Jay Z Sues Ex-Tidal Owners For Inflating Subscriber Count

A Tidal wave of regret has descended upon Jay Z.

The rap mogul is suing the former owners of his struggling music streaming service for allegedly exaggerating subscriber numbers when he bought it for $56 million last year.

The “99 Problems” rapper has served papers to the Norwegian media group Schibsted, a shareholder of Aspiro, the company Jay Z relaunched as Tidal, the Daily News has confirmed.

His legal team also sent a letter to Swedish private equity group Verdane Capital, a co-owner of Aspiro, USA Today reported.

The news came just one day after the subscription-based service celebrated its one-year anniversary and an apparent 3 million subscribers.

“The growth in our subscriber numbers has been even more phenomenal than we’ve previously shared,” Tidal said in a statement obtained by The News.

“It became clear after taking control of TIDAL and conducting our own audit that the total number of subscribers was actually well below the 540,000 reported to us by the prior owners,” the statement continued. “As a result, we have now served legal notice to parties involved in the sale.”

A rep from the hi-fi music purveyor declined to provide any further details.

Schibsted communications manager Anders Rikter defended his company’s transparency in a statement to The News.

“We disagree with the accusations in the letter and any potential claims,” he said. “We believe the information given by the company Aspiro has been very thorough and open and communicated clearly.”

Aspiro was listed on the stock exchange, Rikter added, and Jay Z’s company had done its “due diligence.”

Schibsted also called attention to a February 2015 Aspiro press release, which claimed the streaming service had 503,000 paying users as of Jan. 31 of that year.

Tidal’s letter did not specify any monetary amount, Rikter said, contrary to local media reports of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

The turnover-heavy company, which hired its third CEO in December, has sought to lure fans with exclusive content from artists like Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Jay Z himself — but continues to trail streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music.

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