Apple launched their new music streaming service today. For one, it's just nowhere near as good as Spotify or Google Play Music right now. Fancy interface, but the service is lacking (typical Apple).

I've signed up for the free trial just to check it out but I'll be cancelling it before they charge me, since I already pay for Google Play Music which is miles ahead. Which shouldn't surprise anyone, since Apple have a terrible track record with internet services, and Google consistently make great products.

The purpose of this thread though, is to point out that Prince's catalog isn't on there. When you first sign up, it asks you what genres you like, and then you have to select some artists you like that pop up in little bubbles. I selected the genres "80's", "Rock" and "Pop" amongst others, and I was surprised to see that Prince's name didn't come up. It was very notably missing alongside his peers like MJ, Springsteen, U2, etc.

So I did a manual search, and found his artist page. It's a freakin' desert. For some reason, there's the acoustic version of "Love" from some acoustic compilation, and an edit of "When Doves Cry" from another compilation, and that's it.

Not a single one of his albums is on there. Which is interesting, as they are present on Google Play Music and Spotify.

My guess is he's not happy with the terms.

My band's catalog is on there. Our digital distibutor sent us an email last week asking if we wanted them to put our music there, my cousin told them yes (we pretty much need to be everywhere, we need the visibility). So someone would have had this conversation with Prince recently, and he would have said no.

And, he's probably right to do so if they haven't offered him a respectable royalty rate.

First thing I checked too and was very surprised at his lack of content on there

TIME goes on... Regardless of who you are... Yes he will go down in history as a legend, one of the greats... But how he will maintain his legacy is all up to him. No YouTube to find his concerts, videos, etc... Fighting with social media to keep him relevant... Come on, he is just literally pushing him away to obscurity... How many people go to YouTube to watch their fav artist... Prince you can just find Breakfast Can Wait... So sad...

feeluupp said:

TIME goes on... Regardless of who you are... Yes he will go down in history as a legend, one of the greats... But how he will maintain his legacy is all up to him. No YouTube to find his concerts, videos, etc... Fighting with social media to keep him relevant... Come on, he is just literally pushing him away to obscurity... How many people go to YouTube to watch their fav artist... Prince you can just find Breakfast Can Wait... So sad...

http://prince.org/msg/7/417089

langebleu said:

feeluupp said:

TIME goes on... Regardless of who you are... Yes he will go down in history as a legend, one of the greats... But how he will maintain his legacy is all up to him. No YouTube to find his concerts, videos, etc... Fighting with social media to keep him relevant... Come on, he is just literally pushing him away to obscurity... How many people go to YouTube to watch their fav artist... Prince you can just find Breakfast Can Wait... So sad...

http://prince.org/msg/7/417089

Naw... That doesn't represent PRINCE... Not at all... He's so much more that isn't on YouTube.

langebleu said:

feeluupp said:

TIME goes on... Regardless of who you are... Yes he will go down in history as a legend, one of the greats... But how he will maintain his legacy is all up to him. No YouTube to find his concerts, videos, etc... Fighting with social media to keep him relevant... Come on, he is just literally pushing him away to obscurity... How many people go to YouTube to watch their fav artist... Prince you can just find Breakfast Can Wait... So sad...

http://prince.org/msg/7/417089

And BTW there's a lot more on that list that's on YouTube but not titled on any searchable Prince titles.

feeluupp said:

langebleu said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/417089

Naw... That doesn't represent PRINCE... Not at all... He's so much more that isn't on YouTube.

No one is claiming the list represents Prince - it is simply an attempt to list (the paucity of) what is offically available.

Militant said:

So I did a manual search, and found his artist page. It's a freakin' desert. For some reason, there's the acoustic version of "Love" from some acoustic compilation, and an edit of "When Doves Cry" from another compilation, and that's it.

Huh???

There's no mention of the song ever being released on any comp on Princevault, only the stream. Can u tell me what compilation it is?

databank said:

Militant said:

So I did a manual search, and found his artist page. It's a freakin' desert. For some reason, there's the acoustic version of "Love" from some acoustic compilation, and an edit of "When Doves Cry" from another compilation, and that's it.

Huh???

There's no mention of the song ever being released on any comp on Princevault, only the stream. Can u tell me what compilation it is?

Hold up, I'll take a screenshot. It's probably an illegal non-licensed compilation that slipped through the cracks.

Militant said:

databank said:

Huh???

There's no mention of the song ever being released on any comp on Princevault, only the stream. Can u tell me what compilation it is?

Hold up, I'll take a screenshot. It's probably an illegal non-licensed compilation that slipped through the cracks.

