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Tidal Investigating 'Potential Data Breach' After Reports of Late Royalty Payments and Inflated Streams

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A few days after Norwegian news site Dagens Næringsliv accused subscription music service Tidal of being months behind on royalty payments, as well as falsifying and inflating streaming numbers, Music Business Worldwide now reports that Tidal has learned of a "potential data breach" on its platform.

tidal_apple_tv.jpg

Tidal CEO Richard Sanders said in a statement that when the company learned of the potential data breach it "immediately" began trying to uncover the source, while also reporting it to authorities and taking "proactive" steps to strengthen the service's security. Tidal's measures in the wake of the discovery also include hiring an "independent, third party cyber-security firm" to find out what happened.
"Additionally, we have engaged an independent, third party cyber-security firm to conduct a review of what happened and help us further protect the security and integrity of our data. We are proud of the hard work, devotion to our artist driven mission, and tremendous accomplishments of our over one hundred employees in Norway and fifty more in the United States.
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Since so little is known about the potential data breach, it's unclear how widespread it might have been and what aspects of Tidal users' data could have been compromised. Sanders mentioned that the company looks forward to sharing the results of the security firm's discoveries with its employees and partners "once completed."

Dagens Næringsliv's report earlier this week called out Tidal for being months behind on its royalty payments to record labels, after it previously said in December that the streaming company was facing money problems and would run out of working capital within six months. Additionally, the site investigated Tidal and claimed the company has been inflating streaming numbers, particularly those related to Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album and Beyonce's Lemonade album.

Sanders commented on those claims today, leading into the company's potential data breach discovery:
"We reject and deny the claims that have been made by Dagens Næringsliv. Although we do not typically comment on stories we believe to be false, we feel it is important to make sure that our artists, employees, and subscribers know that we are not taking the security and integrity of our data lightly, and we will not back down from our commitment to them."
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Tidal is one of the streaming music rivals to Apple Music, offering both a $9.99/month standard sound quality tier and a $19.99/month High Fidelity tier. At one point rumors swirled around Apple's potential acquisition of Tidal, but the Cupertino company eventually ended those rumors and in early 2017 Sprint bought a 33 percent stake in Jay Z's streaming music service.

Article Link: Tidal Investigating 'Potential Data Breach' After Reports of Late Royalty Payments and Inflated Streams
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/18/tidal-potential-data-breach/
I

iansilv

macrumors 65816
Jun 2, 2007
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MacRumors said:



A few days after Norwegian news site Dagens Næringsliv accused subscription music service Tidal of being months behind on royalty payments, as well as falsifying and inflating streaming numbers, Music Business Worldwide now reports that Tidal has learned of a "potential data breach" on its platform.

tidal_apple_tv.jpg

Tidal CEO Richard Sanders said in a statement that when the company learned of the potential data breach it "immediately" began trying to uncover the source, while also reporting it to authorities and taking "proactive" steps to strengthen the service's security. Tidal's measures in the wake of the discovery also include hiring an "independent, third party cyber-security firm" to find out what happened.
Since so little is known about the potential data breach, it's unclear how widespread it might have been and what aspects of Tidal users' data could have been compromised. Sanders mentioned that the company looks forward to sharing the results of the security firm's discoveries with its employees and partners "once completed."

Dagens Næringsliv's report earlier this week called out Tidal for being months behind on its royalty payments to record labels, after it previously said in December that the streaming company was facing money problems and would run out of working capital within six months. Additionally, the site investigated Tidal and claimed the company has been inflating streaming numbers, particularly those related to Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album and Beyonce's Lemonade album.

Sanders commented on those claims today, leading into the company's potential data breach discovery:
Tidal is one of the streaming music rivals to Apple Music, offering both a $9.99/month standard sound quality tier and a $19.99/month High Fidelity tier. At one point rumors swirled around Apple's potential acquisition of Tidal, but the Cupertino company eventually ended those rumors and in early 2017 Sprint bought a 33 percent stake in Jay Z's streaming music service.

Article Link: Tidal Investigating 'Potential Data Breach' After Reports of Late Royalty Payments and Inflated Streams
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If Apple Music only supported MQA I wouldn’t care about tidal...
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy

OldSchoolMacGuy

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rolsskk said:
Problems? What problems? Hey, what's that? Look over there!!
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Seems trying to distract people from one problem with a potentially far bigger one (and one that'll lose you far more customers) isn't a smart move.

While we certainly see many try to distract from problems, generally they don't do it by creating a far bigger problem. The potential that they haven't paid royalties recently is an issue and got some bad press. A data breach will get them FAR more bad press.
 
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rolsskk

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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Seems trying to distract people from one problem with a potentially far bigger one (and one that'll lose you far more customers) isn't a smart move.

While we certainly see many try to distract from problems, generally they don't do it by creating a far bigger problem. The potential that they haven't paid royalties recently is an issue and got some bad press. A data breach will get them FAR more bad press.
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I doubt it as data breaches are commonplace these days that people just shrug it off, I mean just look at the credit bureau breaches. Probably the most egregious breach out there, but where's the outrage over that? Crickets. But when you fail to pay the bills, that grabs people's attention and brings thigns to a screeching halt.
 
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OldSchoolMacGuy

OldSchoolMacGuy

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rolsskk said:
I doubt it as data breaches are commonplace these days that people just shrug it off, I mean just look at the credit bureau breaches. Probably the most egregious breach out there, but where's the outrage over that? Crickets. But when you fail to pay the bills, that grabs people's attention and brings thigns to a screeching halt.
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The press on their failure to pay had passed with little of it. There was no need to create a distraction. At the end of the day, it means nothing to people using the service as long as the music keeps playing. I'm sure most users are completely unaware of that piece.
 
nburwell

nburwell

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May 6, 2008
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dmylrea said:
With Sprint's stake in Tidal, and with T-Mobile swallowing up Sprint, could Legere have something up his sleeve with regards to making something of Tidal?
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Very interesting point that you bring up (if regulators approve the merger). I always figured that Tidal would be bought by Spotify or Apple Music. But if the Sprint/T-Mobile merger is approved, I'd be interested to see what Legere does with it.
 
Will.O.Bie

Will.O.Bie

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Aug 29, 2016
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What does a data breach have anything to do with allegedly not paying royalties? Hackers siphoning out money from their service? o_O

Richard Sanders is just as cuckoo as Kanye himself...
 
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thisisnotmyname

thisisnotmyname

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OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Seems trying to distract people from one problem with a potentially far bigger one (and one that'll lose you far more customers) isn't a smart move.

While we certainly see many try to distract from problems, generally they don't do it by creating a far bigger problem. The potential that they haven't paid royalties recently is an issue and got some bad press. A data breach will get them FAR more bad press.
Click to expand...

Unless the distraction is to avoid fraud and jail time. I'll put my tinfoil hat back on now :)
 
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EBone12355

EBone12355

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Mar 7, 2016
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The real issue will be when all the artists except for Jay Z, Kanye, and Beyonce pull their music because they aren’t getting paid.

No wonder that idiot Kanye has been running around trying to get a meeting with Tim Cook.
 
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