Jay-Z's Tidal Is Sued for $5 Million Over Unpaid Royalties

Tidal was launched last year, after which Jay-Z bragged about the service offering artists higher royalties than any other streaming platforms. Now, the company is being sued for allegedly not paying independent artists proper royalties and violating copyright.

John Emanuele from the duo American Dollar and the group's indie label Yesh Music Publishing filed a $5 million lawsuit against Tidal and Hov's Shawn Carter Enterprises over the weekend. They claimed that the streaming service had licensed at least 118 of American Dollar's songs without the duo's permission and had not paid the American Dollar any royalties for streams on those songs.

"Different owner, same game," read the lawsuit filed in New York federal court. "Ironically, when Defendant [Shawn, as in Jay Z] CARTER purchased the TIDAL Music Service in 2015, it claimed it would be the first streaming service to pay the artists."

Plaintiffs alleged that Tidal's library's made "by dumping all of the music from independent artists into" the service without filing the proper notices. "Independent artists are predominantly impacted by defendants' systematic infringement," they explained. They further accused Tidal of "deliberately miscalculating the per-stream royalty rates." 

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