If you're looking to stream one of Jay Z's older albums, you better make sure that you still have that Tidal subscription. The rapper and Tidal owner has recently pulled his Blueprint album trilogy from just about every other music streaming service besides Tidal.
Now joining other exclusives like Kanye West's The Life of Pablo and Beyoncé's single "Formation," Jay Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, 2002's The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse and 2009's The Blueprint 3 can now only be streamed exclusively on Tidal.
According to Pitchfork, a Spotify spokesperson revealed that the rapper's Blueprint albums have not been available to stream on any other service expect Tidal "for a few months now."
"We hope he brings them back soon so that his millions of fans on Spotify can enjoy them again," the spokesperson said, although this is highly unlikely.
It's a bit strange that it took the rapper this long to remove his music from Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play Music, and so on and so forth, but the decision to do so isn't so shocking. Jay Z previously pulled his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt (which is often referred to as his best record) from Spotify last year. That album also isn't available on Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon or Google Play Music (although there are some videos that appear).
The Blueprint albums are also no longer available on Apple Music or Google Play Music, and fans can't even buy them through iTunes or Amazon's MP3 store.
Interestingly enough, both tracks from Reasonable Doubt and all three albums of The Blueprint trilogy are still available on Pandora. Rhapsody has the first two of The Blueprint trilogy, but not The Blueprint 3.
However, Jay Z's other album's like Magna Carta, The Black Album and his collaboration with Kanye West, Watch the Throne, are still available to stream on services like Apple Music. Some songs are also available via streaming compilation albums like The Hits Collection, Vol. One.
However, those who want to jam out to tracks like " '03 Bonnie & Clyde" or "Izzo (H.O.V.A)" will need to make sure their free subscription to Tidal isn't expired yet.
Source: Pitchfork
Photo: Chris Drumm | Flickr
