For years, several high-profile artists — including Prince, Metallica, Bob Seger and others — held back their music from streaming services, due usually to the comparatively low royalty rates compared with physical product.
However, in some cases, the holdout was due to disarray within the artist’s rights-holders — which has long been the case with Aaliyah, the R&B star who died in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of just 22. Her music has never appeared legally on streaming services — and remains arguably the most popular catalog not to do so, since all three of her albums have been certified double platinum and would have racked up much bigger numbers had they not been essentially unavailable since the advent of streaming.
All that may change soon, according to a cautiously worded announcement from her estate Tuesday.
“To our loyal fans: We are excited to announce that communication has commenced between the estate and various record labels about the status of Aaliyah’s music catalogue, as well as its availability on streaming platforms in the near future. Thank you for your continued love and support. More updates to come!”
Initially an R. Kelly protégé — the two were briefly married, allegedly via a fake ID, when she was just 15 — Aaliyah first hit with her debut album “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number.” But after her marriage to Kelly was annulled, she began working with the then-nascent team of Timbaland and Missy Elliott on the 1996 “One in a Million” album, the self-titled collection released just weeks before Aaliyah’s death, and several singles. Perhaps most notable is the 1998 song “Are You That Somebody,” from the Eddie Murphy-starring “Dr. Doolittle” remake, which featured a memorable video and one of Timbaland’s most innovative productions, based around a loop of a baby cooing.
The disarray around her business affairs in the wake of her death was complicated by the fact that all three of her albums were on the now-defunct Blackground Records, the label founded by the father-son team of Barry and Jomo Hankerson, the former of whom was Kelly’s manager for the first 10 years of the singer’s career, and Aaliyah’s uncle; further complicating matters is the fact that each album was distributed by a different label: “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number” is on Kelly’s former label Jive, “One in a Million” was distributed by Atlantic and the self-titled 2001 album by Virgin, now owned by Universal. Blackground, which at various times also had Timbaland, Toni Braxton, JoJo and Tank on its roster, has not released an album since 2013 and has been mired in lawsuits over the past few years.
More to come …
Source : Variety
