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Tidal Under Criminal Investigation In Norway Over 'Faked' Streams (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the would've-gotten-away-with-it-too-if-it-weren't-for-you-meddling-kids dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: High-fidelity music streaming service Tidal is under criminal investigation in Norway for allegedly inflating album streams for Beyonce's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. The alleged faking of streaming numbers was exposed last year by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv (DN), which said it had obtained a hard drive with the tampered data. Around 1.3 million accounts were supposedly used to lift the play counts of said albums by "several hundred million," with Tidal paying out higher royalty fees to the two artists and their record labels as a result.

In the wake of the report, a Norwegian songwriter's association known as Tono filed an official police complaint against Tidal. The Jay-Z-owned streaming service denied the accusations and subsequently launched an internal review to be conducted by a third-party cyber security company, which is still ongoing. Today, DN revealed that Norway's National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) has begun an investigation into data manipulation at Tidal. Though still in its early stages, Okokrim says that at least four former Tidal employees (including its former head of business intelligence -- responsible for analyzing streams) have been interrogated in front of a judge as part of the investigation. The quartet have faced a total of 25 hours of questioning thus far. Three former staffers reportedly recognized signs of meddling with the albums and contacted a lawyer before notifying Tidal. "All three individuals resigned from the company in 2016 after signing what a DN source called 'the gold standard of confidentiality contracts,'" reports Engadget.

28 comments

  1. Ah your first mistake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For most people would be signing such a thing

  2. What a coincidence! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Our President is under investigation for being streamed on also, but apparently there's video...

    1. Re: What a coincidence! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      If the president doesn't go to jail for treason, there is no justification to send anyone to jail and no reason to obey rule of law. He must be tried and punished for lies.

    2. Re: What a coincidence! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen and hu rah. This country either has rule of law, and Trump's entire family goes to prison for ALLLLLLL the crimes, or it's fucking free for all time. There's no other way.

  3. shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I'm like totally shocked that companies think they can get away with fraud -- because they can.

    It's almost like laws are written to encourage this behavior. Want change? Put the C*O's in prison.

    1. Re:shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't you think it strange (and very stupid) that Tidal would rig the numbers so that they have pay *more* money to artists?

    2. Re:shocked by w42w42 · · Score: 0

      Don't you think it strange (and very stupid) that Tidal would rig the numbers so that they have pay *more* money to artists?

      Yeah - either something is not being explained correctly, or someone is chasing their tail.

    3. Re: shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not when the artists getting pumped also happen to own the service.

    4. Re:shocked by youngone · · Score: 3, Funny

      Tidal's major shareholder is (surprise, surprise) Beyonce's husband.
      She is paying herself.

    5. Re:shocked by s4080326 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Both the artists wife & close friend of the Owner, so there is the incentive. Beyonce's album at least was also an exclusive to the service and was heavily promoted by new organisations as showing that the streaming service could compete with traditional outlets.

    6. Re: shocked by Vintermann · · Score: 4, Informative

      Things are being explained fine, people just don't know how streaming pro rata licensing works.

      Common poll, divided according to total listens. You aren't guaranteed a fixed amount of cents per playback.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
    7. Re: shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not strange if owner and friends are artist and they skim the revenue of the service their songs are streamed from, easy way to milk company as well as it won't be taxed from said royaties paid out to an enity in a different tax haven, not saying that is the case but hypothetically speaking

    8. Re:shocked by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Don't you think it strange (and very stupid) that Tidal would rig the numbers so that they have pay *more* money to artists?

      They may be keeping two sets of numbers. One that's 'closer to the truth' to pay artists and another to 'upsell themselves' to other services. Plex just recently signed a deal with them for example, now ask yourself how much more valuable to Plex they'd be if they just fudged the numbers showing a much bigger draw on the market and in turn more people installing plex servers, and paying a monthly fee to them.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    9. Re: shocked by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 1

      > people just don't know how streaming pro rata licensing works

      I don't.

      > Common poll, divided according to total listens. You aren't guaranteed a fixed amount of cents per playback.

      I still don't.
      I think you're saying the total is a basket divided out by plays.
      So what is the idea here, that they are shifting payments to certain artists in favour of others?

    10. Re: shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do understand. Percentage of total Tidal revenue is divided based on artists streaming numbers. Fake plays equals larger stake.

      Who got larger stakes from fake plays? Owner, owners wife and owners friend. Hum..

    11. Re:shocked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tidal aren't paying the royalties, advertisers are. It's about inflating the numbers to defraud the advertisers. Websites have been doing the same thing for years, which is one of the reasons tracking keeps getting more invasive as ad networks try to cut down on fake impressions.

  4. How can a corporation commit a crime? by tobiah · · Score: 1

    Or if it can, how can a living being commit a crime? What are these things?

    For me, a crime means one being harming another. If a security guard steals my tootsie pop, it was not done by the imaginary corporation paying him in imaginary dollars. It was done by a dunce in a poorly fitting uniform. It was done physically, by a physical being, in the name of an imaginary being.

    So I return to the original question: How can Tidal, a fictional corporation, face criminal charges? If found guilty will it be sent to jail? What is jail for a fiction? We are banned from thinking about it for a period? Who's in jail?

    --
    "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
    1. Re: How can a corporation commit a crime? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah it's sort of a misnomer; those 3 former employees are under criminal investigation. But journalists will always write it that way, like when ThePirateBay was "arrested" actually meant the Swedish dudes behind the scenes.

      But a corporation can fully be on criminal trial if it's bad enough to pierce the corporate veil of protection, like with Enron.

    2. Re: How can a corporation commit a crime? by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      corporation means it's corporated and can face fines and shit, even dissolution. usual reason would be running a cartel in the nordic countries(probably most usual). second would be some environmental crimes.

      however, I'm not sure here of the motives. was the idea to suck up a higher percentage of the norwegian riaa equivalents radioplay etc fund?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:How can a corporation commit a crime? by skovnymfe · · Score: 1

      Lest we forget, this is not America. This is Norway.

    4. Re:How can a corporation commit a crime? by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      So I return to the original question: How can Tidal, a fictional corporation, face criminal charges? If found guilty will it be sent to jail? What is jail for a fiction? We are banned from thinking about it for a period? Who's in jail?

      Tidal is not a fictional corporation, it's a real one. And when a corporation does something that is an intentional crime (paying money to friends of the CEO, most likely at the expense of other artists, or at the expense of investors), then this doesn't happen by chance. It happened because someone decided it would happen. And then you start with criminal charges against a real person.

  5. "...25 hours of questioning thus far." by magusxxx · · Score: 2

    Now if they put that on Tidal, I'd actually be interesting in joining.

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  6. Is it safe to say by n0nsensical · · Score: 2

    That Jay now has 100 problems?

    1. Re:Is it safe to say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lololoklololol

  7. Why Tidal? Whats in it for them? by brunes69 · · Score: 1

    Why would Tidal inflate streaming numbers so they could pay out MORE royalties? That makes no sense at all.