Kanye West Download Flip-Flop Makes Tidal Users Flip Out

Kanye West announced this weekend that he’s $43 million in debt. And he’s not likely to earn a lot of goodwill on his balance sheet after his latest move, changing the download date of his album — but only after thousands of people paid for the download, and some were even charged twice.

West, who is nominated for four awards at Monday night's Grammys, helped Tidal become the No. 1 app when he sold exclusive rights to his new album, “The Life of Pablo,” to the digital music service, a competitor of Spotify that’s owned by Jay Z and other artists.

The album was originally going to be exclusively available for Tidal’s paid subscribers to stream for one week or to download for $20, also processed by Tidal. But on Sunday afternoon, West changed his mind and removed the download link. But it didn't happen until after about 4,000 people had their credit cards charged, according to TechCrunch. TechCrunch reported that some were even charged twice due to an unexplained error.

This is not Tidal’s first embarrassing glitch. The service had trouble with its live stream of West’s fashion show last Thursday from New York City's Madison Square Garden, and it had other streaming breakdowns at an October concert.

Late Monday, Tidal sent those who purchased the album an email saying that the final version would be released “in the next several days,” and when it is, the service would email a download to those purchasers. If they did not want to wait for an album that still lacks a firm release date, Tidal is offering a full refund.

And for fans hoping one day to get West’s new album elsewhere, he seemed to eliminate that possibility with a late Monday tweet: