Update:

And just like that, the Jay Z albums that mysteriously reappeared on Apple Music, like Blueprint and Blueprint 2, have now been yanked from the service once again.

Apple Music
Apple Music
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Original Story:

If you're a Jay Z fan, Apple Music hasn't been your best friend—until now. Recently, the God MC excited iPhone-dependent fans across the globe when he put his albums The BlueprintThe Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse and Blueprint 2.1 back onto the popular streaming service.

While no one knows for sure what Jay Z putting these albums back on Apple Music means as to whether the company will regain access to other albums like Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint 3, it does appear that it could be at least a step in that direction. Months ago, it felt like such a thing was practically impossible. Back in March, the folks at Pitchfork noticed that Hova's albums Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint had been taken off by Apple Music. When the site reached out to Spotify, a rep for the company noted that Hov's Blueprint albums hadn't been available for at least a few months up to that point.

Tidal is still the only music streaming service that has permission to stream all of Jay Z's albums. If you know anything about Tidal, you understand why. Back in early 2015, Jay Z and several other artists launched the music streaming service as a platform for artists to have more control over the royalties earned from their work. While Tidal generated a solid buzz thanks to the star power of Kanye West, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and Hov himself, the service has struggled to compete with streaming giants like Apple Music and Spotify. With that in mind, it makes sense for the company to incentivize fans to subscribe by making itself the only platform that streams all of Jay Z's albums, so it might be a while before Apple or any other streaming service gets their cyber-hands on all of Hova's legendary discography.

Apple users who still want access to all of Jay Z's albums can subscribe to Tidal, or buy every Hov album but The Blueprint 3 on iTunes.

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