ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: Apple Music Threatens to Sue TIDAL for $20 Million over Drake Performance

Drake Performs Back To Back

Last night, Lil Wayne’s first annual Lil Weezyana Fest, a benefit for his Tha Carter Fund on the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, went down in New Orleans and offered a Hot Boys reunion in addition to guest performances from Master P and Drake. Since Weezy is an official co-owner of TIDAL, the event was streamed live via the Hov-helmed service. Little did he suspect, bringing out Drizzy, who is an avid Apple Music rep, brought the streaming platform even more problems.

According to Page Six, Apple Music threatened to sue TIDAL for $20 million if Drake makes an appearance and it gets streamed on the web. Quite obviously, the Canadian’s deal with Apple Music doesn’t allow cross-platform performance.

Legal letters have been sent to Tidal warning that Drake cannot appear on the Tidal stream of the festival, either solo or part of a group, and if the warning was ignored, the liabilities could be up to $20 million,” a source told Page Six. 

Since Drizzy ultimately blessed the stage, TIDAL was forced to cut the live feed. Those who were watching the stream saw the message, “Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience. We’ll be back after the performance.”

Drake’s brief set included “My Way,” “HYFR,” “Back To Back” and “Know Yourself.” Lil Wayne played his hypeman and interestingly enough shouted out Nicki Minaj at the end. Watch footage shot from the crowd further below.

Music industry executives recently shared the opinion TIDAL will last less than a year. With Birdman demanding $50 million from the platform and Jay Z reportedly looking forward to depart from it, another $20 million lawsuit might be the last nail in the coffin.




Tidal Messages