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A digital forensic report claims Tidal faked millions of streams for Beyoncé and Kanye West

Business May 9, 2018
Based on log data obtained by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, it appears the streaming numbers for Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo and Beyonce’s Lemonade were inflated through manipulated user play counts on Tidal, which increased royalty payouts. The findings were confirmed through data analysis done by the Norwegian Center for Cyber and Information Security, though Tidal denied the accusations.
Photo via @AngieGreaves
· 9 May 2018

Tidal accused of generating 300 million fake streams for Kanye and Beyoncé

155 replies 1,659 retweets 2,424 likes
· 9 May 2018

Streaming numbers of Beyonce and Kanye West's respective albums on rap mogul Jay Z's music platform Tidal have been manipulated, allowing the stars excessive royalty payouts, a Norwegian newspaper reports

60 replies 737 retweets 945 likes
· 9 May 2018

Digital forensic report from NTNU on how Tidal's streaming data for the albums Lemonade and The Life of Pable have been manipulated. Impressive work by Norwegian Business Daily.

12 replies 165 retweets 373 likes
· 9 May 2018

UPDATED: calls accusations of falsifying and streaming numbers a 'smear campaign'

33 replies 367 retweets 646 likes
· 9 May 2018

apparently Tidal gave Kanye 150 million unearned streams by manipulating user accounts

10 replies 255 retweets 528 likes
· 9 May 2018

Damn, Tidal.

7 replies 213 retweets 642 likes
· 9 May 2018
Replying to

Tidal used to be a Norwegian company, and Dagens Næringsliv is one of the most respected newspapers here

3 replies 92 retweets 382 likes
· 9 May 2018
Replying to

Tidal used to be a Norwegian streaming service called Wimp, that is why Norwegian media has been reporting on it

1 reply 83 retweets 369 likes
· 8 May 2018

In a world of data, who's to know what is fake? Pretty disappointing of if true. Amazing work by & the cyber forensics at Gjøvik analyzing the data:

6 replies 74 retweets 334 likes
· 9 May 2018

This from has most of the info translated.

TIDAL accused of deliberately faking Kanye West and Beyoncé streaming numbers -
1 reply 46 retweets 137 likes
· 9 May 2018

This is nuts. "TIDAL is accused of accessing genuine user accounts to play more than 150m ‘duplicates’ of tracks... More than 1.3m subscriber accounts were reportedly subject to this alleged ‘manipulation’."

17 replies 444 retweets 617 likes
· 9 May 2018

"Beyoncé’s and Kanye West’s listener numbers on TIDAL have been manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays… which has generated massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists."

63 replies 1,082 retweets 1,239 likes
· 9 May 2018

Tidal's lawyer says: "Each of these accusations is demonstrably false". Hmmm.

7 replies 114 retweets 184 likes
· 9 May 2018

Said it before but obviously this is going to place other DSPs under similar scrutiny and lead to other investigations...

4 replies 32 retweets 177 likes
· 9 May 2018

This Kanye and Beyonce, Tidal scandal is the tip of the iceberg, just wait and see

14 replies 195 retweets 778 likes

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