The Prince Estate and TIDAL have announced plans to debut new Prince music exclusively on the streaming service. The new album will contain previously unreleased material from Prince’s extensive vault of recordings.
The new Prince album – expected to be released in 2019 – will stream exclusively on TIDAL for fourteen days and be available for download seven days after its debut. A global physical release will follow the TIDAL exclusive.
This release marks a the culmination of Prince’s sometimes rocky partnership with TIDAL, which resulted in the exclusive debut of HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two on the streamer. Delivery of this third album resolves the ongoing legal dispute between the parties.
This new album will draw from material recorded after 1996, since it cannot involve any of Prince’s music subject to prior agreements with Warner Brothers Records. The Prince Estate and Jay-Z are now working together on the song selection for the album.
“Our only goal is to share Prince’s music with his fans as he wanted. 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,” Jay-Z said.
Troy Carter, speaking on behalf of The Prince Estate, echoed those sentiments, noting “I’m very pleased this is resolved, and we get to honor the relationship between Prince and TIDAL with this album. We look forward to fans hearing the new music and experiencing the genius of Prince.”
Ironocally, Carter is also an executive at rival streamer Spotify.