Kanye Fans Angered by ‘Exclusive’ Album Release File Class Action

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On Monday, a Kanye West fan filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the music artist and business partner Jay Z accusing the them of “fraudulently inducing consumers to subscribe to Tidal,” a new subscription based music streaming service created by the pair, on the pretense that West’s album would be exclusively released to fans on that platform.

Plaintiff Justin Baker-Rhett accused the duo of tricking consumers into handing over their personal information to Tidal, owned by Jay Z’s company S. Carter Enterprises, during a time when the company was “quietly teetering on the brink of collapse.” West, a part owner of Tidal, promised subscribers exclusive access to his new album “The Life of Pablo” on the Tidal platform.

According to the class action lawsuit, “Specifically, Mr. West promised on Twitter that the ‘album w[ould] never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.” Following the announcement, subscriptions tripled from 1 to 3 million in a little over a month, and the album was streamed 250 million times in the first 10 days, according to the complaint.

Following his initial promise, West apparently “changed his tune” and allowed his album to be made available for free on other music streaming platforms including Apple Music and Spotify about six weeks after the album was initially released on Tidal, according to the claim.

“In reality, neither Mr. West nor S. Carter Enterprises ever intended ‘The Life of Pablo‘ to run exclusively on the Tidal platform,” the lawsuit claimed. “To the contrary, they — knowing that Tidal was in trouble but not wanting to invest their own money to save the company — chose to fraudulently induce millions of American consumers into paying for Tidal’s rescue.”

After the “deceptive marketing ploy” worked for the duo, Tidal appeared to be saved from crumbling. “As a result, Tidal’s valuation – the lifeblood of any new startup – soared,” asserted the claim. The company’s value increased between $60 million and $84 million due to the addition of new users who were lured into the platform, the lawsuit claimed.

Not only is the lawsuit concerned with the allegedly deceptive marketing practices used by West and Jay Z, concerns of privacy were also highlighted. Subscribers, including minors as young as 13 years old, were allegedly “uniformly tricked” into handing over a wealth of personal information including email addresses, social media account information, credit card information and other personally identifiable information as part of the process to sign-up for the service, according to the lawsuit.

“With each new user added comes a wealth of user information,” the complaint reads. “Defendants reaped enormous benefits from the mass influx of new subscribers and the treasure trove of consumer data they collected from them.”

Baker-Rhett brings forth allegations of violations of California’s false advertising law and unfair competition law as well as claims of fraudulent inducement and unjust enrichment. He is seeking to represent a nationwide Class and a California subclass of Tidal subscribers who began their service or renewed their subscription from Feb. 15 to April 1 and who streamed any music from “The Life of Pablo” album within 24 hours of first subscribing. The Class is estimated to be in the millions.

The plaintiff, on behalf of himself and the proposed Class, is seeking actual and punitive damages, disgorgement of profits and restitution. Baker-Rhett is specifically requesting a court order to require Tidal to delete the personal information it collected from the Class, cancel the subscriptions that followed the free trial users signed-up for to access the album, and to end any monetization efforts that rely on the information that was allegedly illegally obtained.

The plaintiff is represented by Todd M. Logan and Jay Edelson of Edelson PC.

The Kanye West & Jay Z ‘Tidal’ Class Action Lawsuit is Baker-Rhett v. S. Carter Enterprises LLC, et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-02013, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On June 22, 2018, a judge moved forward a class action claiming that Kanye West’s tweet that his new album would only be released on the streaming service Tidal was misleading, while trimming some of the customers’ claims.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 20, 2018, a group of Kanye West fans want Class certification granted in their class action lawsuit alleging that they were tricked into subscribing to Tidal music service.

UPDATE 3: On Oct. 3, 2018, Kanye West asked a New York federal judge to not certify a proposed Class of Tidal subscribers who filed a class action lawsuitagainst the rapper over an allegedly misleading tweet.