Jay-Z’s Tidal is back in the headlines, but not for good reason.
The music streaming service, which doesn’t have a free version and offers subscriptions between $9.99 and $19.99 per month, has been charging former customers, according to a report from The Verge. Past subscribers have seen charges appear on their credit cards even if they canceled their Tidal accounts months ago.
A few hours after he got the erroneous charge, Verge writer Chris Welch said he received an apologetic email from Tidal saying that not only would his money be refunded, but he’d also receive three months free of Tidal’s lower-tier service.
While this seems like a well-meaning apology from the company on the surface, Welch noted that his account was supposed to be shut down since he canceled it. In fact, the email he received from Tidal even added that “Your TIDAL account is now active, and you can log in with your existing username,” meaning that the company reactivated him without his permission.
After its initial buzz thanks to the big music names attached to the project and their vow to protect music artists’ from the alleged exploitation of free ad-supported music services, Tidal seemed to largely disappeared from the spotlight, save for few rounds of executive shuffles, as it faces fierce competition from Apple’s (AAPL) new music streaming service and Spotify.
In any case, Tidal seems to already be attempting to correct some of the error of its ways. Right after he published his original account, the company told Welch that it won’t be automatically charging customers after their free three months expire, as his renewed Tidal account stated.
Coins2Day has contacted Tidal for comment and will update this story if the company responds.
