“Kanye West’s troubled release of his latest album, ‘The Life of Pablo,’ has already cost the hip-hop star at least $10 million in sales, a review of estimated pirated downloads on Tuesday revealed,” Richard Morgan reports for The New York Post. “TorrentFreak, which tracks music piracy and file-sharing, reported that West’s album was illegally downloaded more than 500,000 times in the first 24 hours of its Feb. 14 release. West also planned to offer album downloads for $20 on his [website]. If each of the 500,000 persons illegally downloading the album would have bought it for the $20 selling price, Kanye would have pocketed $10 million in revenue.”
“But West changed his mind 24 hours after releasing ‘TLOP,’ and the album was not offered for downloads — even though thousands of fans had ponied up cash for the long-awaited work,” Morgan reports. “By then, social media outlets were ablaze with complaints from customers who had paid Tidal for a download of ‘TLOP’ but never received it. Many frustrated fans also claimed to have been double-billed and, adding insult to injury, hit with inexplicable $1 surcharges.”
“Tidal admitted the download was currently unavailable yet promised a final version of ‘TLOP’ would become available ‘in the next several days.’ Tidal also offered customers a refund if they wanted one,” Morgan reports. “But West, in an apparent contradiction of Tidal, tweeted on Monday: ‘My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale… You can only get it on Tidal.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like “The Life of Pablum” isn’t going to help dent West’s $53 million debt. And, seeing as how Tidal has a free 30-day trial period, so whatever fans West has can get his album for free anyway, even if they don’t just torrent it, it looks like this thing is a big money-loser all the way around. Aw, gee, that’s too bad.
SEE ALSO:
Kanye West says he’s $53 million in debt and his new album will never ever be on Apple Music or iTunes, only Tidal (whatever that is) – February 16, 2016
Jay Z’s Tidal music service loses second CEO in six months – June 23, 2015
Half of Tidal’s owners may have to pull their own music – May 29, 2015
Why Jay-Z’s Tidal music venture is a complete disaster – May 28, 2015
Jay-Z’s Tidal music service is already a spectacular flop – April 21, 2015
Why Jay-Z’s ‘Tidal’ music subscription service doesn’t matter – March 31, 2015