The rapper, who owns rival Tidal, has removed nine of his 12 albums from the world’s leading streaming service

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Jay Z has removed most of his back catalogue from Spotify.

Prince is on Spotify but Taylor Swift, Thom Yorke and Beyoncé are holding out Read more

The rapper, who owns the rival streaming service Tidal, has taken nine of his 12 albums off the site. Although his first three albums remain, the mogul joins Taylor Swift, Adele, Prince and his wife Beyoncé as a major artist who has at some point decided to withdraw from the world’s leading streaming service.

It is also the latest skirmish in a turf war between various music services. Jay Z bought Tidal for £45m in 2015 and promised a fairer deal for artists who signed up to it. But the marketplace is crowded with Apple Music, Amazon Music and Google Play all fighting for dominance. Tidal suffered from a botched launch and has so far only managed to accrue around three million subscribers. That is in comparison to Spotify’s 50m and Apple Music’s 20m.

In a statement, Spotify said that “some of [Jay Z’s] catalogue has been removed at the request of the artist”.