Months after Prince’s music returned to streaming services, his music videos have been uploaded to an official YouTube channel, continuing a trend of Prince’s principles being tested after his death.
Six videos from the singer’s “Purple Rain” album were uploaded to the video-sharing website beginning Friday, July 7, including “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy.” The appearance of the clips seemed to coincide with the June release of deluxe and deluxe expanded versions of “Purple Rain” that each come with remastered songs that were overseen by Prince and previously unreleased tracks.
More videos are slated to be added, a Warner Bros. representative told NPR, though it is unclear where permission was obtained to upload the videos in the first place. If Prince hadn’t died at age 57 last year, these clips would likely not have been published online. During his life, Prince was outspoken about his disinterest in stepping into the digital age of music.
“The internet’s completely over,” he told the Daily Mirror in 2010. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it. … All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
The uploading of Prince’s music videos to YouTube comes after his music catalogue returned to every streaming service except Tidal just in time for the Grammys in February. It was the first time in two years that fans had been able to stream Prince’s albums on platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.
