Prince and Tidal have been working together for a few months now, with the Purple Rain-maker streaming his Baltimore-based “Rally 4 Peace” concert exclusively through the service, and subsequently pulling the majority of his musical catalog off of all of its rival streamers. He feinted toward a softening on his exclusive stance last month, when he released a new single, “Stare,” on Spotify, but it’s now looking like that was just the musical equivalent of riding his motorcycle past an ex-girlfriend’s house, just to remind her of all the good Prince loving/funky horn tracks she’s not gonna get any more.
The track list for HITNRUN isn’t out yet, but Prince did release some album art, as well as a statement explaining his choice, and the surprisingly short window in which the album was recorded:
After one meeting, it was obvious that Jay Z and the team he has assembled at Tidal recognize and applaud the effort that real musicians put in2 their craft 2 achieve the very best they can at this pivotal time in the music industry. Secondly, Tidal have honored Us with a non-restrictive arrangement that once again allows Us to continue making art in the fashion We’ve grown accustomed 2 and We’re Extremely grateful 4 their generous support. And lastly, in the tech-savvy, real-time world We all live in 2day, everything is faster. From its conception and that one & only meeting, HITNRUN took about 90 days 2 prepare its release. If that’s what freedom feels like, HITNRUN is what it sounds like.
So there you have it, Spotify: don’t feel bad. To hold onto Prince, you’d have to let him have his freedom. It’s a classic paradox, almost as old and unknowable as the question of why he substitutes numbers for the words “to” and “for” in sentences, but not the word “one.”
