If you were hoping to listen to Prince on Apple Music, thinking that the purple-clad passionate one’s music would be on the service like many other exclusives on Apple’s new streaming service, you’re out of luck.
The artist currently known as Prince has pulled all of his music from streaming services, except for one: Jay Z’s Tidal, which reputedly has the best terms for mega artists like the Purple Rain lead.
Turns out that doves will cry after all, since they can’t listen to Prince on Apple Music or Spotify.
Hopping on to Spotify, I can see Prince’s albums and tracks, I just can’t play them. They’re all dimmed. Adding them to “My Music” just transfers a dimmed track name to my music lists, there’s no way to actually listen.
According to Billboard, Prince has long been uninterested in streaming his music, even with the odd track placed on Soundcloud and the current deal with Tidal.
Photo: Prince/YouTube
Prince’s publisher is pretty hardcore when it comes to getting Prince tracks removed from YouTube, as well, even when the songs are in the background.
The superstar came of age in the long ago days before the internet, and seems like the kind of cat that’d want hyper control of all of his stuff, though this may be more of a publishing move than a control issue. Trouble is, no one’s talking.
At least for now, that means you can only get Prince’s diamonds and pearls as purchasable tracks on iTunes, in record stores (hah), or on Jay Z’s Tidal.
Source: Billboard
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
5 responses to “Want Prince? You’re not getting it from Apple Music — just Tidal”
This is why I could never understand the crazy backlash that Tidal got when it was released. So many publications said it was bad for artists, or some crap like that. But in reality, Tidal actually has the best terms for artists ever seen in the history of music. Having Prince exclusively, is insane. But, I’m sure Apple will pay what they need to get it as well. Apple is very serious about the success of this service. I don’t they will let any service have an exclusive over them, if they can help it.
Prince will laugh all the way to the bank. He’ll make dozens of dollars on Tidal. Maybe even a hundred.
Okay, dozens…
Rob, it’s “Wrecka Stows” :) Great write up!
Can someone please get Taylor Swift on this please :-D
You could just buy the albums from iTunes or whatever and upload and stream it that way. Apple Musics best feature.