What Prince Could (but Probably Doesn’t) Mean for the Future of Apple Music

And despite the attention paid to streaming’s holdouts, nearly every example, except for Swift’s 1989, is essentially a nostalgia album. Tidal, the service that has made the most out of its exclusive content, has struggled to get out of the gate. The next generation of music fans is likely to care less about The Chronic or AC/DC than their parents do. 

Finally, it’s probably a good rule not to use Prince’s behavior as an indication of what others might do. He’s notoriously cantankerous about doing anything that loosens his grip on his own work. He declared that the Internet was over in 2010. The next year he railed against rules that allowed people to cover songs without permission from the original songwriter. “My problem is when the industry covers the music,” he said in an interview with George Lopez. “Covering the music means that your version doesn’t exist anymore. A lot of people think I’m singing Sinead O’Connor songs, or Shaka Kahn songs, when in fact I wrote those songs.” (Prince may actually get what he wants if a proposal to require voluntary licenses for cover songs becomes law.)  He has pulled nearly all his music from YouTube, something that even Swift, the patron saint of streaming skepticism, hasnt done

Musicians have always held a variety of views about how freely to let their music percolate through the Internet. Some think it’s OK to provide free access to everything. Most have agreed to go along with the rising tide of streaming subscriptions, YouTube, and the like. Then there’s Prince who, as in every other aspect of his life, is an exceptional case. 

Article Appeared @http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-02/prince-pulls-music-from-streaming-services

 

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