Tidal announces investigation of “potential data breach”
The inquiry comes after the company was accused of inflating streaming numbers for releases by Beyoncé and Kanye West.
Jay-Z at the 'The Great Gatsby' world premiere in New York City. May 1, 2013.
Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Last week, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published a report alleging Tidal had artificially inflated the streaming numbers of two exclusive albums, The Life of Pablo by Kanye West and Lemonade by Beyoncé, giving the two megastars increased royalties. The report was based on purported Tidal streaming data acquired from a hard drive – the company said in a statement at the time that the data was "stolen," and had been altered by Dagens Næringsliv as part of a "smear campaign."
While Tidal continues to deny the allegations, today company CEO Richard Sanders announced that it will launch an independent investigation into "a potential data breach." Tidal issued a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday.
“Although we do not typically comment on stories we believe to be false," Sanders writes, "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.”
Read the statement in full below:
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.
When we learned of a potential data breach we immediately, and aggressively, began pursuing multiple avenues available to uncover what occurred. This included reporting it to proper authorities, pursuing legal action, and proactively taking steps to further strengthen our stringent security measures that are already in place.
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. We look forward to sharing with them, and all of our partners, the results of the review once completed.