Dear Reader, I wrote this post about the class action lawsuit against Kanye and Jay Z. And this article I wrote explains about Jay Z suing the people he bought Tidal from. As well as this article about the the gutting of copyright protections by digital aggregators. These will be of interest to those in the music business, whether a DIY/Indie, or a company servicing their needs.
Dear Kanye and Jay Z,
The lawsuit against you two proves you don’t know how digital distribution works, because if you did you would never have made the promise about exclusive content on Tidal.com.
How can I say that? I’ve included this link you may not have read: Read here how music is submitted to Tidal. In case you don’t want to read it, I shall summarize:
Music is not submitted directly to Tidal.
Tidal get its music from Indigoboom, Record Union, Distrokid, or Tunecore. Artists and bands will need to sign and fill out a contract in order to be eligible for music upload. But whose contract do they sign? The digital aggregators’ contracts, of course. All of whom will
get your music online everywhere.
And they did that for you, Kanye, so you can’t sue them, right? Isn’t that just awesome that the reason you’re getting sued is because somebody actually did the job you hired them to do? Let me show you some screenshots you might find amusing…or maybe not.
Kanye, which digital aggregator did your team use to submit your Life of Pablo album to Tidal?
Was your team aware that those digital aggregators’ jobs are to get your music everywhere?
And Jay Z, were you aware that the very service providers you chose have made it virtually impossible for confirming exclusivity of release?
Listen, guys. If you don’t know all this — and you are smack dab at the top of the industry — then something is bad wrong with this business model.
In any case, it is extremely clear neither of you read the Terms and Conditions of the digital aggregators, nor do you know the process by which the money stream is touched these days.
This class-action lawsuit against you both is a wake-up call that consumers are tired of getting screwed over — especially by those who stand in front of them promising to look after the little guy, but then don’t. Stuff like that can be called pandering to the masses. The masses just hit back with the suit.
Most sincerely,
Angela K. Durden, CEO, Songwriter, Inventor of My Digital Catalog, a service that helps the little guy collect, maintain, and confirm source pre-release data that will help hold the line against the digital aggregators playing fast and loose with their intellectual property — and their money
PS: Kanye and Jay Z, I don’t think your record labels will let you sign up for this, but you DIY/Indies out there looking to build your businesses should. It’s easy to do.
