TIDAL sued over royalty payments, company states claims are “misinformed”

TIDAL sued over royalty payments, company states claims are “misinformed”

Tidal has been hit by a class action lawsuit, filed by John Emanuele from the band The American Dollar and the label Yesh Music LLC last Saturday in New York. 

In the suit, worth $5 million, Emanuele states that he has not received royalties from the streaming service, whilst his label Yesh Music states that Tidal is deliberately miscalculating pre-stream royalty rates. The suit is focused primarily on mechanical rights. 

Tidal was quick in dismissing the claims, stating on Monday that it is up to date on all the royalties owed to Yesh Music LLC and that “John Emanuele’s claim and they are misinformed as to who, if anyone, owes royalty payments to them.” 

Tidal also states that the issue of mechanical licenses is something that is handled by the Harry Fox Agency and that its payments on that front are up to date. 

The company is keen to make the point that the suit has no merit by disclosing the number of streams the Yesh Music Catalogue racked up in a year (13,000) and stating that they have now removed all that catalogue from the service. 

At this early stage it is hard to tell whether there is any merit to the lawsuit, but the issue of mechanical royalties is one that will continue to plague the music streaming industry for the foreseeable future as the collection and distribution methods for those royalties are opaque. Spotify has been hit with a similar lawsuit at the end of 2015. 

If Tidal is, as rumours from the past couple of days suggest, looking for a buyer, it is no wonder that the company responded so promptly and firmly to the allegations. When it launched, Tidal took pride in stating the service was by artists and for artists, so this suit is certainly damaging for its brand. 

 

(Andrea Leonelli)