Folk Hero Sues Kanye West For Forcing Him to Download Tidal

Kanye West (Photo: Getty Images)

There are a few truths which we, as humans, acknowledge to be true across borders and cultures: chief among them is that Tidal is trash.

And so it was in the interest of a public service that Justin Baker-Rhett has proposed a class action suit against Kanye West for tricking him and others into downloading and paying for Tidal, Jay Z’s music streaming service. When West released his new album The Life of Pablo in February, he announced that it would only be available on Tidal and nowhere else.

Tidal charges users $9.99 a month. In the suit, Baker-Rhett claims that millions of new users flocked to the service for the sole purpose of listening to West’s album, which is now available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Tweets of West’s seem to back up the suit’s claim that The Life of Pablo did motivate thousands of new users to sign up for Tidal. The suit argues that the total sum value of all the new users and their personal information amounts to $84 million.

“Mr. West’s promise of exclusivity also had a grave impact on consumer privacy,” the suit claims, according to the Associated Press.

Tidal has said that West’s album was streamed more than 250 million times within 10 days of its release in mid-February.

West is one of Tidal’s “owner artists,” who has a stake in the company.