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Jay Z, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce and more at the TIDAL Music Launch

Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty

Streaming service Tidal is being accused of falsely reporting inflated streaming numbers for Kanye West’s Life of Pablo album and Beyonce’s Lemonade album. According to a Norwegian newspaper, the streaming service “intentionally inflated its subscriber numbers”. Tidal reported that Life of Pablo streamed 250 million times during the first 10 days of its release in February 2016 and Beyonce’s Lemonade album was streamed 306 million times during the first 15 days of its April 2016 release. Tidal reported that they had 3 million subscribers, which would mean each subscriber would’ve streamed the albums eight times a day. The Norwegian newspaper investigation claims that massive payouts were made to the artist’s labels, a claim which the newspaper backs up with data that was retrieved from Tidal showing internal song titles and time information. Tidal released a statement saying, “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.’ 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.”