Jay Z’s Company Slapped With $5 Million-Plus Lawsuit Over Artists’ Royalties

Jay Z’s problem meter just clicked over to 100.

Aspiro, the parent company of the rapper/mogul’s streaming service, Tidal, has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the service is infringing on artists’ copyrights and stiffing them on royalties from Tidal streams.

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Yesh Music and John K. Emanuele say Aspiro “systematically undercut the calculation of mechanical royalties” via “illegal deals with equity investor partners.”

The suit, which also names Jay Z’s S. Carter Enterprises and Black Panther Bidco as defendants, also claims that the companies failed to obtain mechanical licenses for the plaintiffs’ work as “part of an egregious, calculated and ongoing campaign of deliberate copyright infringement.”