Kanye West Must Face Tidal Tweet Class Action Lawsuit

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Last week, 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.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods preserved customer Justin Baker-Rhett’s claims that West’s tweet that his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” would only ever be released on the streaming service Tidal was misleading given that the album was then released more broadly just six weeks later.

Judge Woods stated that “Regardless of whether or not Mr. West’s argument will persuade a jury at a later stage in the case, the court has little difficulty concluding that the complaint plausibly pleads that Mr. West’s statement that his album would never never never be available on Apple Music or for sale was false. These allegations constitute strong circumstantial evidence of conscious misbehavior.”

In addition to moving forward the Tidal class action lawsuit, Judge Woods agreed that consumers had sufficiently alleged that West is an agent of Tidal, so claims against the rapper, the streaming service, and its parent company should be linked.

In support of this clam, the Kanye West Tidal class action lawsuit noted that Tidal and Aspiro AB are owned by Sean Carter, better known as the rapper Jay Z.

The Life of Pablo album class action lawsuit also claims that musicians including Kanye West were offered ownership stakes in the company. Additionally, the West Aspiro AB class action lawsuit notes that West had promoted the service multiple times to his audience of 28.5 million people.

However, Judge Woods dismissed claims that Baker-Rhett and other customers were tricked into subscribing to Tidal as a result of Kanye’s tweet. Additionally, the judge dismissed claims in the Kanye West album class action lawsuit that related to a tweet made by Aspiro AB the company that owns Tidal.

Though consumers had claimed that Tidal’s tweet promised exclusivity for the album’s release, the judge found that the tweet merely advertised the album’s release through Tidal.

The Tidal Kanye West class action lawsuit was filed initially in a California federal court by Baker-Rhett, who claims that he subscribed to Tidal after reading Kanye West’s tweet that his new album, “The Life of Pablo” would only ever be released through Tidal as opposed to through other platforms and streaming services like Apple Music.

The tweet allegedly read that the album would “never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… you can only get it on Tidal.”

According to Baker-Rhett, he paid the monthly Tidal subscription fee of $9.99 only to discover six weeks later that the album had been released more broadly. Allegedly, the album was available through Apple and elsewhere.

Although the Life of Pablo class action lawsuit was initially filed in California, it was then moved to the Southern District of New York because provisions in the Tidal terms and conditions, which Baker-Rhett had agreed to, tied the case to New York State.

On Friday, Judge Woods struck Baker-Rhett’s claims that related to consumer laws, because Baker-Rhett’s connection to New York state was not strong enough.

Baker-Rhett is represented by Jay Edelson, Benjamin H. Richman and Sydney M. Janzen of Edelson PC and Fred D. Weinstein of Kurzman Eizenberg Corbin & Lever LLP.

The Kanye West Album Release Class Action Lawsuit is Justin Baker-Rhett v. Aspire AB, et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-05801, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: 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 2: 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.