While many at TIDAL were reportedly enjoying the taste of massive success thanks to Beyonce‘s megahit album, ‘Lemonade,’ investigative reporters have begun spilling another choice beverage.
Asserting the media giant massively inflated the reported streaming figures of Bey’s sixth opus and Kanye West‘s ‘Life of Pablo’ project to the tune of over 300 million, the shocking allegations also suggest the overstatement created huge royalty payouts for the listed stars and TIDAL.
Naming Jay Z as one of the masterminds behind the scheme, as the story continues to pick up heat the leaders at TIDAL have had enough! Look inside for their response to the hoopla:
Tidal has been accused of intentionally falsifying streaming numbers for Beyonce’s “Lemonade” and Kanye West’s “Life of Pablo” albums and consequently paying inflated royalties to the artists’ labels, in a report by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (via Music Business Worldwide).
Tidal, which has rarely shared its data publicly, had a streaming exclusive on West’s album for its first six weeks of release and continues to be the exclusive streamer for Beyonce’s album. It claimed that West’s album had been streamed 250 million times in its first 10 days of release in February of 2016, while claiming it had just 3 million subscribers — a claim that would have meant every subscriber played the album an average of eight times per day; and that Beyonce’s album was streamed 306 million times in its first 15 days of release in April of 2016.
These claims led the Norwegian paper to investigate the service’s numbers and report that it was intentionally inflating its subscriber count…
Tidal’s response?
“This is a smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee as an ‘Israeli Intelligence officer’ and our owner as a ‘crack dealer.’ We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies and falsehoods. The information was stolen and manipulated and we will fight these claims vigorously.”
Of course they did. No uses Tidal. I mean no one.
I do. I have a few family members, and friends who do as well. True there are still ppl who dont even know what Tidal is but you should speak for yourself love.
The MAJORITY of music listeners who pay for streaming services do NOT use TIDAL. You, your cousin & other bandwagon citizens are a part of a very micro group. The numbers are falsified & that is that. YOU KNOW what the above commenter meant when they said, “nobody” — not in the exact sense. please act intelligent.. even if you truly aren’t.
I definitely used tidal to stream lemonade and i don’t have a tidal subscription
Of course they did it, you mean to tell 2 million people would be able to stream beyonce album 170 million times in 15 days lets be real
When Lemonade came out, you did not have to have a Tidal membership to stream the album. This, I remember because I had canceled my Tidal subscription months prior to it dropping. It was available on the website and the app WITHOUT a subscription for at least the first week or part of the first week or something, you could no longer stream the album without a subscription. Literally everybody EVERYWHERE had heard the album and clearly not nearly as many people bought it.
you are wrong. there was only a 24 hour window where you could stream the album without having a membership. do not try to muddy the facts of this case. it has been proven through a scientific data operation that the streams were BOTS. despite who, when and how long you could go on and listen with or without a damn subscription, IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THROUGH BLACK & WHITE DATA that the streams were not human beings and are fraudulent. Out of the 306 million streams that TIDAL submitted as streams of that haphazzard Lemonade album, 170 million were FAKE. That takes Beyonce’s SPS down to 420 thousand units sold that first week and not the 620 thousand that were reported. her entire career is falsified to be a bigger star than she really is. BEYONCE’S MUSIC DOES NOT SELL. her concert tickets do, but nothing more.
And further to Brent Christopher’s comment, the album was available to download illegally hours after they were available to stream allowing people to listen at their leisure.
It was far more than 24 hours let’s make that clear. Second of all Tidal reported 306 million songs from the album streamed not 306 million albums. In its first week Lemonade was streamed a reported 115 million times. And third, the album sold 485,000 copies it’s first week before album equivalent units and streaming figures factor in.
DO NOT CORRECT ME @Navy Gravy. I was specific when I suggested 306 million streams. I DID NOT state anything about 306 million albums. NO ONE pushes those numbers in this music climate.
306 million streams is equivalent to 201,315 album units. Without those FAKE TIDAL numbers (306 million streams), Beyonce would have only sold 419,000 hard copy/digital units out of the FALSIFIED 620,000 that were reported.
the fact of the matter is that Beyonce is not and has not been the album or single unit seller of the decade and releases an entire project using gimmicky first week pushes in order to save face. the ONLY reason that woman made LEMONADE a TIDAL exclusive is because she never expected her and her husband’s propaganda to be questioned or checked. NO WAY were 306 million streams of that lackluster album being played anywhere! as a matter of fact, lets be real honest in stating that without the VISUALS, the actual songs that comprise this 6th LP are pedestrian and some of her least impressive work to date. THE VISUALS created this album. thats it.
