Not guilty? Despite rather convincing evidence of outright reporting and financial fraud, Jay-Z’s Tidal is officially denying the allegations.
For those just tuning in, Tidal has been accused of some pretty serious data and financial manipulation. That includes wild overstatements related to stream counts for both Kanye West and Beyonce, which would, in turn, lower payments to other artists. The struggling streaming platform has also been accused of seriously delayed royalty payments to label partners, some of whom are threatening to pull out of the service.
The accusations are coming from Norwegian publication Dagens Næringsliv. Now, the company is responding.
The following is a statement sent to Digital Music News from the CEO of Tidal, Richard Sanders.
The first part is in bold (emphasis by Tidal, not DMN):
“We reject and deny the claims that have been made by Dagens Næringsliv. Although we do not typically comment on stories we believe to be false, we feel it is important to make sure that our artists, employees, and subscribers know that we are not taking the security and integrity of our data lightly, and we will not back down from our commitment to them.
“When we learned of a potential data breach we immediately, and aggressively, began pursuing multiple avenues available to uncover what occurred. This included reporting it to proper authorities, pursuing legal action, and proactively taking steps to further strengthen our stringent security measures that are already in place.
“Additionally, we have engaged an independent, third party cyber-security firm to conduct a review of what happened and help us further protect the security and integrity of our data. We are proud of the hard work, devotion to our artist driven mission, and tremendous accomplishments of our over one hundred employees in Norway and fifty more in the United States. We look forward to sharing with them, and all of our partners, the results of the review once completed.”
IDK what people are smoking… I got more than 500$ from Tidal so far…
They are a bit late, but they always pay out and a lot.