prince superbowl
Prince at the 2007 Super Bowl

Any long time fan of Prince knew of his control that he has over his music. He had lost it to Warner Music at one point, where he changed his name to a symbol and wrote “SLAVE” on his face. But many years later, he obtained the rights to all of it.

Then once he obtained the rights, he then pulled a lot of music offline, going so far as to sue bootleggers of live material. He eventually chose TIDAL as the streaming platform for his music in 2015. But since his death last April, his estate has been busy trying to find ways to get his music to his fans.

And now a deal has been made with most of the major streaming services to release his music to the subscribers. Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music (both Prime and Unlimited), Pandora and iHeart Music all now have a good amount of the albums Prince released during his prolific career.

Albums Now Streaming

  • For You
  • Prince
  • Dirty Mind
  • Controversy
  • 1999
  • Purple Rain
  • Around The World In A Day
  • Parade
  • Sign ‘O’ The Times
  • Lovesexy
  • Batman
  • Music From Graffiti Bridge
  • Diamonds And Pearls
  • [Love Symbol]
  • Come
  • The Vault – Old Friends 4 Sale
  • Plectrumelectrum
  • Art Official Age
  • Collections

  • 4Ever
  • The Hits 1
  • The Hits 2
  • The Hits/The B-Sides
  • The Very Best Of Prince
  • Ultimate

What’s Missing

There are some albums missing here, like “The Black Album”, “The Gold Experience” and “Chaos and Disorder” which are from a different record contract. In particular, “The Black Album” has been out of print for a while now. I own a physical copy and it’s one of my favorite of Prince’s albums. Not your typical Prince pop and rock. Deep funk and dark lyrical subjects, but it’s none the less one of the best of his work, in this fan’s opinion.

UPDATE: Also missing are albums “Emancipation” released in 1996 all the way to “HITnRUN Phases One and Two” released in 2015 [and his final two studio releases before his death]. No word on these being available for streaming outside Apple Music and TIDAL.

Unreleased

In a separate announcement last week, Universal Music Group got the rights to release forthcoming Prince music, which is the stuff that we heard about that was in vaults that was recorded but never made available to the listening public. While there are no specific details on what music is getting released, the one good things is that Prince’s estate owns the rights to the music. Universal is just the distribution medium. This should be a good thing and we are hoping Universal does this right.

So if you are on any of these streaming services, you should find most of Prince’s music to stream.

Links

  • THR: Prince’s Early Albums Return to Streaming Services, Label Reveals Details of Deluxe ‘Purple Rain’ Reissue
  • CoS: Let’s Go Crazy: Prince’s music has returned to streaming services