Navy Gray that is simply untrue. I know for a FACT that lemon juice and Pablo were not free to listen to on Tidal for nonsubscribers. I know this as a fact because I tried. I ended up downloading it free because of this. You mention you had an expired Tidal membership but why don’t you ask people who never had a Tidal membership before writing false info? Besides your whole argument is irrelevant because we are talking about the streaming numbers from paid subscribers Tidal reported (free listeners and bootleg downloaded like me do not count in these numbers)..
Navy Gray where are your receipts that state it was more than 24 hours???????????? I believe Fortune . com over you any day every day:
http://fortune.com/2016/04/25/beyonce-lemonade-surprise-release/
They say it was 24 house so I believe them NOT You Mr. No Receipts.
I definitely was able to steam lemonade for more than 24hrs maybe it was a glitch but it happened.
and still cant hit the 2 milli mark
Because it is a tidal exclusive. Would you pay for a tidal membership to listen to lemonade when you can just download it free? No.
THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH! There is no way possible that 3 million subscribers in April 2016 could have streamed Beyonce’s Subpar Lemonade album some 306 million times. It’s not humanly possible. I knew the numbers were fudged. This Norwegian company ran a forensic data check that proved without a reasonable doubt that the numbers are false. This is FRAUD! Millions of dollars were paid out under false pretenses. Subscribers from TIDAL were even contacted and interviewed. They denied playing the albums 96 times each day for 10-25 days. It’s alk the truth! I believe the data and human confirmation reports.
“Subscribers from TIDAL were even contacted and interviewed. They denied playing the albums 96 times each day for 10-25 days. ” GIRL, please provide me with the link, you in here carrying on bad. Give me the link please, I’ll wait…. lying ahhh bih
HERE YOU GO B****! — https://www.spin.com/2018/05/tidal-fake-streams-kanye-beyonce-investigation-300-million/
the individuals were interviewed and denied to the data operators to having ever listened to those albums 96 times each day. I have no reason to lie.
Beyonce is a fraud.. LOL
Tidal sucks! Why pay for tidal when you can download free and listen on Spotify free. Everyone knows these “tidal exclusives” are free to download and if you don’t know where to download just ask somebody online or find your nearest street bootlegger selling CDs at 2 bucks a pop. Common now no reason for Tidal to be telling lies just to boost Bey’s popularity. She is already queen b and it is not fair to other artists whose album sells truly reflect who is checking for them. I downloaded Lemon juice free and had no interest in listening to Kenyatta’s subpar album.
THE TRUTH IS THE TRUTH! There is no way possible that 3 million subscribers in April 2016 could have streamed Beyonce’s Subpar Lemonade album some 306 million times. It’s not humanly possible. I knew the numbers were fudged. This Norwegian company ran a forensic data check that proved without a reasonable doubt that the numbers are false. This is FRAUD! Millions of dollars were paid out under false pretenses. Subscribers from TIDAL were even contacted and interviewed. They denied playing the albums 96 times each day for 10-25 days. It’s all the truth what the reporters are saying! I believe the data and human confirmation reports.
These reporters got a hold of the hard drive that contained the imprints that created the fake streams. The research they performed showed that Kanye’s album was streamed at the same times each day — and the same for Beyonce. That’s no coincidence.
go read the ENTIRE ARTICLE at Spin.com!
Of course this site isn’t posting or printing the full DETAILS of the investigation.
I agree Brent 100 percent.
If you aren’t hiding anything release the reports!
THE TRUTH — Dagens Næringsliv’s investigation (which has been partially translated into English by Music Business Worldwide) was based on having received a hard drive containing what appeared to be two billion rows of internal Tidal streaming data. After verifying with record labels that the data on the drive matched the numbers that Tidal had provided to them, Dagens Næringsliv contracted the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Center for Cyber and Information Security to run a forensic analysis of the data. The CCIS found that 150 million TLOP plays and 170 million Lemonade plays were “duplicates” that did not reflect the actual listening activity of the subscribers they were attributed to. Tidal’s lawyer said that the newspaper’s data has been falsified, and that the CCIS study was conducted under false pretenses.
