Since Jay Z paid $56 million to take over the streaming company Tidal, things haven't always gone according to plan. With Tidal constantly facing challenges such as the $5 million lawsuit by Yesh Music Publishing and John Emanuel of American Dollar for copyright infringemnet and unpaid royalties as reported last month by Fortune, it seems Tidal has some uphill battles.
Regardless, according to digitalmusicnews.com Tidal accounced its three millionth subscriber which the article describes as "a major milestone albeit a self-reported one." This is where it becomes a bit sticky. According to Jay Z, he believes the Norwegian media company Schibsted ASA inflated the number of subscribers it had at the time of sale. This is according to an article writen on Bloomberg.com. In the article Tidal states that, "It became clear after taking control of Tidal and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the prior owners,” Tidal told Bloomberg. The company said it has “served legal notice to parties involved in the sale.”
In reponse the Schibsted Communications Manager, Ander Rikter states that Tidal had access to all the necessary information before the point of sale and that the there is little incentive to go down a lengthy court battle. He further states that this may be an indication that Tidal isn't doing as well as it suggests.
