Tyler, The Creator's new album Flower Boy is in a three-way fight with Meek Mill's Wins & Losses and Lana Del Rey's Lust For Life for number one on this week's album chart.
Hits Daily Double has Meek and Lana slightly ahead of Tyler, with all three albums expected to land just short of 100K SPS.
[Related: First-week projections for Tyler, The Creator & Meek Mill.]
Tyler jumped on Twitter yesterday and accused TIDAL and/or Meek of cheating him out of the top spot.
Earlier this week, Meek Mill put Wins & Losses on Tidal for free.
I want y'all to hear every part of my album in @TIDALHiFi quality. #WinsandLosses is now available for EVERYONE on https://t.co/yMRUAJmgqr
— Meek Mill (@MeekMill) July 26, 2017
Tyler seems to be suggesting Tidal or Mill or both used the lack of a paywall to have bots spike up Meek's count.
Last week, HDD reported industry insiders think Tidal inflated the numbers of JAY-Z and DJ Khaled's recent albums.
HDD added “there is a growing call from the industry to boot Tidal as a reporter to SoundScan.”
It looks like Tyler would agree.
Update: Billboard has confirmed the easy to manipulate free streams Meek is getting on Tidal will count toward his chart total.
"Free streams — with “free” defined as streams a listener has accessed without having a paid subscription or as part of a trial period subscription — have counted towards the Billboard 200 since it changed to a consumption model in 2014," the post read. "Billboard does not currently have in place any rule or rules dictating how an approved streaming chart contributor can present or promote content on their services." By the methodology now in place, which was arrived at in partnership with our industry constituents (record labels, distribution companies, etc.), on-demand audio streams from approved contributors, whether in front or behind a pay-wall, or via a free, discounted or paid trial, all count equally, provided the streams are consumer-initiated “on demand.”