Mmmh, possible. I'll try to track it down online once I have the screenshot and see if it's legit.

databank said:

Militant said:

So I did a manual search, and found his artist page. It's a freakin' desert. For some reason, there's the acoustic version of "Love" from some acoustic compilation, and an edit of "When Doves Cry" from another compilation, and that's it.

Huh???

There's no mention of the song ever being released on any comp on Princevault, only the stream. Can u tell me what compilation it is?

Here you go : this is the entirety of Prince music available on the "revolutionary" Apple Music system

Two actual Prince songs, one most likely there illegally, one cover, and one... well i don't know what the hell that last thing is.

That version of "Love" is almost definitely an illegal upload. "Think Differently Music" appears to be some sort of bootleg label best known for releasing various Wu-Tang compilations.

It's exactly the same as the 3121.com streamed version.

Militant said:

databank said:

Huh???

There's no mention of the song ever being released on any comp on Princevault, only the stream. Can u tell me what compilation it is?

Here you go : this is the entirety of Prince music available on the "revolutionary" Apple Music system

Two actual Prince songs, one most likely there illegally, one cover, and one... well i don't know what the hell that last thing is.

That version of "Love" is almost definitely an illegal upload. "Think Differently Music" appears to be some sort of bootleg label best known for releasing various Wu-Tang compilations.

It's exactly the same as the 3121.com streamed version.

Hopefully it'll soon be removed and I hope Prince sues them for 1M instead of his fans

This thing is a mess. The "For You" business with the stupid bubbles is the least user-friendly interface I think I've ever seen on an apple product, and how this is supposed to work with itunes match (which has all of my music in a separate cloud?) is beyond me. Day one impression: Fail. " />

kevinpnb said:

Larz-Kristerz. Hahahahahaha! You don't even know the half of it. That music is straight from satans butthole.

Let the comments flow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIqE1GNpKZU

Wolfie87 said:

Larz-Kristerz. Hahahahahaha! You don't even know the half of it. That music is straight from satans butthole.

Let the comments flow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIqE1GNpKZU

Wtf was that. Oh dear.

Militant said:

Wolfie87 said:

Larz-Kristerz. Hahahahahaha! You don't even know the half of it. That music is straight from satans butthole.

Let the comments flow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIqE1GNpKZU

Wtf was that. Oh dear.

That's what the majority of Swedish people in the backwoods like to listen and dance to, believe it or not. It's a huge genre in the smaller towns of Sweden, the ones with some distance from the three major big cities in our country. It's called dansband, and is a kind of folk music mixed with some other elements. They often drive old cars from the 50's, exclusively american import cars from that era. There are huge gatherings with those types of cars. They love Buddy Holly and romanticise american culture and style also from the 50's. And they love to play their electric guitars in every song. It's an americana/swedish romance sort of.

This is what a car gathering can look like in Sweden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViI4cXz43-4

[Edited 6/30/15 16:17pm]

[Edited 6/30/15 16:35pm]

He may just be waiting for the 3 month trial to end. Apple is paying .2 cents a play until the trial is over. Once the trial is over Apple Music is actually giving a bigger cut to the artist than spotify/google play.

AppleMusic may be late to the game but they got it right. Finally getting the freedom to mix my Prince library(including boots)and everything else not available at iTunes with AppleMusic. Priceless convenience imo.

and Beats1 radio Zane Lowe killed it the today. He played a lot of stuff not even available on AppleMusic.

Wolfie87 said:

Militant said:

Wtf was that. Oh dear.

That's what the majority of Swedish people in the backwoods like to listen and dance to, believe it or not. It's a huge genre in the smaller towns of Sweden, the ones with some distance from the three major big cities in our country. It's called dansband, and is a kind of folk music mixed with some other elements. They often drive old cars from the 50's, exclusively american import cars from that era. There are huge gatherings with those types of cars. They love Buddy Holly and romanticise american culture and style also from the 50's. And they love to play their electric guitars in every song. It's an americana/swedish romance sort of.

This is what a car gathering can look like in Sweden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViI4cXz43-4

[Edited 6/30/15 16:17pm]

[Edited 6/30/15 16:35pm]

Sounds very much like the worldwide Rockabilly subculture to me.

KoolEaze said:

Wolfie87 said:

That's what the majority of Swedish people in the backwoods like to listen and dance to, believe it or not. It's a huge genre in the smaller towns of Sweden, the ones with some distance from the three major big cities in our country. It's called dansband, and is a kind of folk music mixed with some other elements. They often drive old cars from the 50's, exclusively american import cars from that era. There are huge gatherings with those types of cars. They love Buddy Holly and romanticise american culture and style also from the 50's. And they love to play their electric guitars in every song. It's an americana/swedish romance sort of.

