Kanye West is being sued, accused of tricking fans into signing up with streaming service Tidal.
In February, West tweeted that his latest album, The Life of Pablo, would only be available on Tidal, owned by Jay Z's company S Carter Enterprises.
He later reneged on that promise, releasing Pablo on rival streaming services Spotify and Apple Music, and putting it up for sale on iTunes and his own website.
Justin Baker-Rhett has enlisted the services of Chicago law firm Edelson PC to sue West and S Carter Enterprises, saying they "fraudulently" tricked millions of people into signing up with Tidal.
"In reality, neither Mr West nor S Carter Enterprises ever intended The Life of Pablo to run exclusively on the Tidal platform," the lawsuit claims.
"Kanye has the power to send one tweet out into the world and get 2 million people to act on it. This suit is about holding him accountable when he abuses that power," Edelson chief executive Jay Edelson said in a statement.
It's reported Tidal's member base tripled to 3 million following West's tweet in February. West, who recently claimed to be US$50 million in debt, is an investor in Tidal.
Mr Edelson and Mr Baker-Rhett want the courts to certify their lawsuit as a class action, saying the personal details and credit card information collected by Tidal needs to be deleted and compensation paid out.
"By the time Mr West changed course and broadly released The Life of Pablo, the deceptive marketing ploy had served its purpose," the suit reads.
"Tidal's subscriber numbers had tripled, streaming numbers were through the roof and Tidal had collected the personal information, credit card numbers, and social media information of millions of deceived consumers. As a result, Tidal's valuation -- the lifeblood of any new startup -- soared."
In February, West also claimed Tidal would be releasing new songs by himself, Kendrick Lamar and Young Thug every Friday. Rolling Stone reports no new songs have been released by the trio since the release of The Life of Pablo came out.
Newshub.
