jaypotton said:

Purple Rain is THE cash cow for both Prince and WB. All the initial effort will be on this and they will see how it sells.

I predict that all the other WB albums will eventually be remastered and released as deluxe editions (certainly up to and including Lovesexy) and that they will be a grouped release like suggested earlier on the thread (ie 2 or 3 at a time) BUT after having left ample breathing space for both PR deluxe and the new Prince album.

I would not be surprised if this contract (having been in negotiation for at least a year) is not pretty watertight to ensure maximum opportunity to properly exploit the back catalogue (likely for the last time due to the diminishing interest in Prince). I would also not be surprised if the contract ensures that Prince only gets the masters AFTER the remaster has been completed and is in WB hands so they can go ahead and press the deluxe editions.

This really is a way for Prince to ensure his retirement fund and for WB to generate some last revenue from someone who was once one of their top acts.

I hope, really hope, that we fans get all of that AND get a series of Vault releases too!

[Edited 4/22/14 9:23am]

U right! WB knows that "Purple Rain" is going to make them a TON of money! Its the album & movie they mainly care about from Prince. This being the last chance for them to capitalize on this 30th Anniversary & with Prince still "Willing & Able" to record & perform and still looking the same. They are going to pull out all stops on this debut remastered package like no other.

Also Prince I'm sure is going to fully cooperate. He knows his fans have been waiting for this 4 decades & are willing to give up the big bucks 4 it..!!!!

There is no DIMINISHING interest in Prince! He is still considered a superstar. Stop downplaying his worth...

[Edited 4/22/14 12:24pm]

databank said:

IstenSzek said:

yes, those are really the best pairings for those albums

but i'm not sure we'll ever get a Batman reissue, simply because of

licensing with the samples from the movie and all. but who knows.

The samples aren't a big issue, movie samples are being used in songs all the time, it's like a song sample. More problematic may be the use of the Batman name and logo, cover art and all, but I'm sure this can easily be sorted out: if P handles it with WB Records, DC and WB film wins some royalties, WB records and P get the rest of the money, I really don't c why it'd be so complicated.

you're right, i hadn't thought of it like that before. and especially with warners

helping out getting stuff sorted it really shouldn't be a problem.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Also Prince is going to fully cooperate.

[Edited 4/22/14 12:05pm]

Do you call Prince every night before you go to bed?

Now the gate is finally opening. Come with it Prince. The MORE tracks the better!

[Edited 4/22/14 13:27pm]

nayroo2002 said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Also Prince is going to fully cooperate.

[Edited 4/22/14 12:05pm]

Do you call Prince every night before you go to bed?

Please don't make posts like this baiting other users. It's against the rules. You've already had one snip this week.

benjaminira said:

According to a Forbes article, the Purple Rain remastered is going to be a box set! I assume a box set is more than 2 discs?

That article should be taken with a grain of salt. The writer originally wrote that it was the 25th anniversary of the set. SMH.

benjaminira said:

According to a Forbes article, the Purple Rain remastered is going to be a box set! I assume a box set is more than 2 discs?

the article also said it was the 25th anniversary..lol

I hardly can belive it's 30 year ago ...

-

That means I'm a Prince fan for 32 years precisely.

(OMFG!)

Militant said:

nayroo2002 said:

Do you call Prince every night before you go to bed?

Please don't make posts like this baiting other users. It's against the rules. You've already had one snip this week.

I really am a tool.

if prince takes a cue from the classic bands who have recently been touring around their most classic albums .. he will tour the record and play the bsides and outtakes from that recording ... many other bands have picked their best records and played them top to bottom in order and then thrown in the bsides as the encore .. why cant prince to this? .. oh yeah .. i just remembered the last 20 years .. he will tour this with 3rd eye and ruin all the PR songs by u know .. taking the fucking guitar solo out of purple rain .. (one of the most dumbfucking stupid things I have EVER heard prince do) .. or putting the crowd to sleep with a song called lets go crazy .. its not like he ever played those outtakes or bsides much .. it would be totally fresh to get the rev out on tour and play those songs only for that era .. he could put together the old dirty mind band and do that record etc ... even let the time be the time and the family be the family and perform their classic records on the tour of that year .. it would be prince opportunity to do those tours the RIGHT WAY i am talking to you honky tonk version of "something in the water" during the PR tour ... I would much rather have a 1999 full on robot funk tour with each song bside and outtake perfomed properly than hear a stupid piano medley or .. FUCKIN SAMPLER SET .. he won't .. he can never be that cool again .. he will find a way to ruin it .. i just know it .. let the rain come down

