Jay Z’s Tidal Admits To ‘Manipulating’ Kanye West’s Streaming Numbers

Tidal Admits To ‘Faking’ Kanye West’s “Life Of Pablo” Streaming Numbers

Tidal was called out last week in a Norwegian music streaming fraud case. Tidal is currently owned by Jay Z and a variety of other successful music artists, making it the first artist-owned streaming service in the world.

However, Jay Z’s Tidal streaming company has admitted to manipulating the streaming numbers of at least one artist, Kanye West, who was a one time Tidal partner.

According to new court documents obtained by MTO News via Norways largest business newspaper, Dagens Næringsliv (Norwegian for “Today’s Business”), Tidal has admitted to artist manipulations.

In the documents, Tidal acknowledges that the company changed power figures after the launch of “Life of Pablo” due to major technical issues.

Tidal claims the didn’t artificially inflate Kanye’s numbers on purpose, however. Jay Z’s company claimed that Kanye’s album was so popular, that it caused a system wide glitch forcing them to estimate the streams.

The Life of Pablo is the seventh studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on February 14, 2016, through GOOD Music and distributed by Def Jam Recordings.