If the numbers are legit, the implications for Tidal are serious. According to record label royalty payment reports obtained by Dagens Næringsliv, Tidal paid Kanye’s record label Universal €3.2 million in February and March 2016, the months immediately following his album release. Of that total, €2 million was directed to TLOP, a figure that would presumably be much smaller with 150 million fewer plays. Similarly, Tidal reportedly paid $2.5 million to Beyoncé’s label Sony in April and May of 2016, of a total royalty payment in excess of $4 million.
The CCIS study included the play counts had been falsified based on repeated patterns it found in the data. The 150 million Kanye plays were all logged at precisely the same times of the day, down to the second: 2:00 and 5:00 a.m. The 170 million Beyoncé followed a more complicated pattern based on repeating users’ own authentic plays of the songs, but a pattern nonetheless. “The number of minutes elapsing before the track is re-entered in the log varies, but the time interval is always a variant of a figure multiplied by six minutes (6, 12, 18, 24, …). In addition, the tracks are restarted at the same second and millisecond,” the Dagens Næringsliv reads in part.
Definitely have to look into that. Thanks for the Tea lol
SOLID GOLD TRUTH —
To supplement its data, Dagens Næringsliv also spoke with several Tidal subscribers who were identified as very frequent Kanye and Beyoncé listeners in the data. One user, when confronted with numbers showing he had listened to TLOP songs 96 times in one day, answered “It’s physically impossible.”
HOW TO TURN OFF THAT F****** UGLY PODCAST!??? WHAT AN ANNOYING VOICE!
Its so annoying.
THANK YOU! the kween they have hosting the podcast is disgusting & hella annoying! I can’t stomach him. This copy cat podcast is a waste of time & blog space. They are trying to spoon feed it to us by having the mess on auto play. It’s god awful.
I agree. Get rid of the podcast. Nobody likes it! Literrally no one likes it. It is annoying.
When Lemonade came out, you could stream the album and the video/“movie” on Tidal without a subscription to the service. I remember this because I had canceled my subscription before it came out. When you would go to Tidal.com, Lemonade was on the home page before you even get to regular website. Why would you pay a record label 2 million+ dollars for streams when you could purchase 2 hundred thousand albums for the same? I mean if they were really lying about their own numbers, which one makes more sense? Idk about TLOP but I DO know that for a period, you didn’t need a subscription to listen to Lemonade on Tidal. And if that was the case as well, why didn’t they heavily inflate 4:44’s numbers as well? We all know, nobody wanted to hear THAT album. Everybody EVERYWHERE heard Lemonade some way or another and clearly not even close to the number of actual sales so let’s all stop being idiots for a second and stop believing everything on the internet.
And what would you do with all those albums? Streams are air, you pay the record company and don’t have a warehouse of stock to try and get rid of or destroy
Now you just sound like an idiot that wants to be on my dïck. I’m flattered but this is a music blog, not Facebook, you come off as a hater. If they wanted to give these albums bigger numbers, they could have used these “bots” to purchase digital copies of the album which would have counted for a lot more than some streams, with the amount they had to cough up to these record labels for fake numbers IJS.
@navy gravy no ones flattering you, and that feeling you have on your d*** is either you hand or an sti.
I responding to comments on the site so don’t consider your desperate self too special
In response to your point, buying albums outright would be too obvious where the streams are subtle
Navy Gray that is simply untrue. I know for a FACT that lemon juice was not free to listen to on Tidal for nonsubscribers. I know this as a fact because I tried. I ended up downloading it free because of this. You mention you had an expired Tidal membership but why don’t you ask people who never had a Tidal membership before writing false info? Besides your whole argument is irrelevant because we are talking about the streaming numbers from paid subscribers Tidal reported (free listeners and bootleg downloaded like me do not count in these numbers).
