It has been eight months since Prince was taken from us. On the upside, millions of fans have been left with his classic tunes. The battle for them, however, has been placed on front street.
Prince’s estate is suing Jay Z’s Roc Nation imprint over claims his Tidal streaming service has no rights to the purple one’s music, the Star Tribune reports. The late singer’s label, NPG Records, claims in the federal suit that through Tidal, the company is exploiting his music. “Roc Nation and Tidal have not provided any documentation substantiating Roc Nation’s claim that it has rights to exploit any Prince Copyrighted Works in addition to the works that comprise the HitNRun: Phase 1 album,” the suit reads.
Roc Nation compromised with NPG on a deal that would allow them to stream Prince’s upcoming LP before he passed. The album HitNRun: Phase 1, was given to the company to stream for a reported 90 days after its release in August. From there, the estate claims other Prince albums were uploaded to Tidal, violating the initial agreement. Roc Nation is standing firm on claims that they asserted rights for the catalog three different times from May to October.The company added their pre-existing contract gave the streaming service exclusive distribution rights to the legend’s catalog in its entirety.
Universal Music Publishing Group won the bidding war for the singer’s catalog in November. Just days before the announcement, Jay met with the late singer’s siblings with a reported offer of $40 million.