Apple reportedly threatens $20M suit if Drake video stream appears on Tidal

Apple apparently didn’t like its new music service’s poster boy, Drake, appearing on a rival music service.

The music service Tidal was set to stream Lil Wayne’s Lil Weezyana Festival in New Orleans Friday night, but a problem occurred when Drake made a surprise appearance at the end. The video feed at Tidal was suddenly cut before Drake performed.

The New York Post reports that Apple threatened to sue Tidal for $20 million if Drake appeared on the show. Drake played an integral part in the launch of Apple Music, and reports say Apple has an exclusive arrangement with him. Meanwhile Lil Wayne owns part of Tidal.

Drake performed three songs at the festival, according to a report in Pitchfork. Video of the short set later surfaced online.

Apple’s threat seems to underline the importance of exclusive artist agreements in the competition between streaming music services.

Most music industry experts believe single exclusivity deals for artist content won’t be enough to cause a Spotify user to cancel and move to Apple Music, but as the exclusivity deals stack up artist by artist it could make a material difference. And Apple has plenty of money and music industry connections to make the deals.