Pandora
iHeartRadio
The return of Prince’s catalog on Sunday has been cause for celebration across streaming services. Today, the purple flag flies proudly at Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and more. Access to his catalog looks like a programming win for any services that have chosen to highlight the talented performer. iHeartRadio is running a Prince-themed station for paid and free listeners. Spotify’s Prince playlist already has more than 57,000 followers and counting. More than 9 million Pandora stations have been titled for him to date.
It’s also been a marketing focus, from Spotify’s purple banners in the New York subway to Pandora’s billboards.
Spotify
The music now available to stream is from Prince’s Warner Bros catalog. His final few works prior to his untimely death last year are still exclusive to Tidal. Universal Music Group now has the rights to manage that part of his catalog.
Am curious to know the behind the scenes of this. Is it because more people are moving to streaming and it made sense, was it something in the works before he died, or it is because new people are controlling his publishing and masters?