Jay Z Sued Over Tidal Royalty Payments
Photo by Colin Kerrigan
Jay Z faces a class-action lawsuit claiming the Tidal music streaming service underpaid royalties to artists and infringed copyright, as Complex reports.
A complaint filed February 27 in New York federal court named the hip-hop mogul’s S. Carter Enterprises and two affiliates as defendants.
Jay Z’s businesses allegedly created Tidal’s library “by dumping all of the music from independent artists into” the service without filing the proper notices, claimed John Emanuele of New York duo the American Dollar, along with Yesh Music, Emanuele’s music publishing firm with bandmate Richard Cupolo. They added, “Independent artists are predominantly impacted by defendants’ systematic infringement.”
The complaint further accused Jay Z’s organizations of “deliberately miscalculating the per-stream royalty rates.”
The suit seeks between $30,000 and $150,000 for each of 118 alleged infringements.
Pitchfork has reached out to Tidal for comment.
Jay Z tweeted last year that “Tidal pays 75% royalty rate to ALL artists, writers, and producers.”
Emanuele and Cupolo previously filed copyright lawsuits against televangelist Joel Osteen and the now-defunct streaming service Grooveshark.
Samsung has resumed talks to acquire Tidal, the New York Post recently reported, citing “several” unnamed sources.
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