After “S.N.L.,” thousands who rushed to pay $20 to download “The Life of Pablo” failed to receive the files despite being charged by Tidal. (Those who did receive the download that night experienced their own glitch — instead of the final track, the second-to-last song was included twice.) Complaints flooded social media and on Monday, Tidal emailed its customers an update: “A partial version of the album is available for streaming on Tidal.com, but the download is currently not available.”

“The final version of the album will be released in the next several days,” the message continued, offering a refund to those uninterested in waiting. (Tidal declined to comment further.)

Mr. West then announced on Twitter, his preferred megaphone of late, that he had “decided not to sell my album for another week,” and urged his 19 million followers to subscribe to Tidal, which is owned by his longtime collaborator Jay Z. (“Ima fix wolves,” Mr. West added of one track on the album.) He went on to say that “The Life of Pablo” would “never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal.” Apple declined to comment.

Other streaming services are standing by expectantly for the album. Spotify, which has 20 million subscribers, said in a statement, “We hope to have it soon.”

A placeholder for the album on Spotify includes the message: “The artist or their representatives have decided not to release this album on Spotify just yet. We’re working on it, and hope we can change their minds soon.” The same note is used for albums by Adele and Taylor Swift, who have also withheld their music from the service.