Prince has had a very spotty history when it comes to streaming.
Originally against the technology, he finally relented for a bit of time before, once again, pulling all of his music last July except for Tidal.
Even that agreement has come under fire recently as his estate has claimed that Tidal only had the rights to streaming for a short period during the releases of the HITnRUN albums and should not have been available well into 2017.
On Sunday, a part of the Purple One’s catalogue once again became available as Warner Brothers, in association with Prince’s estate, posted his earlier works plus a few selected later titles.
What is available is all based on existing contracts. First, the new agreement only applies to his Warner Brothers catalogue so his NPG releases are not included. Also not available are a number of later albums under WB although Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum from 2014 made the cut.
As of the time of this writing, Spotify has the following albums available for streaming.
Studio Albums:
For You (1978)
Prince (1979)
Dirty Mind (1980)
Controversy (1981)
1999 (1982)
Purple Rain (1984)
Around the World in a Day (1985)
Parade: Music From the Motion Picture Under the Cherry Moon (1986)
Sign ‘O’ the Times (1987)
Lovesexy (1988)
Batman (1989)
Music From Graffiti Bridge (1990)
Diamonds and Pearls (1991)
[Love Symbol] (1992)
Come (1994)
The Vault: Old Friends For Sale (1999)
Plectrumelectrum (2014)
Art Official Age (2014)
Compilations:
The Hits 1 (1993)
The Hits 2 (1993)
The Hits/The B-Sides (1993)
The Very Best of Prince (2001)
Ultimate Prince (2006)
4Ever (2016)
The following are albums from the Prince catalog which are NOT available yet for streaming.
Released under a separate contract with Warner Brothers:
The Black Album (1994)
The Gold Experience (1995)
Chaos & Disorder (1996)
Released by NPG after gaining freedom from Warner Brothers:
Emancipation (1996)
Crystal Ball / The Truth (1998)
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic (1999)
The Rainbow Children (2001)
Rave Into the Joy Fantastic (2001)
One Night Alone… (2002)
One Night Alone… / One Live Night Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over (2002)
C-Note (2003)
Xpectation (2003)
N.E.W.S. (2003)
Musicology (2004)
The Chocolate Invasion (2004)
The Slaughterhouse (2004)
3121 (2006)
Planet Earth (2007)
Indigo Nights (2008)
Lotusflow3r / MPLSound (2009)
20Ten (2010)
HITnRUN Phase One (2015)
HINnRUN Phase Two (2015)
