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A fan is suing Kanye West and TIDAL for allegedly tricking people into signing up for The Life of Pablo. According to Pitchfork, Justin Baker-Rhett filed a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court Monday (April 18), asserting that West falsely promised TLOP would be exclusive to the streaming site. 

Millions signed up under the impression that there was no other (legal) way to hear West’s long-awaited February release, the lawsuit claims. Within a month, TLOP was added to Apple Music and Spotify.

https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699376240709402624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Baker-Rhett says West and TIDAL duped fans into handing over credit card numbers (TIDAL’s lowest tier runs $9.99 a month after a 30-day free trail) and other personal information in order to access TLOP.

The suit estimates TIDAL could make $84 million off the user data and since he’s a part-owner, Yeezy is likely to get a piece of the profit. Baker-Rhett wants a judge to force the company to delete info of users who signed up strictly for TLOP.

“We fully support the right of artists to express themselves freely and creatively, however creative freedom is not a license to mislead the public,” Jay Edelson, Baker-Rhett’s attorney, wrote in a statement published by the Associated Press. “We believe that we will be able to prove to a jury that Mr. West and TIDAL tricked millions of people into subscribing to their services and that they will ultimately be held accountable for what they did.”

TIDAL claims West’s album was streamed more than 250 million times within 10 days of it’s release. TLOP went on to debut atop the Billboard 200  becoming the first No. 1 album to earn 70 percent of its sales from streaming.

Photo: WENN