Music streaming service Tidal was facing a good news/bad news scenario over the last weekend, with the successful Tidal-exclusive launch of Jay-Z's new album 4:44, being the good news. The bad news, according to TMZ, was that Kanye West has split with the company and that Tidal has threatened a lawsuit to keep him from taking his work to any rival streaming service.
Kanye has reportedly been unhappy with Tidal for some time, stemming from a sum of more than $3 million that he says Tidal owes him. His contract was supposed to entitle him to a bonus connected to the 1.5 million people who signed up to hear The Life of Pablo, which was exclusive to the streaming service for more than a month, and Kanye claims he hasn't been paid that bonus, or for music videos he was supposed to release on the service.
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The dispute led to some back-and-forth correspondence between Kanye's lawyers and Tidal's, with the end result being Kanye shredding his contract with Tidal, and Tidal claiming it would sue if he violated its terms by going to another service. The whole experience has reportedly soured Kanye on the entire concept of exclusive releases, and when he drops his next album he reportedly wishes "to make it available on as many music platforms as possible… so more people can listen as soon as it's released."
