Tidal Reviews Potential Data Breach Amid Streaming Numbers Controversy
Tidal has been catching a lot of heat over the last couple of weeks as accusations have come down about numbers being fudged and artists not getting their proper cut. The Jay-Z co-owned company has denied the allegations, and now are reviewing their systems for a potential data breach.
As previously covered, last week a report from the Norwegian-based newspaper Dagens Næringsliv came out that accused Tidal of altering the numbers of artists like Kanye West and Beyonce. "Beyoncé’s and Kanye West’s listener numbers on Tidal have been manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays, which has generated massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists," the article reads.
The newspaper consulted with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Center for Cyber and Information Security in their investigation. Tidal sent XXL a statement about the issue: “This is a smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee as an ‘Israeli Intelligence officer’ and our owner as a ‘crack dealer,’" the statement reads. "We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies and falsehoods. The information was stolen and manipulated and we will fight these claims vigorously.”
Now, in a statement released to Rolling Stone on Friday (May 18), Tidal CEO Richard Sanders continues to deny the claims but says the company is getting the help of an “independent, third party cyber-security firm” to assess a possible data breach.
“Although we do not typically comment on stories we believe to be false, we feel it is important to make sure that our artists, employees and subscribers know that we are not taking the security and integrity of our data lightly,” the statement reads in part. “When we learned of a potential data breach we immediately, and aggressively, began pursuing multiple avenues available to uncover what occurred. This included reporting it to proper authorities, pursuing legal action, and proactively taking steps to further strengthen our stringent security measures that are already in place."
Last week, Tidal was also accused of being behind on royalty payments.
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