Prince’s Estate Reportedly Want Out of Tidal Deal
Last month, Tidal ended their lengthy legal battle with the Prince Estate and announced that a new album featuring unreleased music by the Purple One is coming in 2019, but now those plans appear to be jeopardy.
TMZ reports that Prince’s heirs want out of the agreement with the JAY-Z-owned streaming service. An attorney for three of Prince’s siblings, Sharon, Norrine, and John Nelson, told the probate judge that the reason they want out of the deal is because of the accusations of Tidal "inflating the streaming numbers." Rumors have been circulating for months about Tidal allegedly inflating numbers for Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo projects by several hundred million streams to help bolster their royalties.
The siblings feel that Tidal is being disingenuous with their streams and doesn't want the estate to get caught up in any potential legal drama.
Tidal has vehemently denied jacking up streams for Queen Bey and Yeezy and called the story bogus.
"This is a smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee as an 'Israeli Intelligence officer' and our owner as a 'crack dealer,'" a rep for Tidal told HipHopDX. "We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies, and falsehoods. The information was stolen and manipulated, and we will fight these claims vigorously."
Reps for the Prince Estate and Tidal had no comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Prince Estate is gearing up for the release of Piano & a Microphone 1983, an intimate 10-song collection featuring the Purple One performing in his home studio with just only a microphone and a piano. The deluxe edition will feature liner notes written by Prince's engineer, Don Batts, as well as never before seen images of Prince.
Piano & a Microphone 1983 will arrive on all digital and streaming platforms on Sept. 21. You can pre-order the album here.
Listen to Prince's Song "Mary Don't You Weep"