ps .. and how great would the sign crystal ball era tour be with those bsides and crystal ball songs included? it would be SHOCKADELICA good! nope wont happen ..

[Edited 4/22/14 14:16pm]

KeithyT said:

oh Trevor...

i know, right i got scurrred reading that post

he does have a point though

TrevorAyer said:

if prince takes a cue from the classic bands who have recently been touring around their most classic albums .. he will tour the record and play the bsides and outtakes from that recording ... many other bands have picked their best records and played them top to bottom in order and then thrown in the bsides as the encore .. why cant prince to this? .. oh yeah .. i just remembered the last 20 years .. he will tour this with 3rd eye and ruin all the PR songs by u know .. taking the fucking guitar solo out of purple rain .. (one of the most dumbfucking stupid things I have EVER heard prince do) .. or putting the crowd to sleep with a song called lets go crazy .. its not like he ever played those outtakes or bsides much .. it would be totally fresh to get the rev out on tour and play those songs only for that era .. he could put together the old dirty mind band and do that record etc ... even let the time be the time and the family be the family and perform their classic records on the tour of that year .. it would be prince opportunity to do those tours the RIGHT WAY i am talking to you honky tonk version of "something in the water" during the PR tour ... I would much rather have a 1999 full on robot funk tour with each song bside and outtake perfomed properly than hear a stupid piano medley or .. FUCKIN SAMPLER SET .. he won't .. he can never be that cool again .. he will find a way to ruin it .. i just know it .. let the rain come down

ps .. and how great would the sign crystal ball era tour be with those bsides and crystal ball songs included? it would be SHOCKADELICA good! nope wont happen ..

[Edited 4/22/14 14:16pm]

I question whether Prince has studio quality recordings of Moonbeam Levels, Electric Intrercourse etc; he might have only demoed them. Didn't someone once say that the tapes in the vault where very poorly kept and deteriorating?

Vannormal said:

I hardly can belive it's 30 year ago ...

-

That means I'm a Prince fan for 32 years precisely.

(OMFG!)

Time is still a trick.

dandan said:

I question whether Prince has studio quality recordings of Moonbeam Levels, Electric Intrercourse etc; he might have only demoed them. Didn't someone once say that the tapes in the vault where very poorly kept and deteriorating?

Yes, at one point it was planned to "bake" the tapes and pull whatever could be salvaged from a lot of them but Prince canceled this at the last minute for fear of music escaping the vault...

jtfolden said:

dandan said:

I question whether Prince has studio quality recordings of Moonbeam Levels, Electric Intrercourse etc; he might have only demoed them. Didn't someone once say that the tapes in the vault where very poorly kept and deteriorating?

Yes, at one point it was planned to "bake" the tapes and pull whatever could be salvaged from a lot of them but Prince canceled this at the last minute for fear of music escaping the vault...

I'm just glad to be able to come here and find something REAL to talk about.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

jaypotton said:

Purple Rain is THE cash cow for both Prince and WB. All the initial effort will be on this and they will see how it sells.

I predict that all the other WB albums will eventually be remastered and released as deluxe editions (certainly up to and including Lovesexy) and that they will be a grouped release like suggested earlier on the thread (ie 2 or 3 at a time) BUT after having left ample breathing space for both PR deluxe and the new Prince album.

I would not be surprised if this contract (having been in negotiation for at least a year) is not pretty watertight to ensure maximum opportunity to properly exploit the back catalogue (likely for the last time due to the diminishing interest in Prince). I would also not be surprised if the contract ensures that Prince only gets the masters AFTER the remaster has been completed and is in WB hands so they can go ahead and press the deluxe editions.

