Tidal sued over royalties

Jay Z’s insistence that his Tidal music streaming service is artist-friendly with 75% of royalties going to creators, took a blow in the United States.

As TMN reported, Tidal’s getting a bad vibe on delayed royalty payments.

Now it’s been hit with a copyright infringement and royalties lawsuit by Yesh Music Publishing and drummer and keyboardist John Emanuele, who formed the Queens, New York-based The American Dollar in 2005 with guitarist, keyboardist and producer Richard Cupolo.

It is demanding between US$5 million (A$6.9 million) and $20 million ($28 million) including damages. The suit claims Tidal (and its WiMP predecessor) has 118 of its tracks on the service but does not have permission to do so. It asserts that underpayment of royalties is part of a “calculated business plan” by Tidal.

“Ironically, when defendant Carter purchased the Tidal Music Service in 2015, it claimed it would be the first streaming service to pay the artists. Different owner, same game.”

Tidal has sharply responded it 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 (have) 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 company stated that all the works of The American Dollar have only received 13,000 streams on Tidal – and all their tracks are now removed from the service.

Meanwhile, Tidal has also let go of its CFO Chris Hart and COO Nils Juell.Swedish news siteBreakithas reportedHart was firedafter a dispute about Tidal’s streaming data, specifically, how that data is shared. Tidal has told The Vergeit shares streaming data with Nielsen Music unless requested not to by an artist.

Billboard reports that since July 2014, Yesh Music, LLC has filed suits against seven music streaming services, including Deezer, Rdio, Rhapsody and Beats Music.

In August 2011, The American Dollar took action against the Lakewood Church for using their music on DVDs and television broadcasts without permission. The case was settled out of court.

Similarly, Spotify recently dropped Chicago-based hardcore and post-hardcore Victory Records’ catalogue after it claimed the service owes publishing royalties for 53 million streams. Victory is home to Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights and the now defunct Thursday.

Last December, Camper Van Beethoven and Camper frontman David Lowery filed a $150 million ($209.6 million) class action against Spotify over unpublished royalties. Just days before, the streaming service had announced plans for a database to manage publishing royalties.