Since the passing of Prince, the music icon’s music has waged a war between streaming giants as Tidal slowly lost exclusivity to the singer’s extensive catalog. This week has shown the singer’s music could be heading to Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music.
On Monday (Jan. 30), large purple ads with the Spotify logo have popped up in throughout New York’s Time Square and Union Square areas. L. Londell McMillan, entertainment attorney and representative for the late singer, tells Billboard the deal hasn’t been confirmed, but the ads hint that the release of some of the singer’s music could hit the streaming platform by the Grammys (Feb. 12). A source also tells Pitchfork Prince’s music can also hit Amazon Music and Apple Music “very soon.” There have also been rumors circulating at that Rihanna, Bruno Mars and The Weeknd will be a part of a tribute to the singer at the award show.
Do these purple Spotify ads mean what everyone thinks they mean? (That would be, Prince). https://t.co/lfF8JYp1v0 pic.twitter.com/kcqNLqaY6H
— Bring Me The News (@bringmethenews) January 30, 2017
Adorned albums like 1999, The Black Album and Purple Rain have currently lived on Tidal for two years. His estate filed a lawsuit against Jay Z’s company in 2016, citing copyright infringement over the streaming of his music.
“My thing is this. The catalog has to be protected,” he said about his deal with Tidal in 2015. “And some of our fans were actually disingenuous. Taking the time to get their playlists together and yeah, it’s gone. Now you got to actually go subscribe to get the music that you lost on Spotify. Spotify wasn’t paying, so you gotta shut it down.”
The year before, Prince announced a new deal with Warner Bros. that gave him full rights to his master recordings. More than likely, any music released on Spotify and Apple Music would come from the label. While this might not have been what the purple one wanted, his fans will be more than thrilled to listen to the hits.