Apple Reportedly Trying To Sabotage Jay Z’s Tidal

IS APPLE WAGING WAR ON TIDAL?

(AllHipHop News) Jay Z went on a rare tweet spree yesterday (April 26) in order to defend his new streaming platform Tidal. One of the tweets included Jay accusing other companies of engaging in a “smear campaign” against his service.

[ALSO READ: Jay Z Alleges Other Companies Are Conducting A “Smear Campaign” Against Tidal + Addresses Elitist Perception Of The Service]

The New York Post is reporting music industry giant Apple is purposely interfering with Tidal’s placement on the company’s App charts. Last week Tidal fell out of the top 750 applications in the App Store and dropped out of the top 40 on the music apps chart.

A source told the Post, “[Apple] deliberately took a long time to approve Tidal iOS app updates. Tidal had a new app on Android on April 15, but still hasn’t received approval for Apple’s iOS app store.”

There are also claims that Apple’s Vice President of iTunes Content, Robert Kondrk, told executives at Universal Music Group that if their artists put music exclusively on Tidal they would not be promoted as featured artists on iTunes.

A source also says Rihanna’s music was “scrambled and were out of commission for periods of time” in the iTunes store after she premiered her “American Oxygen” single on Tidal. Apple denied any tampering with Rihanna’s music, but declined to comment to the Post on the other accusations.

Several high-profile artists are part of Tidal’s ownership group including Jay, Rihanna, Beyonce, Madonna, Jack White, and J. Cole. Each of those artists have provided exclusive content on Tidal.

Apple is set to relaunch its own Beats Music streaming service in June. Beats Music is currently ranked at number 10 on the Apple Music Apps Chart behind Pandora (1), Spotify (2), and SoundCloud (3). Tidal is currently at number 49.

[ALSO READ: Jay Z To Take On Spotify & Beats Music By Purchasing Music Streaming Company Aspiro]