Prince has returned to Spotify after not being on the streaming service for two years.
The release of the music came just hours before the airing of the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday. The release of the catalogue on Spotify was planned purposely for this time, as the awards ceremony had planned to air a tribute to the late singer.
Since returning, the singer has collected over 1.5 million monthly listeners. Prince’s top song on Spotify is “Purple Rain”, which is currently at 25.4 million streams.
Accessing Prince’s music on online hasn’t always been easy. The demand for Prince’s music online has soared since his death. While going out and buying physical albums is not necessarily a popular activity anymore, Prince’s grieving fans rushed out to stores to retrieve his music after hearing the news of his death. According to Nielsen Music, on the day he died in April 2016, Prince sold 239,000 physical albums.
The late singer was personally not a fan of online streaming. In 2014, Prince’s team pulled all of his music off of YouTube. Following in 2015, the singer’s team pulled his music off of major streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music. The singer’s music was only available on Jay Z’s streaming service Tidal.
Prince felt that artists were simply not being paid enough for their work when streamed online. Other big artists such as Thom York and Taylor Swift share similar feelings with the late artist, and have yet to release their catalogues onto Spotify.
In 2010, Prince expressed his feelings about online streaming to 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.”
“Essentially, streaming has offered labels the ability to pay themselves twice while reducing what is owed to artists…
— Prince (@prince) June 25, 2015
It makes one wonder what Prince would think of his music being available on streaming platforms again.
Cameron Strang, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records told LA Times: “Prince recorded his most influential and popular music during his time with Warner Bros. and we are deeply aware of our responsibility to safeguard and nurture his incredible legacy. Warner Bros. is thrilled to be able to bring Prince’s music to his millions of fans around the world via streaming services, fittingly on music’s biggest night.”