Tidal Is The Only Place To Listen To Prince’s Music Online


After the shocking news of Prince’s death on Thursday, April 21, fans have been in hot pursuit over his music. Unfortunately, most of his music is not available on streaming sites with free tiers. And unlike with most artists, you cannot watch any of Prince’s music videos on YouTube.

That’s because the late artist took great measures to make sure his music or videos weren’t available for free on the internet. For example, you can’t listen to any of Prince’s music on Apple Music, Spotify, or Pandora. But if you want to listen to his complete collection, then you should get a Tidal account, if you don’t have one already.

The reason why Prince stood up against these streaming platforms is because he claimed that these companies were making profits off the artists. Options to listen to Prince are available on iTunes and Amazon, and music-streaming service Tidal, which does not offer free access but may have a free trial.

Tidal costs $9.99 per month, while Tidal HiFi, which offers high-fidelity sound, costs $19.99 per month. Jay Z’s music service includes the entire Prince catalogue, starting from 1978. The New York Times previously reported that Prince experimented with online platforms and distributions of his music long before it became popular, but he changed his mind when he noticed that the companies exploited the artists and pocketed the profits for themselves.

Prince even tried cutting-edge and forward-thinking ways to market his music. In 2007, he gave away free copies of his album, Planet Earth, with each copy of The Daily Mail in Britain. According to Time magazine, 3 million fans bought the newspaper so they could snag a copy of the musician’s album.

Tidal has claimed that it pays the highest percentage of royalties to their artists and songwriters out of all of the online streaming services. Last summer, Prince pulled his full music catalogue from Spotify and other services. Thereafter, he spoke out against Spotify, quoting a tweet from The Daily Beast saying that the competitor was “co-owned by record labels, who hold 20 percent of the company’s stocks (sic).”

He appreciated the fact that Tidal would fully pay their artists and songwriters, instead of pocketing most of the profits.

Tidal has since released a statement shortly after the shocking announcement that Prince was found dead in his Minnesota home.

“A genius, innovator, creator, family member, Prince will be truly missed,” the company wrote on their official Facebook page. The post also included a link to Prince’s profile on Tidal.

The company also took to its website to honor Prince, writing, “Let’s celebrate a legend.”

“He shared his creative vision and asked for nothing in return. With heavy hearts – prayers and blessings go to all those around the world that share the same love as us.”

In addition, Prince’s singles and albums are available for purchase on Apple, iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.

A day after the news of his untimely death, the Purple One sold a total of 231,800 albums, according to BuzzAngle Music. Greatest hit albums such as The Very Best Of Prince sold 94,600 copies. Billboard predicts that it will hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. His other best-selling albums include Purple Rain (55,300), The Hits/The B-Sides (22,400), 1999 (11,600), and Ultimate Prince (9,000).

Meanwhile, the artist has been dominating the iTunes charts despite his public battle against Apple Music and other competing streaming services. The “Purple Rain” singer currently has 10 out of 20 places on the iTunes singles chart. “Purple Rain” is sitting at No. 1, while “When Doves Cry” is at No. 4, “Raspberry Beret” sits at No. 7, and “Kiss” is at No. 8. His album, Best of Prince, has taken over the No. 1 spot.

If you don’t want to pay for Tidal, you can always check out some of Prince’s best performances, which are still available on YouTube, according to Wired.com.

[Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images]

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