Jay Z and Tidal Are Being Sued for Not Paying Royalties

At TIDAL's introductory press conference, some of music's biggest names stood united in front of a microphone and touted the streaming service as the "first-ever-artist-owned global music and entertainment platform." They spoke of payouts that were more than one-and-a-half times those paid out by Spotify, and for starving artists that depend on streams to line their pockets, TIDAL sounded like a great service that put artists first.

But it appears the big money talk may have been just that: talk. Reports are surfacing that Jay Z and TIDAL are facing a $5 million class-action lawsuit from Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuele from the band The American Dollar.

The lawsuit names Hov as a defendant and The American Dollar's lawyer Richard Garbarini told Complex that his client did not receive any royalties for their work until Nov. 2015. The band had asked TIDAL to remove their music from the service but their work is still available to stream. "I find it fairly amazing an organization that claims it was going to pay the artists, systematically does not pay the artists," said Garbarini.

The document says that The American Dollar was expecting a monthly report on royalty payments and usage of every song on the service, but never received the expected information.

Soon after, TIDAL sent Fader a statement saying they have already paid out royalties to the band and that it is they who are "misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty payments to them."

The band currently has just under 20,000 followers on Spotify, 25,000 likes on Facebook and right around 3,200 followers on Twitter.

News of the lawsuit comes on the heels of rumors that Samsung is in talks to buy TIDAL. According to the New York Post, Samsung, who already has a successful relationship with the superstar rapper, is open to discussing the purchase of the company from Hov.

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