A Kanye West fan is suing over the rapper’s claim that his latest album would only be available to subscribers of the music-streaming service Tidal.
The proposed class action lawsuit filed Monday in a federal court in San Francisco by Justin Baker-Rhett states that he was duped into subscribing to Tidal based on West’s promises that his album The Life of Pablo would only be available there and not anywhere else. The album is now available on other streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify.
My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016
An email sent to Tidal seeking comment by the Associated Press was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit alleges the promise of exclusive access to West’s latest album led to an influx of new Tidal subscribers and allowed the service to collect users’ personal information.
The album was streamed on Tidal more than 400m times before being made available for streaming on Spotify and other service on 1 April. Earlier this month it became the first album to reach No 1 in the US primarily through streaming.
Though West has broken his promises about his album’s availability, he is unlikely to go back on his vow that it won’t be released as a physical record or CD. The rapper has declared that the record is a living entity which has already been subject to tinkering and upgrades since its release in February.
