Prince Pulls A Swift Move

Prince has not bitten his tongue regarding his unabashed distain of modern technology, especially when it comes to selling his music. In a “Taylor Swift-esque” move, Prince’s music publisher, NPG Music Publishing (which he owns) has pulled all his music without explanation from all streaming searches, with the exception of Tidal, which streamed his Rally 4 Peace concert in Baltimore.  His music has also been removed from Apple Music, Spotify and Rdio. Prince music is still available on Pandora, amidst speculation that Pandora hasn’t been contacted or because they have a deal in place with Prince to play his music.

For some time Prince’s legal team has worked to pull his music off YouTube and the song “Breakfast Can Wait” remains the only track on his channel.  The takedown notice doesn’t impact those songs of his covered or recorded by other artists. Services are still allowed to play songs like Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” or the Chaka Khan classic “I Feel For You” which Prince wrote and she covered.

Sources say Prince is using Web Sheriff to send notices to digital services. According to sources, the notice from Web Sheriff says that Prince has pulled his music from all U.S. PROs, so there are no reciprocal rights abroad. He wants all digital service to pull down his music, as recorded by him, so that once they have complied, they can negotiate with his publish company.

Stay tuned……

I said take down my music!!