The passing of Prince Rogers Nelson at just 57 years old has shocked and saddened music fans around the world, prompting many of them to turn to his music for consolation. But they are out of luck if they want to access his 39 original albums, not to mention concert recordings and compilations, on Apple Music and most streaming services. That's because this past July Prince pulled his library from all streaming services, except Jay Z's Tidal.
Now, true Prince fans may have to consider Tidal to get their fix. They could always buy his music, rather than stream it, but as Current, his local radio station in Minneapolis proved, that's 26 hours of music, and a fair number of gigabytes. Even more interesting is the news that there are over 200 songs the prolific purple one recorded that have yet to be released. Some reports say the number is more like 2,000, all stored in his bank-like vault. It's likely his estate would honor his most recent wishes of restricting streaming his music to Tidal.
Tidal has been struggling, with cofounder Kanye West releasing his latest album, The Life of Pablo, then restricting it to Tidal, stating it would never be on Apple, then releasing it on iTunes after all. This even led to a class action lawsuit. Beyonce, who is married to Jay Z, keeps dropping exclusives on Tidal, but there's only so much one artist can do to boost the streaming service. Sadly, the passing of Prince could be just what Tidal needed to stay relevant.
