Madonna (also known as Gollum), DeadMau5, Kanye West
and Jay Z at Tidal's ill-fated launch
A year ago, greedy entertainers Jay Z and
Madonna, among others, bought the Aspiro music streaming
company for $55,000,000 and tried to rip off Spotify's
business model and software. They promised to pay recording
artists more money than every other music streaming service
if they signed up with the company. However, they lied. The
company immediately began to struggle and was dead on
arrival. A few months after Tidal's abysmal launch, Apple's
long awaited music service debuted and finished off Tidal.
A year later, mainstream publications, as
well as popular blogs, have branded Tidal a massive failure.
Tidal is being financed via loan and personal funds to the
tune of $55,000,000 which is a heavy debt load (in addition
to operating costs). Tidal is not making anywhere near
enough money to sustain itself or cover costs, hence their
desperation manifesting via deliberate leaks, botching the
releases of major record labels, to place said titles on
their failing music streaming service. They are operating
under the proviso that once an album is leaked, the record
company will be forced to try to recoup costs via streaming
on Tidal.
Jay-Z
This week, news broke that Tidal has been
sued for copyright infringement regarding not paying
artists. Yesh Music LLC artists, the American Dollar, sued
Tidal for streaming 116 of its songs, reportedly 13,000
times and not paying them the proper royalties they are owed
under standard industry agreements, which constitutes
copyright infringement (The Judiciary Report did warn Tidal would rip artists off).
As usual, rather than own up to their
illegal conduct, crazy liars Jay Z and Madonna are shifting
all blame to someone else. The dumb duo are blaming the
historic Harry Fox Agency in Hollywood for the gross
underpayment (However, the band stated Tidal refused to pay
them for many months, then lied about their numbers). Much
like Tidal shifted all blame for the botched release of
Rihana's "Anti" album, forcing record label Universal to
brand them "incompetent" and further state, "This whole
thing is absurd, we would have taken responsibility if it
were our error." Jay Z and Madonna are too old to be this
juvenile. It is a sign of mental problems.
Tidal Under-Reporting Record Sales Of
Non-Owners To Shortchange Artists
Madonna the Gremlin
Lawyers for the band, the American Dollar,
are stating Tidal is reporting fake numbers to them, in a
scam that results in artists being paid less money. I can
confirm Tidal is doing this, via keeping two sets of
numbers/accounting records, regarding how many times each
song is streamed on their service.
For instance, if Tidal streams an artist's
song 500,000 times, the accounting/royalty statement to the
artist will state they streamed it 50,000 times, allowing
the greedy company to skim profits off the top. They play
the song a maximum amount of times and due to fraudulent
reporting, only pay a fraction of what is owed to the
artist, because they are lying about how many times they
actually streamed each tune. It is enabling Tidal to pay
less money to the artists, via misrepresenting the number of
streams.
Rihanna
This constitutes several federal crimes.
Tidal would have to be audited by a computer specialist and
accountant to gain the true figures. Only Tidal's owners
have access to the real numbers for their own music and that
of the artists who have signed up with the service. Everyone
else is being lied to by the company, except its entertainer
owners such as Rihanna, among others, whose streams are
being grossly inflated to illegally place higher on the
Billboard charts.
This has resulted in Rihanna deceitfully
equaling Michael Jackson's record for the most number one
singles in music history and it is criminally being done
through fraud, robbing the late music legend of a musical
honor that he legitimately earned. It's is disgusting and
disgraceful. She can't even sing or dance properly for that
matter.
Jay Z Previously Busted And Slammed For
Sales Fraud
Jay Z and former Tidal CEO Peter Tonstad
This is not the first time Jay Z has been
busted engaging in a sales scam. Years ago, the Billboard
chart company, caught Jay Z red-handed bribing retailers to
run the same copy of his CDs through the register multiple
times to enable him to debut at the top of the charts. For
example, when a customer bought one copy of a Jay Z CD,
retailers were being paid to run the same copy through the
register 3-7 times, which ridiculously inflated his sales.
Billboard slammed him for it, as it corrupted chart results,
giving him number ones he did not earn, while depriving
other artists of their rightful place in music history.
