Prince Estate and Tidal to Debut First Posthumous Album in 2019

Having finally settled their disputes concerning rights and ownership, the Prince Estate and Tidal have agreed to release new music, with Jay-Z overseeing the compilation.

Prince
Getty

Image via Getty/Mike Coppola

Prince

The Prince Estate and Tidal have formally agreed to compile and stream an album of new and unreleased Prince songs in 2019, with Jay Z overseeing the compilation process. 

The album will be a Tidal exclusive for the first two weeks, but available for download a week after its release, with physical copies planned for some point thereafter. The two entities have also announced that their prior legal disputes—essentially disagreements over streaming rights—have come to a mutual end, which presumably allowed this collaboration to flourish in the first place.

This yet-to-be-titled album will be comprised of unreleased music from Prince’s vault—which most definitely contains some unbelievable gems, that only a musical genius such as Prince would’ve deemed unfinished. With Jay Z working alongside the Prince Estate in overseeing the song selection, to ensure thematic cohesion among tracks, this newly announced dream for Prince fans seems to be in the right hands.

An interesting detail here is that this project aims to continue the series of music Prince began with Tidal years ago.

“Our only goal is to share Prince’s music with his fans as he wanted,” said Jay Z. “After thoughtful and honest conversation with him, he chose Tidal as his partner for HITnRUN Phase One and HITnRUN Phase Two, and we will continue to respect and honor Prince’s enduring legacy and wishes with this new collection.” 

The Prince Estate, meanwhile, seems eager to leave the past legal issues behind and celebrate the future with new Prince for the fans. “I’m very pleased this is resolved, and we get to honor the relationship between Prince and Tidal with this album,” said Troy Carter on behalf of the Prince Estate. “We look forward to fans hearing the new music and experiencing the genius of Prince.”

This agreement between the two parties was approved by the Probate Court overseeing the Estate on May 9, and good God almighty has it provided us with blessings. Surely, a large swath of Prince fans would prefer to let the man rest—to leave his legacy alone, and not pimp it out with posthumous projects. However, if the Estate feels things are being handled respectfully, and Hov himself is involved in quality assurance here—I think we can at least be carefully excited for a new Prince album next year.

Latest in Music