Prince’s actions point toward a possible future for monthly streaming services that could undermine the idea altogether. The promise of an Apple Music or a Spotify is that once a subscription fee is paid, listeners don’t have to worry about anything. But already, someone who wants access to both Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Prince’s Purple Rain has to buy two subscriptions, or supplement the supposedly comprehensive service she has chosen with a few actual album purchases.
This is already how the online video world is shaping up, with such companies as Netflix and Amazon.com competing to produce original shows. But people are used to spending a lot of money to watch TV. A big part of the appeal of those services comes from replacing costly cable subscriptions, and anything seems cheap compared with a monthly Comcast bill. The $10 monthly cost of Spotify, Apple Music, or Tidal is already much more than the average person spends on music over the course of the entire year.
It’s not clear that music services will ever get to the point that people will have to choose subscriptions based on their favorite artists. Few musicians have as much control over their work as the big-name holdouts—Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift—who’ve recently decided to pick among services. By limiting his tracks to Tidal, Prince is depriving himself of the income from being on much more popular services, such as Spotify. And he can do that because, well, he’s Prince.