Digital music service TIDAL climbed to the top of the App Store, thanks to scoring the exclusive rights to Kanye West’s new album, “The Life of Pablo” – but that release hasn’t exactly been going as planned. Twitter today is filled with complaints from consumers who claimed they paid for the album, but never received the download. TechCrunch staff has experienced the same problem, in fact.
To catch you up, the new album went live over the weekend and was originally made available for streaming through TIDAL’s music service, as well as available for download from TIDAL on the web, through a link that was made available via Kanye West’s website.
However, soon after launch, the artist tweeted that he decided not to sell his album for another week, and pulled down the TIDAL-powered link – kanyewest.tidal.com. (It now redirects to kanyewest.com).
This situation may or may not have contributed to the glitch users are now experiencing. It’s also unclear at this time how many users have been affected by the issue, as Twitter complaints are only representative of a problem, but not a hard metric.
According to those complaining to TIDAL, however, the company charged their credit card for the album’s purchase, but they never received an email from TIDAL or a download link. In some cases, TIDAL has charged their credit card more than once. In addition to double-billing for the album’s purchase itself (at $20 a pop), TIDAL is also double-billing a $1.00 fee which wasn’t explained to users, either.
This appears to be a pre-authorization fee to ensure the credit card submitted is valid, but typically a company explains this in advance – not after the fact, as TIDAL is doing. (The company’s Twitter says the $1.00 charge will be reversed quickly, but that could take “up to a few weeks” to process)
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The end result of the glitches users are experiencing is that some have now paid up to $42 for an album that has yet to arrive.
Others, including TechCrunch editor Matthew Panzarino, report that they were charged only for the album itself, along with a couple of $1.00 (pre-auth) fees, without receiving a download.
What’s worse is that TIDAL doesn’t seem to be responding to the flood of complaints hitting its Twitter, asking some users to “DM” (direct message) them with account information and support ticket numbers – as if the situation was a one-off that needed to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
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Other users seem to be ignored entirely by TIDAL’s Twitter – which, in all fairness, could be overwhelmed by the volume of requests.
That said, given that many are experiencing the same problem, it’s time for the company to make a statement.
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In addition to the Twitter complaints, some who have entered formal support tickets say their requests are going unanswered, too.
Conspiracy theorists on Reddit speculate this is all a bit of marketing buzz, meant to generate headlines regarding the new album. That seems less likely.
Unfortunately for TIDAL, the situation is just one of what’s now many examples of serious concerns with its ability to operate a stable and trustworthy music service.
The company already accidentally leaked Rihanna’s album, attributing the problem to a “system error.” However, in that case, TIDAL pointed a finger at Universal Music Group, indicating the error was not on its side, but rather on Universal’s.
That may or may not be true, but the company has had problems of its own as well, before today’s latest. For example, TIDAL’s live video stream of Kanye’s Yeezy Season 3 fashion show and concert also suffered numerous glitches. The live stream went down, seemingly unable to handle the load of viewers.
Representatives for TIDAL have been asked for comment, but a response was not yet available by press time. We’ll update if one is provided.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JPB29y9bJBk/
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