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Kanye West Is Leaving Tidal Because the Company Owes Him Money (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the money-as-a-motivator dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Kanye West has terminated his contract with Tidal, TMZ reports. West claims that Jay Z's streaming service owes him upwards of $3 million and is in breach of contract, according to TMZ's sources. Through his lawyers, West has terminated his contract with Tidal, while the company apparently refuses to recognize that termination. West was one of the first artists to join Jay Z's streaming service at its launch in 2015; his 2016 album The Life of Pablo was originally released as a Tidal exclusive. West claims that album brought 1.5 million new subscribers to Tidal -- a number that was apparently supposed to come with a bonus check, according to TMZ. West also says Tidal went back on a promise of additional money for exclusive music videos, which Tidal reportedly says Kanye never produced. According to TMZ, Tidal has threatened to sue West if he leaves the service.

15 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Finally by Brett+Buck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the kind of computer culture/tech information that I can really use!

    1. Re:Finally by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Funny

      News for Nerds? Is Kanye not a Cardassian?

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Finally by Robmonster · · Score: 2

      Well, they 'allegedly' both need a certain white chemical to survive.....

      --
      I have no sig yet I must scream.
    3. Re:Finally by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Tidal is interesting because despite being backed by many big names, with many exclusive albums and extras, it is failing. Turns out people think it's just too expensive, and no amount of star power can fix that. Meanwhile cheaper alternatives like Spotify are popular but screw artists with tiny royalties, and royalties was one of the reasons that Tidal was created.

      Maybe there is a really narrow window where people will pay enough in great enough numbers to provide a good income to the artists from streaming... But probably not.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Why is this here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This has nothing to do with technology. It's a spat between two spoiled egocentrics.

  3. Missing videos. by SeaFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    West also says Tidal went back on a promise of additional money for exclusive music videos, which Tidal reportedly says Kanye never produced.

    I don't understand how this can be disputed for more than 10 minutes.

      "You never paid me for those videos I made just for you!"
      "Uh, you never made those videos...:
      "Yeah, I did."
      "ORLY? Play one for us right now."

  4. Who the fuck cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Again, who the fuck cares

  5. Fascinating by Trogre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now, will someone please explain why this is on Slashdot.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    1. Re:Fascinating by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      Because it's about something that will probably harm the hated-by-geeks sham "audiophile" service Tidal.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Fascinating by somenickname · · Score: 2

      Exactly. WTF is a Kanye West? WTF is a Tidal? WTF is a Jay-Z? The last one is presumably related to a function in Cartesian coordinate space, the first one is either a new geolocation paradigm or something akin to a Rusty Trombone but, I genuinely can't figure out what the middle one is.

    3. Re:Fascinating by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is a fascinating and relevant follow up story to something that interested us all in the past. We covered the Kanye West exclusive online release of a major album in the past in relation to piracy, physical copies, and the general saturation of the online music industry.

      It was interesting at the time, and it's even more interesting to see it all fall in a heap.

    4. Re:Fascinating by Trogre · · Score: 2

      That's... actually pretty a good reason.

      I'll go sit down.

      Over there.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    5. Re:Fascinating by coofercat · · Score: 2

      Let me try to help...

      Kanye West is Tidal, on account of it's proximity to the Pacific ocean. Kanye East is in-land, although has a lake along one edge of it, so looks 'watery' but is not Tidal.

      "jayzed" (or "jayzee", depending on which side of the Atlantic you happen to be on) is just a way of saying it's not the letters from A-I. As you know, AI is nearly magic, but clever people like Stephen Hawking have been warning of it's potential downsides.

      Rusty Trombone is a guy from New York, originally called Rusty Patterson, but changed his name on account of being a reasonably talented jazz musician (go look him up - he's on most of the music streaming sites).

      WTF is a government facility used by the EPA - it's a Water Testing Facility.

      I hope that clears things up for you.

  6. Re:So... by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All I want to know is does he still like fishsticks?

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  7. Here's my take on this by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    Kayne and Tidal haven't been feature in the media lately.

    This is their attempt to get free publicity