One streaming service has confirmed, and the rest are expected to follow suit, that the music of Prince will return to streaming on Sunday night.
The singer had some of his music on streaming services until last year when he pulled all of it in an exclusive deal with Tidal. Since his death, his estate and Tidal have been in court arguing over the terms of that deal and whether the service still had the rights to the music; however, in the mean time, a deal has been struck with at least one and, most likely, all of the streaming companies.
Napster (Rhapsody) is the only service to actually confirm that the singer’s catalogue would be available starting on Sunday. Industry sources expect that all of the rest will be following suit sometime in the next couple of days although they are, at this point, mute.
The announcement specifies that it was for Prince’s Warner Brothers catalogue which would cover his 1978 debut, For You, through 1996’s Chaos and Disorder.
The rest of Prince’s catalogue, starting with 1996’s Emancipation through HITnRUN Phase Two and future releases, may follow suit in short order. It was announced earlier today that the 25 albums from NPG Records along with the vault works were being handled by Universal Music Group and, while there is nothing in the press release about streaming, there is obviously money from the emerging technology on the table.
