Drake's manager: 'Apple doesn't have the power to stop us' from going on Tidal's live stream

Drake's manager is disputing claims made by Tidal, the music-streaming platform co-owned by Jay Z and other music stars, that Apple refused to let Drake appear on Tidal's live stream of a charity event in New Orleans.

"The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal stream has nothing to do with Apple or Drake's deal ... Point blank, 100 percent. I made a business decision," Drake's manager Future The Prince told BuzzFeed News.

"Apple doesn't have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have the power to do that are Cash Money and Universal, and they're our partners."

That statement runs contrary to what Tidal said about the situation during the show's stream, and on Twitter.

Tidal cut a 30-minute of segment of its live stream and replaced it with this black box that blamed Apple.

Shortly before the concert, a report from a Page Six said that Apple also threatened to sue Tidal for up to $20 million if Drake appeared on Tidal's live stream.

Anonymous sources also refuted that to Buzzfeed, saying that Apple did not rattle a $20 million lawsuit at Tidal, or threaten Tidal with any legal action whatsoever.

Both of these accounts cannot be true.

On the one hand, Apple didn't get Music off to the best start with the artist community. It's short-lived decision not to pay artists royalties for the first three months after Music launched, when Apple was doing a free trial period, earned Taylor Swift's public ire. Her open letter publicly shamed Apple into quickly changing its mind.

Then again, there's bad blood between Drake and Tidal, too.

Tidal is a music streaming service championed by Jay Z that launched in March. Jay Z touted Tidal as the artists' platform, reportedly offering millions of dollars and equity stakes in the company to some choice talent. But Tidal has been off to a rough start for a variety of reasons ranging from pricing, to steep competition, to how much bandwidth it requires.

Drake was reportedly supposed to be one of the original 16 artist "partners" of Tidal but pulled out at the last minute and joined Apple's new Music streaming service instead. Rumors circulated that Apple paid Drake $19 million for an exclusive contract.