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A class-action lawsuit which had been filed against Kanye West and Tidal over “The Life of Pablo’s” “exclusivity” has finally come to an end, NME reports.
The legal action was first launched back in 2016 with the argument that the rapper and the streaming service had allegedly bamboozled fans by announcing that ‘Pablo’ would be a Tidal exclusive upon release.
A tweet West made on February 15 stated that the album “will never never never be on Apple” and that “it will never be for sale” aside from TIDAL. The album made its way to other major streaming platforms by April 2016.
The suit alleged that Ye and Tidal deceived fans in order to drive up subscriptions to the Jay-Z-owned company.
West’s defense argued that he “altered lyrics, changed vocals, added new beats, and remixed songs” when it came to versions of the album released to Apple Music, Spotify and other music streaming sites.
“The versions of The Life of Pablo that are available on other streaming services are different from the original, Tidal-only version,” legal documents from West’s team explained. “Plaintiff does not dispute that there are differences between the versions of the album available on the different streaming services, and therefore he has not shown that Mr. West’s tweet about the exclusivity of The Life of Pablo on Tidal was false.”
As The Blast reports, lead plaintiff Justin Baker-Rhett and West have now reached an agreement for the suit to be dismissed.
Baker-Rhett reportedly filed documents January 29 which informed the court that he and Kanye “hereby stipulate and agree to the dismissal of Plaintiff’s individual claims with prejudice and the putative class’s claims without prejudice, with each party to bear its own attorney fees and costs.”
Representatives for Baker-Rhett and TIDAL gave a same statement to Pitchfork: “TIDAL, Mr. West and Mr. Baker-Rhett have resolved their differences amicably and the lawsuit has been dismissed.”
