Entertainment

Celebrate Prince Day With Tidal's Exclusive Albums

by Courtney Lindley

Happy Prince Day, everyone. (June 7 — the late singer's birthday — has now officially been marked "Prince Day" by the state of Minnesota, so I'm allowed to say that.) In honor of what would have been Prince's 58th birthday, the streaming service Tidal has released 15 Prince albums. Which is in addition to its already expansive collection of Prince songs that you can't find elsewhere, because, last summer, Prince withdrew his music from all the big streaming services. Except for Tidal.

Even though the service isn't as popular with consumers as some of its contemporaries, Prince supported Tidal's commitment to paying artists for their original content. The late musical icon had become a champion for artist rights when, in 1993, he fought back against Warner Bros for wanting too much control over his work. That's not say that Prince was against streaming services as a whole. He, like many artists, was able to evolve from analog to digital. He even released his final albums Hitnrun Phase One and Hitnrun Phase Two as Tidal exclusives.

Now that he's gone, Tidal's the only subscription service that allows fans to listen to his music — because it's a subscription service that pays the artist more, and therefore aligns with the kind of mentality Prince spent his whole career purveying, the mentality that artists should get paid fairly for their work. This is something that other musicians like Taylor Swift (who Prince supported) spoke up about as well.

The 15 newly released albums are mostly comprised of songs that Prince recorded after his contract with Warner Bros ended in 1996. In the collection, you'll find B-sides, live albums, and unreleased recordings. The Rainbow Children and Indigo Nights documents the infamous after shows Prince gave during his 2007 21 night residency at London's O2 Arena. 1998's Crystal Ball features outtakes and previously unreleased songs from the peak of the artist's career. Take a full look at the list below.

The Black Album (1987)1-800-NEW-FUNK (1994)The Gold Experience (1995)Girl 6 official soundtrack (1996)Exodus (1995)Chaos & Disorder (1996)Crystal Ball (1998)New Power Soul (1998)1999: The New Master (1999)Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (2001)The Rainbow Children (2001)One Nite Alone... Live! (2002)One Nite Alone... The Aftershow: It Ain't Over (2002)Indigo Nights (2008)

If you want to support Prince's commitment to artist's rights, maybe now's the time to sign up for Tidal. It's not too late to honor the revolution he started.

Images: Giphy