Kanye West’s new album “The Life of Pablo” has already been pirated 500,000 times since it was released on Tidal over the weekend, according to torrent site TorrentFreak.
“TorrentFreak has been keeping a close eye on the popularity of the album on BitTorrent and after the first day an estimated 500,000 people have already grabbed a copy,” the site said in a post on its website.
TorrentFreak also asserts that the album is beating other music downloads “by a landslide.”
“The Life of Pablo” is currently only available to Tidal subscribers, and despite West’s social-media pleas for fans to buy into the business he has pledged to alongside other music giants like Jay-Z, it seems there are still plenty of fans who’d prefer to pirate it the old fashioned way.
West’s pleas did drive Tidal’s push to being the top free app in Apple’s charts on Monday after West asked “all music lovers” to subscribe.
West’s album was released amid controversy over the rapper’s frequent rants on social media and a particular song, in which he took credit for making Taylor Swift famous. Swift promptly dissed West on Monday night during her acceptance speech for Album of the Year at the 2016 Grammys.
Reps for West and the Recording Industry Artists Association did not immediately return TheWrap’s requests for comment.
