As of this week, they already have a double header full of stories starting with them letting go of their CFO Chris Hart and COO Nils Juell. The Verge reports that Hart was let go as a result of a dispute about how Tidal shares its streaming data. Tidal released a statement to The Verge, saying, “As Tidal has grown into a global operation serving 46 countries we have moved our accounting and operations team to New York while our technology team and key support staff remain in Oslo.”
On the other front, Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the band The American Dollar have launched a $5 million class-action lawsuit that claims Tidal has yet to compensate the band for any of the royalty payments accrued from the streaming of the band’s 116 copyrighted songs. The lawyer for the case, Richard Garbarini, spoke with Complex over the phone and stated that, “the band received no royalties for their work until this past Nov., and that the group asked months ago to have their music removed from Tidal. As of today, the band’s music is currently still available to stream on Tidal.” That’s not the only bullet point to the suit, as Tidal has been accused of using faulty numbers to payout artists while also having undercut these same individuals by no more than a staggering 35%.
A response from Tidal has stated that they are indeed fully up to date on all royalties for the group and have removed said intellectual property from their servers.
STATEMENT FROM TIDAL
TIDAL IS UP TO DATE ON ALL ROYALTIES FOR THE RIGHTS TO THE MUSIC STATED IN YESH MUSIC, LLC AND JOHN EMANUELE’S CLAIM AND THEY ARE MISINFORMED AS TO WHO, IF ANYONE, OWES ROYALTY PAYMENTS TO THEM. AS YESH MUSIC, LLC ADMITS IN THEIR CLAIM, TIDAL HAS THE RIGHTS TO THE MASTER RECORDINGS THROUGH ITS DISTRIBUTOR TUNECORE AND HAVE PAID TUNECORE IN FULL FOR SUCH EXPLOITATIONS. THEIR DISPUTE APPEARS TO BE OVER THE MECHANICAL LICENSES, WHICH WE ARE ALSO UP TO DATE ON PAYMENTS VIA HARRY FOX AGENCY OUR ADMINISTRATOR OF MECHANICAL ROYALTIES.
THE ENTIRE CATALOGUE IN QUESTION STREAMED FEWER THAN 13,000 TIMES ON TIDAL AND ITS PREDECESSOR OVER THE PAST YEAR. WE HAVE NOW REMOVED ALL MUSIC ASSOCIATED WITH YESH MUSIC, LLC AND JOHN EMANUELE FROM THE SERVICE. THIS IS THE FIRST WE HAVE HEARD OF THIS DISPUTE AND YESH MUSIC, LLC SHOULD BE ENGAGING HARRY FOX AGENCY IF THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE OWED THE ROYALTIES CLAIMED. THEY ESPECIALLY SHOULD NOT BE NAMING S CARTER ENTERPRISES, LLC, WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TIDAL. THIS CLAIM SERVES AS NOTHING OTHER THAN A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY AMERICA NEEDS TORT REFORM.
Yesh Music v. S Carter Enterprises – class action complaint royalties TIDAL.pdf