I know the history of the music industry
very well and what truly goes on. There were times in music
history (up until Soundscan) where music retailers would
phone in how many records, CDs and CD singles they sold. The
numbers they reported would be completely inaccurate and
inflated due to bribery, where some artists are concerned,
to help them secure undeserved number ones on the music
charts (see: Madonna).
Other scams include manipulating RIAA sales.
Some people get excited when they hear their favorite
artist's album has gone platinum. However, some record
executive, such as Tommy Mottola, formerly of Sony, a man
with ties to the Genovese mafia, routinely inflated sales of
artists such as Mariah Carey, whom he later married after an
adulterous affair for career promotion by the fame hungry
star.
During the 1990s, you could go in any record store in
America and find an excessive amount of unsold Mariah Carey
CDs on the shelves, more than any other artist. That's
because all the RIAA required for a gold (500,000 copies) or
platinum (1,000,000 copies) certification is that the label
ship the corresponding amount to retailers. You don't
actually have to sell that amount to get the certification.
While Mariah Carey was a very gifted
vocalist (her voice is very damaged now) Mottola's scam
resulted in her having greater sales than Whitney Houston,
Barbara Streisand and Patti Page, when she did not sell more
albums or singles than the latter. She sold more than
Madonna, but not Houston, Streisand or Page. Then, Mottola
ripped off Carey, pocketing huge amounts of her actual sales
and related products. Mottola, who was in his 40s, saw in an
18-year-old Carey, a great voice, a desperation for fame and
a sucker he could exploit (but then she embarrassed him to
the world).
Madonna, Jay Z And Rihanna Using Tidal To
Inflate Their Own Sales
Jay Z and wife Beyonce
Jay Z, Madonna and Rihanna are using the
computer staff at Tidal to inflate record sales. It is apart
of the reason some of the original staff fled (Tidal Loses
Three More Executives). The first notable
incident occurred via Rihanna's "Anti" album, where Jay Z
lied stating the album had been streamed 400,000 times on
Tidal, the same night Samsung bought and gave away 1,000,000
copies of the flopped album for free to her fans. Those
numbers don't add up nor did Nielsen or Billboard
corroborate or authenticate said fake numbers from Tidal.
A new controversy has erupted, as Tidal has
falsely claimed Kanye West's album entitled "The Life Of
Pablo" which they botched the release of, has been streamed
100,000,000 times in two weeks, which is an outright lie
(it's not even West's most talked about or popular album).
Adele and Justin Bieber weren't even streamed that much in
two weeks and they are currently the top music sellers of
2015 and 2016 (so far).
Kanye West
Someone then pointed out to Tidal that
Drake's album "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" which
had way more buzz than Kanye's release, was streamed
17,000,000 times in two weeks on Spotify. Therefore, how did
"The Life Of Pablo" which has no real buzz, stream
100,000,000 times in two weeks. They falsified the sales.
When called out on the maneuver they were shoveling, trying
to inflate sales as usual, Tidal backpedaled and stated "The
Life Of Pablo" was streamed "millions of times" not
"100,000,000 times."
To make matters worse, Tidal did not report
the streams to Billboard, as it is on the low end of the
spectrum. This means for the first time in his 13-year
rapping career, West has an album that did not chart on
Billboard, which is a very negative development for a major
label artist. "The Life Of Pablo" is classified as a flop.
Tidal are a bunch of unprofessional, crazy jokers who aren't
real business people. They are messing up artists careers.
Billboard stated, "In respect to TIDAL and Kanye, for
whatever reason they're not reporting that title [The Life
of Pablo] to us...I don't know the reason behind it, I just
know that they're not" - Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard VP,
Charts & Data Development.
Jay Z and Beyonce
"The Life Of Pablo" was deliberately leaked,
so as to make it easier to be placed on Tidal, without the
record company becoming enraged, believing it an actual
leak. However, Def Jam has lost over $20,000,000 due to Jay
Z's poor business acumen and dirty tricks in trying to keep
a dead website alive (Tidal) via another leaked release
("The Life Of Pablo").
The irony for West is it took him 3-years to
record the album, which is a significant period of time for
making a studio recording. West also spent a significant sum
of money to make the album, at many studios, using a number
of guest stars. This all came from record company funds he
has to recoup before he sees any money in profit. And as the
album is being streamed on Tidal and at poor royalty rates,
West will not recoup the costs of making the indulgent "The
Life Of Pablo." His next album will have to sell double the
usual amount to get him out of the red at the record label,
whom he now owes a small fortune.
