Taylor Swift’s 1989 won’t be the only reclusive album to find its first digital home on Apple Music: Dr. Dre’s game-changing 1992 LP The Chronic will be there, too. Apple Music’s launch tomorrow will also mark The Chronic’s streaming debut, Rolling Stone reports. Now, this seems like it should be wrong. Sure, maybe Dre didn’t want his classic missive on Spotify or iTunes, but the album wasn’t even available on the rapper’s own Beats Music when it launched in 2014.
Dr. Dre’s The Chronic will be available digitally for the first time ever on Apple Music
Apple Music's library is bulking up
The most logical explanation for the exclusion would be that Dre doesn't have the rights to The Chronic. But that's also not true. In 2011, Dre won a lawsuit against his former label Death Row Records that gave him the digital rights to the album, and entitled him to 100 percent of its online sales, according to Billboard. Dre also attempted to recoup unpaid royalties and profits from unauthorized digital sales by Death Row, but lost that $3 million claim in 2014.
Of course, Dre is entitled to do whatever he wants with The Chronic, and it makes sense it would be on Apple Music, given Dre’s involvement with the service. Two down, a few more aging rockers to go. Maybe next we can expect... an AC/DC announcement?
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