Kanye West Leaves Tidal Over Contract Disputes, Quits Exclusive Music Streaming Releases

Rapper Kanye West has reportedly left Tidal, a music streaming service that he co-owned and founded with Jay-Z back in 2015. A contract dispute over money was cited as one of the reasons why the rapper left.

According to TMZ’s sources, West believes that Tidal, an artist-owned service, owes him more than $3 million. West’s attorney reached out to the outfit a month ago to talk about the company’s breach of contract, and that attempts to effectively come to a resolution lasted for two fruitless weeks. West’s attorney sent in an official letter to Tidal formalizing the rapper’s departure from the company.

Kanye West performing at Coachella on April 17, 2011 in Indio, California. Photo via vonlohmann/Wikimedia Commons

Wests also claims that his latest album, “The Life of Pablo,” reportedly raked in 1.5 million new subscribers to Tidal, prompting a bonus for the rapper. However, the bonus for the new subscriptions weren’t released to West’s account. Music Video sales for West’s songs were also left unpaid by the company.

Both parties are now in a legal feud against each other.

No More Exclusive Streaming Releases For Future Kanye West Albums

TMZ also reports that West doesn’t want to enter into any other exclusive album release contracts for any of his albums in the future anymore. Apparently, the rapper wants to keep whatever beef is going on with him and Tidal from happening. “The Life of Pablo” had a limited month-and-a-half release before being made available to Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.

However, part of the ongoing money dispute at Tidal includes West not being able to go to another streaming service, lest he face a possible legal action.

Once West decides to release new music, he wants to make it available to all music platforms so it can reach more people than to exclusive subscribers in a specific streaming service.

Kanye West and Jay-Z performing at Staples Center on December 11, 2011 in Los Angeles on their Watch the Throne Tour. Photo via U2soul/Wikimedia Commons

When “The Life of Pablo” was released, West had a pretty messy roll out. It made him remove the album from Tidal temporarily to re-work and remaster his tracks. Though Tidal is an exclusive stream, it wasn’t made available for purchase or offline listening.

Jay-Z’s “4:44” album predates the feud, in which the rapper also disses West.