Apple Music and most music streaming services are Princeless
If you’re a fan of Prince, your options for streaming his music just shrunk. As noted by a recent TechCrunch article, the recording artist has requested most music streaming services take down his music from their catalogs.
Spotify, for example, notes on its artist page for the musician, “Prince’s publisher has asked all streaming services to remove his catalog. We have cooperated with the request, and hope to bring his music back as soon as possible.”
Prince is also missing from Apple Music, as he has been since the service launched, as well as Rdio. Tidal, co-owned by Jay-Z and many others, still has the musician’s tracks available to stream, as does Google Music. Prince’s music is also still available at Rhapsody Premier, a paid service competing with Apple Music.
None of this should come as a surprise. The “Little Red Corvette” singer has taken issue in the past with the decreasing percentage of royalties artists receive from record labels, which has quite a bit to do with his insistence on having his music removed from most of the Internet.
Taylor Swift was among the first of a growing number of high-profile musicians taking aim at how music streaming services pay their artists, but even she agreed to allow her latest album, “1989,” play on Cupertino’s latest offering after the tech giant agreed to pay royalties during the three month trial period. Swift’s album, notably, is missing from Spotify.
Prince has had a beef with the Internet since 2010, though, when he told the U.K.’s Daily Mirror:
The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it. The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.
The Internet is over, is it? I suppose that’s why the number of music streaming services is dropping so dramatically. Oh wait, no it’s not. It’s increasing, with Apple Music joining the fray. Prince is a popular artist, and I’m sure at least a few people will be sad that they can’t stream his songs online. On the other hand, iTunes has done just fine without Prince’s tracks, and I’m sure Apple Music will, too.
Apple Music will continue just fine without Prince, but the music streaming service is not without its drawbacks, such as the DRM version of songs it uploads to iCloud if you aren’t using iTunes Match. We will continue covering Apple Music, but for now, take a look at how you can make the most of Cupertino’s latest service.
Image credit: Wikipedia