People are STILL mad that Bey set a HUGE streaming record from Lemonade! lol!! Get over it! When her album came out, people were LITERALLY streaming her album repeatedly and leaving it on repeat while they were sleeping. That’s a fact. Most of the big fan bases do that so their fave can chart higher. It’s so funny everyone is so INFORMED with streaming and how it actually works all of a sudden in the above comments. Lmao!! Y’all asses don’t even know what constitutes a sale when counting stream. Last but not least, Tidal is STILL around and you can stay MAD. Continue to support the white man at Apple Music and Spotify. Tidal will survive. I guess ya broke asses can’t afford 10 dollars a month. I’ll be glad when June 29 come so broke ass folks like y’all gone have to actually PAY for streaming, so your faves can chart. Lol
I sincerely hope that your asinine comments are not directed at me, you raging homosexual. I am very well versed in how the music industry operates.
150 streams of a song equals 1 official download.
1500 streams are equivalent to one album sale.
Beyonce is NOT and has never been a streaming powerhouse.
she and her team are aware of this fact, hence the reason this entire FIASCO was plotted & planned. I AM SO HAPPY that Beyonce and Jay Z have finally been caught in the midst of their underhanded antics.
I bet Kanye, nor any other artist will be foolish enough to release their projects as TIDAL exclusives. Nicki Minaj’s disgusting behinds is a TIDAL investor and watch her forthcoming LP be available on APPLE MUSIC, SPOTIFY and everywhere else as primary retail for music consumers. she’s petty, but no fool.
TIDAL is a sinking ship. why else would they be on their 5th CEO in less than 2 years.
Its a disaster investment and everyone with common sense is aware of such.
Read his asss Brent. I love all your comments. You put that queen in his place lol.
@Brent a hit dog will holla! At first i wasn’t talking about you, but now I am. I see why you’re upset, since you more than likely don’t have a high school diploma. YOU along with the rest of the A*** infested BOTTOMS are always praying on Beys downfall. Guess what?? SHES STILL HERE!!! STAY MAD!!! These ridiculous claims are not from FACTUAL sources. Hold up, am i using too many big words for you? Factual means TRUE. She IS a streaming force. She’s one of the top 5 female streaming artists of all time. Google is your friend. And that’s even though, Lemonade is STILL a tidal exclusive. So sit yo broke, welfare receiving, project staying ass down! Now check that!! Lmao!!
Tidal is not a black owned company.
lmfao save the bullsh*t tidal, we all knew it. bissh buys awards, now she’s faking her streaming numbers. i fucn knew it lmao, roach is and always will be a fucn FRAUD. and the b*tch still cant hit 2 million sales lmfaoooooo #BeyFRAUDce
I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would care.
It’s all about smoke and mirrors. I love Beyoncé, but hate the tactics her team/her husband’s team use to make her the “best singer of all time”.
She is talented and is a great singer, has no necessity to make those “tricks”.
These will only make her a punchline like the “bought” awards.
So instead of addressing the issue and taking apart the argument against them, they resort to playing the race card.
Nothing surprising!
#sad
Beyonce has been fake and stealing her whole career life. Nothing she does is original. I believe the data analytics because this is how they found out that 40% of trump’s followers are bots. They’re not human. Beyonce tried to make a Rhythm Nation with Lemon juice, but it failed to live up to Rhythm Nation. They can run data now to determine if numbers are used by bots or human. Just ask Trump’s social media manager. Twitter removed all of his bots. Beyonce uses sneaky tactics to make it seem like she’s a huge superstar artist but she clearly is not. She borrowed a HBCU band & dancers to make her performance more appealing. Without them it would have been the same old twerking, hood dance and slinging her wig.
EVERY SINGLE WORD is the unyielding truth!
Brent Christopher
I had to give my real email which I never do, prefer anonymous posting, just to give it up to YOU and the FACTS for a change.
And the raging ****s are still trying to use their asinine propaganda tactics, somebody “mad” what the f ever losers, Beyoncé is a fraud and always has been, being herself has never been enough for her, always lying using prerecorded vocals passing it off as live, lying about writing music, inflating her numbers she reeks of insecurity
Anyway, Brent, thanks for doing a public service and sharing this info
Brent Christopher came through with the facts, receipts and the tea!! Yaasssss Brent!!!
Anyone against Beyoncé would believe anything NEGATIVE WRITTEN ABOUT HER!! Carry on folks!!
@DanYiel especially that power bottom BRENT! Lol. They hate cuz their fave will NEVER be as legendary as Bey! With they broke asses!! Lmao!!
You sound dumb.
Beyonce has been inflating her numbers since the beginning of time.. Intellects know this.