Once way ahead of the curve when it came to distributing his music on the internet, Prince probably will join the 21st century again when his classic albums become available on popular streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play later in February.
Prince's music may soon be unlocked on Spotify and other streaming sites
Latest ads and industry reports suggest an online deal has been struck.
February 1, 2017 at 4:19AM
No official announcement has been made, but new purple Spotify ads on subways and billboards around New York and London — along with unnamed sources in Billboard and other industry publications — are hinting at a new online availability of the late Minneapolis rock legend's catalog in time to tout it during the Grammy Awards on Feb. 12, where he will be remembered in an all-star tribute.
Spotify last fall said it had 40 million paying subscribers and more than 100 million total users.
"While much of Prince's later catalog remains in varying degrees of legal limbo, sources tell Billboard that the artist's Warner Music catalog, as well as his publishing, are on solid footing to be streamed," Billboard reported.
In the year before his death last April, Prince struck a deal to give Jay Z's company Tidal exclusive streaming rights.
However, the deal has been contested in recent months by Prince's estate handlers and his old label Warner Bros. as not a long-term contract. Tidal itself has been in flux, too. Earlier this month, Sprint bought up one-third of the company, which has failed to catch on as well as Spotify and Apple Music have.
The scarcity of Prince's classic '80s and '90s songs for Warner Bros. — including "Purple Rain," "Let's Go Crazy," "1999" and "Raspberry Beret" — may have been a good thing for his estate in the months immediately after his death, since it drove up sales of CDs, vinyl LPs and digital album downloads.
Prince wound up selling more records than any other artist in 2016, with 2.2 million albums sold. But he did a lot of sales online, too, with more than 1 million digital song downloads and 200,000 digital album sales via sites like iTunes and Amazon just in the first day after his death — proof that younger and/or more digitally focused listeners want his music just as much as the old-schoolers.
Digital streaming rose 76 percent in 2016, the first year streaming surpassed digital downloads with more than 250 billion streams counted.
Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658 • Twitter: @ChrisRstrib
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