone suing someone over something recent in entertainment.  It's almost always months - more often years - later.

[Chelsea Press 2]

Jun 27, 2018 15:24:39 GMT -5 @mello said:

I agree with your second paragraph.  There needs to be accountability and precedent for this kind of false advertising/gimmick in the streaming era.

To protect themselves, they could have said that the Tidal edition of the album was a special one that was exclusive to that platform and then if they did release it to other services, it could be a different one. There are albums released all the time where Target, Best Buy, and iTunes editions all have different bonus content or additional tracks.

[Deleted]

I'm sure Tidal was like "dammit kanye, you can't say that" but then just let it go without making him clarify for future/potential legal reasons. And now here we are.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2018 14:58:31 GMT -5 Chelsea Press 2 said:

Jun 27, 2018 13:39:07 GMT -5 owenlovesmusic said:

Ugh this is so stupid.

If they really cared enough to pursue legal action over this, it should have happened right when the album was made available on other services because it seems so desperate now.

It was filed then - per the article, Baker-Rhett first filed this claim in 2016 (I looked up the court doc and he filed it in April of that year, not even two weeks after it was on Apple). He actually moved really fast considering the amount of time it takes an attorney or law firm to research and to put together a proper suit. Most of the time, suits don't get filed until months or even a year after the matter in question has occurred. But as is often the case with civil suits, this shit is gonna drag out for years.

This particular case feels stupid and trivial because Tidal is such an obvious joke and I seriously doubt this guy lost even one accidentally charged monthly fee, let alone enough money to look for a settlement.** But it has greater implications for the way businesses can promote their products, so I can see why the judge is letting the suit continue.



**That's not to say there is no money to be made here. It is not uncommon for attorneys/law firms to look for suitable 'plaintiffs' for class action suits - the firms will take the majority of the million $ settlement, the named plaintiff in the class will get a smaller cut in the thousands, and everyone else who qualifies will be directed to a website where they sign away their rights to bring forth their own suit in return for a check in the mail for $18.32 plus applicable taxes a year later.

My hunch is that someone in the industry caught wind of TLOP going to Apple shortly after its Tidal release, smelled a cash cow, and immediately got to work on getting a lawsuit ready as soon as TLOP hit Apple's servers.