TIDAL Hits Back At ‘Smear Campaign’ That Claims They Inflated Beyoncé & Kanye Streaming Figures

Subscription-based music streaming service TIDAL has slammed reports that it deliberately inflated Beyoncé and Kanye West’s streaming figures.

According to Pitchfork (via Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv), Jay Z’s streaming service allegedly beefed up the figures of Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo by hundreds of millions of plays.

TIDAL has responded to the claims, calling it a “smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee as an “Israeli Intelligence officer” and our owner as a “crack dealer”.

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“We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies and falsehoods,” a statement to Pitchfork reads.

“The information was stolen and manipulated.”

The Norwegian newspaper is said to have obtained a hard drive that allegedly contained manipulated TIDAL streaming data, which was studied by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Center for Cyber and Information Security.

Their investigation claims some users were listening to multiple songs at once, with others playing songs every six minutes, down to the millisecond. Other accounts showed large numbers of plays throughout the day and night, among other things.

TIDAL said they would “fight these claims vigorously.”