Jay Z has pulled his entire music catalogue from Spotify.
Jay Z, who co-owns music streaming service Tidal, has only seven collaborative albums and singles in total left on his rival’s site.
The decision to pull his music was made on Friday (07Apr17), and a rep from Spotify said “some of his catalogue has been removed at the request of the artist”, according to Billboard.
Unfinished Business and Best of Both Worlds, Jay Z’s collaborative albums with R. Kelly, are still available on the site, as well as singles Niggas in Paris with Kanye West; Numb/Encore with Linkin Park; All the Way Up with Fat Joe, Remy Ma, French Montana and Infared; Clique with Big Sean and Kanye West; and Dirt off Your Shoulder with Notorious B.I.G.
The Empire State of Mind hitmaker has yet to pull his catalogue from Apple Music, however, his albums The Blueprint and Reasonable Doubt have been unavailable on the music streaming site for a while.
Jay Z’s move comes as Tidal lags behind its music streaming competitors. The site is thought to have under three million subscribers, compared to Spotify’s 50 million, and 20 million Apple Music users.
Back in January (17), Tidal sold a 33 percent stake in the company to Sprint for $200 million (£161 million), giving it access to the company’s 45 million telecom customers.
Launched in 2014 by Norwegian/Swedish company Aspiro, Tidal is a competitor of streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora Radio and is backed by the likes of Jay Z’s wife Beyonce Knowles, Kanye West and Madonna. But Tidal has had a rocky start since Jay Z bought the company for $56 million (£44 million) in March 2015, with numerous executive reshuffles, criticism of high subscription fees and claims of inflated user numbers.
