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Criminal Probe Opened Over 320M Fake Streams On Tidal

Official Norwegian criminal justice unit Økokrim has opened an investigation into hundreds of millions of possible fake streams on Tidal that benefited new releases by Kanye West and Beyonce.

,   and  Bruce Houghton
Tidal logoOfficial Norwegian criminal justice unit Økokrim has opened an investigation into hundreds of millions of possible fake streams on Tidal that benefited new releases by Kanye West and Beyonce. Økokrim, The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, is Norway's central unit for fighting economic and environmental crimes.  Økokrim is both a police unit and a prosecution authorityNorwegian news outlet DN broke the story last May that at least 320 million fake plays for new releases by Beyoncé and Kanye West had been added to Tidal's listening stas. That led to higher chart positions and payouts that come at the expense at the expense of other artists on Tidal, according to the news outlet.in the week's that followed, four Norwegian music organizations filed reports related to Tidal with the authorities. Tidal has repeatedly denied tampering with data.  In a May, CEO Richard Sanders said in a statement:“We reject and deny the claims that have been made by (Norwegian newspaper) 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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