Con Artists And Thieves
Usher, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj,
Madonna, Deadmau5, Kanye West, Jay Z and J Cole (also known as
Hollywood's self-professed "Illuminati")
Jay Z and Madonna, among others at Tidal,
are terrible con artists and thieves. They have nothing
legitimate to contribute to the marketplace, always looking
to get an illegal payday off someone else's hard work. They
are always looking for someone to rob and rip off. There is
something wrong in their brains. The mechanism that
regulates people's conscience, sense of decency and ability
to accept their fair share, not seeking to take everyone
else's, is woefully absent in them. It is a mental defect
found in psychopaths and greedy criminals with compulsions
regarding money.
Jay Z and Madonna have been repeatedly sued
for years by many people for ripping off, robbing and
shortchanging others. They are never satisfied and have
absolutely no conscience or decency. If they were given 99
percent of the money in the world, they would still be
furiously and feverishly searching the other 1 percent's
pockets for money to take. They are not business people.
They are criminals running scams and perpetrating acts of
criminal fraud that is actively defrauding others.
STORY SOURCE
Jay Z and Tidal Are Reportedly Facing a Lawsuit Over Failing To Pay Artist Royalties (UPDATE)
Jay Z and Tidal Are Reportedly Facing a Lawsuit Over Failing To Pay Artist Royalties (UPDATE)
8 hours ago - UPDATE: Tidal just issued a
statement to Complex about the lawsuit and said that they
are up to date on all royalties owed to Yesh Music, LLC.
TIDAL is up to date on all royalties for the rights to the
music stated in Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele’s claim
and they are misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty
payments to them. As Yesh Music, LLC admits in their claim,
TIDAL has the rights to the Master Recordings through its
distributor Tunecore and have paid Tunecore in full for such
exploitations. Their dispute appears to be over the
mechanical licenses, which we are also up to date on
payments via Harry Fox Agency our administrator of
mechanical royalties.
The entire catalogue in question streamed
fewer than 13,000 times on TIDAL and its predecessor over
the past year. We have now removed all music associated with
Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the service. This is
the first we have heard of this dispute and Yesh Music, LLC
should be engaging Harry Fox Agency if they believe they are
owed the royalties claimed. They especially should not be
naming S Carter Enterprises, LLC, which has nothing to do
with Tidal. This claim serves as nothing other than a
perfect example of why America needs Tort reform.
When Jay Z launched Tidal last year, he did
so on the idea that the streaming service would be the first
of its kind to take care of artists with higher royalty
payouts. After the official launch event, Jay even tweeted
that Tidal was going to pay every artist, writer, and
producer featured on the service a 75 percent royalty rate,
which was higher than any other streaming service in the
industry, at least according to Hov. Now, it appears that
Hov and Tidal are in some serious hot water over their
royalty system, as they're reportedly facing a $5 million
class-action lawsuit from Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele
from the band, the American Dollar.
The lawsuit, which was uploaded online to
the site Scribd here, claims that Tidal streamed 116 of the
band's copyrighted songs without paying back any royalty
payments in the process. The firm Garbarini Fitzgerald P.C.
reportedly filed the lawsuit in the United States District
Court Southern District of New York over the weekend,
according to the uploaded documents. As of now, neither Jay,
Tidal, or Tidal's parent company, Aspiro, which is also
named in the suit, have responded to the case.
We spoke with the lawyer in the case,
Richard Garbarini, on the phone, and he confirmed that the
suit was filed over the weekend. Over the phone, Garbarini
said that the band received no royalties for their work
until this past Nov., and that the group asked months ago to
have their music removed from Tidal. As of today, the band's
music is currently still available to stream on Tidal. "I
find it fairly amazing an organization that claims it was
going to pay the artists, systematically does not pay the
artists," Garbarini said.
