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Prince reportedly pulls his music catalog from streaming services

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The question of whether to stream or not to stream has plagued musicians lately, from indie artists to mainstream chart-toppers like Taylor Swift. The latest singer to seemingly take issue with streaming is Prince. Spotify posted a statement Wednesday on the pop/rock music legend’s artist page, explaining that the sudden absence of his music is due to a request from his publisher that his catalog be pulled from “all streaming services.”

Spotify’s statement shared its hopes the absence of his music is temporary, but the situation doesn’t look promising. On June 25, Prince retweeted a Daily Beast article, along with follow-up messages that were critical of the streaming service and its policies.

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Similar to Swift’s move to pull her catalog from Spotify, calling the service a “grand experiment” in 2014, it appears that Prince has concerns about what streaming means for the music industry. According to TechCrunch, notices from his publisher went out to multiple sites, including Rdio and Deezer, in addition to Spotify. Google had reportedly not received any notice so far, and, notably, Prince’s songs were still available on Jay-Z’s Tidal, Pandora, and Google Play as of publication. Apple Music, which launched on June 30, never had Prince’s music in the first place.

It remains to be seen if the services that are still currently streaming Prince’s music will be able to keep doing so, but in the meantime, Prince fans will be relieved to know that the artist does still maintain a presence on SoundCloud. He recently tweeted out a link to his new song, “HARDROCKLOVER.”

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Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long
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Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
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