Jay Z on Spotify: Rapper's back catalogue returns to streaming app to mark his 50th birthday

Jay Z has marked his 50th birthday in an unusual way - by putting his entire back catalogue on Spotify again.

The 99 Problems rapper removed most of his music from the streaming service in 2017, meaning only subscribers to Apple Music and Tidal could stream his albums.

To mark his big day, records including Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime Vol.1 are available for Spotify listeners again, though there’s no word on how long they’ll stay there.

Spotify announced the news with a "Happy birthday, Hov" tweet featuring a short trailer.

Spotify users have already shared their excitement at being able to stream the albums again:

Jay Z's back catalogue includes 13 solo albums and five collaborative releases, some of which were already on Spotify.

Tidal launched back in 2014 and was touted as the first "artist-owned" streaming platform.

Since its star-studded launch event - which saw stars including Madonna, Daft Punk and Jack White among the musicians named as owners - Tidal has played host to numerous exclusive releases.

In January 2016, Rihanna’s Anti was only available on Tidal for its first week and Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo was also debuted in the same way.

Beyoncé’s surprise visual album, Lemonade, was available on Tidal before physical copies were out.

Read more

Stormzy: Jay-Z was 'super shocked' when I turned down collaboration

Jay-Z sues Australian book company for using lyrics to 99 Problems

Jay-Z accused of 'woke capitalism' after making deal with the NFL