Billboard is reporting that Tidal’s paid subscriber base has tripled since the release of Kanye West’s album The Life of Pablo, swelling from 1 to 3 million. It has, finally, established the artist owned streaming service as a real competitor in the market against Spotify and Apple Music. Tidal had struggled since it’s big launch last year, which was widely criticized for being gaudy and elitist.

The cause for the rise in subscribers is almost certainly attributable to Kanye’s album, which is exclusive to the service. Tidal are saying that the album has been streamed 250 million times, which would make it the most streamed album of all time. Of all time!

Pablo did 250 Million… I’m tired of people old talking to me like I’m regular! pic.twitter.com/FDLrQiVOE0

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) March 29, 2016

Arguably, these numbers don’t hold up to scrutiny. One site is calling the figures “the North Korean grocery store of streaming numbers“, pointing out that the previous streaming record for an artist was held by Justin Bieber, whose most recent album racked up 205 million streams on Spotify – a streaming service with roughly 100x more users than Tidal. This would mean that, if true, Kanye’s album easily overtook the number of streams only with a tiny fraction of the listeners.

It sounds far fetched, but if the amount we’ve been listening on repeat is any indication, it’s not impossible.

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