The legal matter from 2016 where the Prince estate filed a lawsuit against JAY-Z’s Roc Nation over Tidal’s claim of exclusive streaming rights of Prince’s catalog has been resolved, and a full-length album of previously unreleased music from Prince’s vault is being put together for release on Tidal. The album is expected to be released in 2019 and will stream exclusively on Tidal for two weeks, according to a press release.
JAY-Z is working with the Prince estate on compiling the new album. “Our only goal is to share Prince’s music with his fans as he wanted,” he said in a press release. “After thoughtful and honest conversation with him, he chose TIDAL as his partner for HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two, and we will continue to respect and honor Prince’s enduring legacy and wishes with this new collection.”
It’s also noted in the release that the Prince estate’s partnership with Tidal “does not involve any of Prince’s music catalogue that is subject to prior agreements with Warner Brothers Records.” Prince’s back catalog was available for streaming exclusively on Tidal for several years, and only came to Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms in 2017. Last month, it was reported that a “time-specific” album of unreleased Prince material would be arriving in September 2018.
