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17 November 2016Copyright

Prince’s record label sues Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service

The record label of late musician Prince has sued rapper and businessman Jay-Z.

In a copyright infringement claim, NPG Records alleged that Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation, through its streaming service Tidal, has illegally streamed the late musician’s songs.

Filed at the US District Court for the District of Minnesota on Tuesday, November 15, NPG cited a deal made with Tidal in August last year. Under the deal, Tidal was given an exclusive licence to exploit “the next newly recorded studio LP” by Prince, called “Hit N Run: Phase 1”.

But, according to the record label, the licence was only meant to last for 90 days.

NPG claimed that Tidal has exploited a number of copyrighted Prince songs in addition to the songs in the “Hit N Run: Phase 1” album.

It added that Roc Nation and Tidal have not provided any documents “substantiating Roc Nation’s claim that it has rights to exploit any Prince copyrighted works”.

The record label is seeking injunctive relief, an account of profits and damages, and a jury trial.

Last week, on November 11, Roc Nation filed a petition at the District Court, First Judicial District in the County of Carver, Minnesota. Roc Nation asked the court to enforce the agreement made between Tidal and the late musician on Prince’s catalogue of songs.

“Importantly, [Prince] agreed that ….[he] would not approve, assent, consent or grant to any digital music service anywhere in the world other than petitioner, exclusive rights with respect to [his] music” over the next five years, said the suit.

The petition explained that the administrator of Prince’s estate had recently entered into a distribution agreement with Universal Music, and Roc Nation was concerned that the administrator was negotiating with third parties “concerning the digital streaming” of the works.

Roc Nation has also requested access to all information concerning the distribution or exploitation of the music, based on the administrator’s “shielding” of its business dealings from the public and interested parties, including Roc Nation.

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More on this story

Copyright
11 January 2017   Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation and streaming service Tidal have filed responses to a copyright infringement complaint filed by the record label of late musician Prince.
Copyright
6 September 2018   The estate of late singer Prince has taken on several European individuals for allegedly selling the musician’s material without permission.