This really is a way for Prince to ensure his retirement fund and for WB to generate some last revenue from someone who was once one of their top acts.

I hope, really hope, that we fans get all of that AND get a series of Vault releases too!

[Edited 4/22/14 9:23am]

U right! WB knows that "Purple Rain" is going to make them a TON of money! Its the album & movie they mainly care about from Prince. This being the last chance for them to capitalize on this 30th Anniversary & with Prince still "Willing & Able" to record & perform and still looking the same. They are going to pull out all stops on this debut remastered package like no other.

Also Prince I'm sure is going to fully cooperate. He knows his fans have been waiting for this 4 decades & are willing to give up the big bucks 4 it..!!!!

There is no DIMINISHING interest in Prince! He is still considered a superstar. Stop downplaying his worth...

[Edited 4/22/14 12:24pm]

Prince doesn't have to cooperate at this point. It's actually WB that has to cooperate with P. He has the control over what gets released and if he works with the team at Rhino (who usually does a great job on the remasters that I've gotten from them).

As for there being a "diminishing" interest in Prince, I think there has been some over the last 20 or so years. Albums like Musicology and 3121 did well, but didn't make the impact they could have made if there had been remasters to go along with the new project.

Prince has always been the kind of artist that flies under the radar. Sure, he has had MAJOR success, but he's always been the musician's musician and that's what fans like us love about him. It's always been about the music and nothing else.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

TrevorAyer said:

a bunch of stuff...

Is this post "baiting other users" and therefore "against the rules"?

Just wondering...

I'm thinking, there are reasons some of us respond to others of us in a snarky way. It's not always mean or bullying, sometimes it's merely conflicting personalities and perfectly fine and good for the goose as well as the gander.

In my not-so-humble opinion, of course...

And now back to the regularly scheduled speculation.

daPrettyman said:

Prince doesn't have to cooperate at this point. It's actually WB that has to cooperate with P. He has the control over what gets released and if he works with the team at Rhino (who usually does a great job on the remasters that I've gotten from them).

I'm going to assume that Prince only gets the masters back as each remaster is released but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that once Prince signed the contract WB is perfectly, legally able to complete the remasters without him if they so desire or if Prince becomes troublesome. They had no problem throwing money at him to stay out of The Hits/The B-Sides collection. It's not like they dont know what kind of wrenches Prince can throw into the works.

jtfolden said:

daPrettyman said:

Prince doesn't have to cooperate at this point. It's actually WB that has to cooperate with P. He has the control over what gets released and if he works with the team at Rhino (who usually does a great job on the remasters that I've gotten from them).

I'm going to assume that Prince only gets the masters back as each remaster is released but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that once Prince signed the contract WB is perfectly, legally able to complete the remasters without him if they so desire or if Prince becomes troublesome. They had no problem throwing money at him to stay out of The Hits/The B-Sides collection. It's not like they dont know what kind of wrenches Prince can throw into the works.

They need his cooperation for any unreleased stuff he has physical possession of--they could prevent (I guess) him from releasing the material (if he only gets legal ownership after release), but if they don't have the recordings they can't do anything with them. So there's no bonus material without his help, beyond perhaps extended versions and b-sides that they've already released, and even then he might have the recordings in his physical possession. But to make these things really interesting, they need his help.

jtfolden said:

daPrettyman said:

Prince doesn't have to cooperate at this point. It's actually WB that has to cooperate with P. He has the control over what gets released and if he works with the team at Rhino (who usually does a great job on the remasters that I've gotten from them).

I'm going to assume that Prince only gets the masters back as each remaster is released but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that once Prince signed the contract WB is perfectly, legally able to complete the remasters without him if they so desire or if Prince becomes troublesome. They had no problem throwing money at him to stay out of The Hits/The B-Sides collection. It's not like they dont know what kind of wrenches Prince can throw into the works.