Tidal reportedly used faulty numbers to make
payments to artists and may have undercut the money they
owed to artists by as much as 35 percent, according to the
filed documents. The band claims that they were expecting
monthly reports on royalty payments and usage of every song
on the service, but nothing was ever sent, according to the
lawsuit...
http://www.complex.com
TIDAL Refuses to Reveal Stats for Kanye’s “The Life Of Pablo,” 100 Million Streams Likely Wrong
TIDAL Refuses to Reveal Stats for Kanye’s “The Life Of Pablo,” 100 Million Streams Likely Wrong
Posted 5 days ago - 2016-02-23 - Minutes ago
I clicked on a story from Pigeons and Planes reporting that
anonymous sources within TIDAL have revealed that Kanye's
new album, The Life Of Pablo, has so far been streamed 100
million times exclusively on TIDAL in the two weeks since
its (quasi)release; we can assume that means at least 50
million times in its first week. 100 million? 100 MILLI?!?!?!?...
For comparison, Drake's IYRTITL album held a
previous streaming record by racking up approximately 17
million streams of If You're Reading This It's Too Late in
its first week, and those official numbers came via Spotify,
a service with approximately 25 million paid subscribers and
an additional 40 million free users for 65 million total
users. So that would mean that Kanye accumulated roughtly
three times more streams than Drake in his first week on a
streaming service 1/26th the size of Spotify. (TIDAL is
currently reporting 2.5 million subscribers, about one
million of those new subscribers driven there by Kanye's
album.) If those kind of stats seem too good to be true,
it's because they likely aren't true.
Unfortunately, Pigeons & Planes seems to
have simply made a mistake in their reporting. According to
the original TMZ story they cited, the TIDAL source told TMZ
that the album has been streamed "millions" of times, not
"100 million times." "Millions" could indeed mean 100
million, or it could mean two million, which would be a mere
98 million off.
"Sources connected to Tidal tell TMZ ...
"The Life of Pablo" and its debut at MSG has already been
streamed millions of times in less than two weeks, which is
a record for the service." - TMZ
Regardless of who reported what number from
where, the confusion around TLOP gets at a deeper story. As
fate would have it, I didn't see P&P's story when it first
went up because at the time I was on the phone with
Billboard's VP of Charts & Data Development, Silvio
Pietroluongo. Among the many topics we discussed (full
interview coming later), Pietroluongo confirmed that while
TIDAL has shared streaming and sales numbers for other
artists and releases, they've so far refused to divulge any
stats around The Life Of Pablo.
"In respect to TIDAL and Kanye, for whatever
reason they're not reporting that title [The Life of Pablo]
to us...I don't know the reason behind it, I just know that
they're not." - Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard VP, Charts &
Data Development...
Tidal nears one year of mediocrity and failure
In Music by Joel Freimark / February 25,
2016 - Just under a year ago, Tidal hosted one of the more
awkward launch events ever known to man, as a handful of
multi-millionaire musicians stood uncomfortably and lost on
stage — all seeming to hope one another knew what was going
on. In many ways, the event can be seen as the ideal
precursor to the brilliant “how do I walk on stage”
performance from presidential candidate Ben Carson just a
few weeks ago, and the Tidal launch told us all we needed to
know about the company. As they approach their first
anniversary, things have only gotten worse, and someone
should have the decency to put the clueless, unimaginative
company out of its misery...
Then, of course, there was Tidal’s promise
that they’d be using the platform to help unknown artists
achieve stardom. Used by pretty much every music-related
startup, this line is as old as “these photos are just so I
can show big time producers what you look like,” and as of
yet, not a single artist has been vaulted to any real status
by the platform. This in itself isn’t entirely Tidal’s
fault, as you need a large, active listener-base to achieve
this, and they have neither.
Oh wait, that Kanye guy got a TON of hype
when Tidal completely botched his album release — and nobody
knew about him or Rihanna before they joined Tidal, right?
The only thing Tidal achieved with their arrogant,
unprofessional style of “exclusive” releases was incurring a
massive amount of hate from the very people they’re trying
to convince to pay them every month for a service that is
done better elsewhere.
But arrogance runs deep in the lifeblood of
Tidal. Even before their launch event, they attempted to
garner sympathy and subscribers in an absurd manner. Their
pre-launch video was nothing short of unintentional comedic
genius and led to countless, well deserved parodies. In
short, Tidal was attempting to put forth the concept that
they were “the little guy.”
Note to Jay Z, Madonna, Jack White, Kanye
West and the long list of multi-platinum millionaires in the
video: You can’t make people feel bad for NOT giving you $10
a month when you yourselves haven’t had to consider the
value of $10 a month in well over 10 years...
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com
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