This is what a car gathering can look like in Sweden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViI4cXz43-4

[Edited 6/30/15 16:17pm]

[Edited 6/30/15 16:35pm]

Sounds very much like the worldwide Rockabilly subculture to me.

...Rockabilly was the word I was looking for. Thanks man! Yeah, thought it was a Swedish thing, but you're right, it seems like a huge subculture. It just looks stupid here in Sweden. Not natural, if you know what I mean? Haven't really seen videos from the states. But I think the execution would look better in America for obvious reasons.

Grooveshark used to by main thing, but now I've sarted using Spotify. Works well

CharismaDove said:

Grooveshark used to by main thing, but now I've sarted using Spotify. Works well

Prince just took all of his music off Spotify.

bashraka said:

CharismaDove said:

Grooveshark used to by main thing, but now I've sarted using Spotify. Works well

Prince just took all of his music off Spotify.

ARE U F'N SERIOUS?!!!!! This is ridiculous!! I can't believe this I'm so mad!!

This is why Google Play Music is the best streaming service.

They offer you 50,000 of your own songs, to upload to your own library.

I have the entire Prince catalog on there, from my own uploads. Including stuff that's never been available on any streaming service (like the NPG albums, Goldnigga, Mazarati, etc). That's my own library, but available anywhere I am, so it can't be touched.

Also, is this enough proof that Prince is reading?

Chances are that this is because the remasters are coming, as stated by Pono a couple of weeks ago.

TheKid94 said:

I don't know why, but I'm actually so excited to see what's about to happen. You know when Prince takes his stuff off of streaming services it's going down. There's something in the works. Who knows?!?!

Naw... I just posted in the WTF thread about he posted an article a couple days ago on his Twitter how streaming is worse for artists and puts more money in the pocket of the labels...

Why would he take off AOA, Plectrum... Those need to be remastered??

feeluupp said:

bashraka said:

Prince just took all of his music off Spotify.

ARE U F'N SERIOUS?!!!!! This is ridiculous!! I can't believe this I'm so mad!!

I just checked, and sure enough this is true. A few months ago when he held a press conference for Judith Hill, he acted like he didn't know what Spotify was. Maybe he didn't, and got up to speed very quickly (i.e he was quickly versed on how little they pay artists). He'll be back up if/when the money is right.

.

Or, he'll be exclusively on Apple Music or Tidal if they pay him for that exclusivity.

feeluupp said:

TheKid94 said:

I don't know why, but I'm actually so excited to see what's about to happen. You know when Prince takes his stuff off of streaming services it's going down. There's something in the works. Who knows?!?!

Naw... I just posted in the WTF thread about he posted an article a couple days ago on his Twitter how streaming is worse for artists and puts more money in the pocket of the labels...

Why would he take off AOA, Plectrum... Those need to be remastered??

Oh shit that's true....if it's just Spotify that he's off of than maybe nothing will be happening. I personally don't have streaming so this doesn't really affect me. Plus true Prince fans always know how to get to his music one way or another

I like apple music and i found it intuitive and easy to navigate - and i like the beats1 radio too

I dont use 'algorithyms' reccommendations much as I'm still a DJ (inactive at the moment) and I hunt around on my own so the bubbles i thought were cute but it did give me a few things I liked.

Its a win imo -

I tried google play early on but the upload to it was achingly slow - i have my whole lifetime of music in my itunes.

Its a big mistake for Prince or anyone else to not have their music available here.

YOUNGER PEOPLE will NEVER purchase music as we used to. They just dont. The generation after that - even less so. Prince has already made his mega-millions from his work, this is just gravy at this point for him, so its a little bit silly at this point to not have his commercial catalogue available.

Anything new should be added a month after release - fans will buy if they love the artist.

I commented somewhere n a blog somewhere...The Prophet must go to the people. The astounding number of people who stream, outweighs whatever he can sell - thats the new reality.

He can still license for movies etc and make a killing there. His shows are nowhere near in danger of not giving him a return.

He can AFFORD to stream his music - he's already wrung it dry. He will create converts to want new stuff because he's amazing.

I'm 52, I understand how/why he feels this way, I am going through a similar thing at a much lower level in the hugh-end fitness business, getting paid for recorded content. But there is a way to make the money, its happening for me in my tiny world - he can def make it work in his world. HE OWNS HIS MASTERS. There is no label he has to give a cut to. He's in an even better position.