The article stipulates that the deal implies P getting his whole catalogue back, as in now. WB seems to have tried and avoid conflict with him in the past, by asking his permission for the Ultimate tracklist and replace Erotic City with She's Always In My Hair at his request, and by offering remasters on vinyl only. I think he had some power to prevent compilations and remasters to happen somehow, even though he couldn't prevent the albums staying in print as they were. + without him they had zero access to the original pre-master tapes (remastering a master isn't the same as remastering pre-master tapes) or any vault material. They were gonna lose the masters year after years anyway, as soon as the albums would reach 35 years old, so I guess they chose to give it all back at once and in exchange have an option on the remasters. This is pure speculation but my guess is that the contract stipulates that they have a right to put out the first edition of every album they used to own's remaster, with bonus material provided by P for each, and that once an album has been rereleased once by WB, P can choose to pursue with them or rerelease it again without them: that's the only win-win situation I can think of (they had to have some guarantees that they could bank on the albums at least one last time in exchange for giving the whole catalogue back at once) .

I think we are speculating a lot about The Deal & most important the content about Bonus material....i think in the end we will be disapointed by the quality sound of the remaster & the supposed unreleased stuff....i see a minimal reissue with Bsides & 1 or 2 unreleased live songs...we are as usual putting too high our expectations with Prince!!

[Edited 4/22/14 23:02pm]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

There is no DIMINISHING interest in Prince! He is still considered a superstar. Stop downplaying his worth...

[Edited 4/22/14 12:24pm]

Hey I really don't want to burst your bubble and totally get how mad crazy a fan you are but... there is no way on earth Prince is ever going to be as popular as he was in the 80s. NONE of the artists who get their work remastered are ever as big as they were first time around. Remastering is a way to exploit an existing catalogue and is primarily aimed at the original fans who bought the original versions.

His popularity has nothing to do with his worth and I was commenting on popularity and chance to sell vast quantities. Prince's worth is locked in as he is widely recognised as having made an amazing contribution (and influence) to the music industry.

jaypotton said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

There is no DIMINISHING interest in Prince! He is still considered a superstar. Stop downplaying his worth...

[Edited 4/22/14 12:24pm]

Hey I really don't want to burst your bubble and totally get how mad crazy a fan you are but... there is no way on earth Prince is ever going to be as popular as he was in the 80s. NONE of the artists who get their work remastered are ever as big as they were first time around. Remastering is a way to exploit an existing catalogue and is primarily aimed at the original fans who bought the original versions.

His popularity has nothing to do with his worth and I was commenting on popularity and chance to sell vast quantities. Prince's worth is locked in as he is widely recognised as having made an amazing contribution (and influence) to the music industry.

I remember thinking when The Hits came out in '93 that Prince's "time" was over. I was excited to get a lot of the B-sides in one place (albeit single versions) but still I knew what it meant overall. Most acts don't have a Second Act after a greatest hits. Prince was very lucky to keep going as much as he did but aside from TMBGITW didn't have "hits" after The Hits package.

.

A lot of the remasters I've bought in the past 10-15 year are in fact from albums that came out in the 80s when CDs were new, including Van Halen and Genesis. The Genesis remasters to me are some of the best sounding music in my collection (sonically speaking). The band themselves met and took their time on each album.

.

Purple Rain is one that people are going to want in their collection. It's been written in Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, etc. that no music collection is complete without Purple Rain in it. With a few blurbs in the latest music magazines at the time of re-release, the remaster will sell.

http://wallacecollins.blogspot.in/

could be worth a read, gentlemen.

novabrkr said:

I suppose if the record company financed those recording sessions then they might very well own the "sound recordings". I don't think they own the compositions as such, so that's something that has allowed Prince to release re-recorded versions of his older unreleased stuff (e.g. "In A Large Room With No Light").

Regardless, I don't think WB can own every demo and sketchy recording Prince might have done during his time with them. Just things that they can be proven to have "paid for". It might be a bit difficult for them to prove that things that were done in Paisley Park all alone by him should belong to them.

See my post from 10 years ago: http://prince.org/msg/7/155730
Looks like he finally struck a deal and WB was merciful enough...

Neversin.