Albums to me includes everything he's released as an album (duh) except best ofs. Yes I include Crystal Ball, that material wasn't released before so it's included. Yes I include Slaughterhouse and Chocolate Doody because - well I don't know why - they're compilations, but I don't give a fuck enough about them to not include them. Include NPS too if you feel the need - A couple more added to the total ain't going to rock anyone's world, and people are only quibbling about the shit ones, so who the fuck cares

databank said:

There is no definitive, satisfiying answer to the OP's question. Once we played the game of removing everything that could be removed on any (logic or absurd) ground, including internet-only albums, compilations, live and video albums, soundtracks and "Prince and TR/TNPG/3EG..." albums and we ended-up with I think 13 albums

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I tend to be all includive by asking myself those 2 questions:

1/ What constitutes an "album"? There is no definitive academic answer to that question. In the larger sense of the term, I'd say a musical work of art that constitutes a self-cohesive ensemble, whether studio or live and regardless of the format it was released on (physical or digital, audio or video), and isn't an offspring of another album (as a maxi-single usually is to an album). However to some extent compilations of previously released non-album tracks can be made into a cohesive work of art (hardly the case with The B-Sides or CD2 of ultimate but totally the case with TCI and TS). How many tracks and how long should an album have/be to be considered an album is a question no one has ever answered, though charts have their own, somewhat arbitrary systems to differenciate singles, EP's and albums. There are also things that are somewhere in-between, such as 1-800 New Funk, which is kind of half tracks from other albums and half non-album tracks.

2/ What should be included in an artists' discography? I'm very clear on the fact that the name on the cover does not matter at all (whether we're talking Prince or any other artist): my concern is who is/are the leading creative force(s) behind the work of art in question. Failing to acknowledge Prince's side-projects as part of is canon is virtually ignoring half of his released work, particularly on the first 15 years. In most cases with prince side-projects it's pretty obvious. There are cases that I would definitely call collaborative efforts. GCS 2000, Superconductor and Back In Time in particular, since Prince acted mostly as an arranger and musician, but he was definitely one of the lead creative forces. Many other side-projects were collaborative, more or less, similarly by the way to several "Prince" albums being collaborative as well anyway (it's not like he always did everything on every record). There are ambiguous cases such as albums that are basically Prince efforts but contain one or 2 songs without any input by Prince (Time Waits For No One or Romance 1600 for example) or albums containing a lot of Prince material but also a lot of other stuff (typically May 19 1992, Pandemonium, The Voice and Sheila E. are hard to classify). I would tend to include the first type (because one or 2 songs stilkl has Prince as a main creative force) and exclude the second (because at some point Prince's contribution becomes more that (contributions to someone else's projects) that a Prince project including a few tracks that Prince had nothing to do with.

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In the end, my preoccupation being trying to establish a Prince canon that is as comprehensive as possible, regardless of prejudice and with as little subjectivity as possible I came-up with this (dates correespond last known recording sessions, not year of release):

1. Prince - For You (1978)
2. Prince - Prince (1979)
3. Prince - Dirty Mind (1980)
4. The Time - The Time (1981) (side project)
5. Prince - Controversy (1981)
6. Vanity 6 - Vanity 6 (1982) (side project)
7. The Time - What Time Is It? (1982) (side project)
8. Prince - 1999 (1982)
9. The Time - Ice Cream Castles (1984) (side project)
10. Sheila E. - The Glamorous Life (1984) (side project)
11. Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)
12. Apollonia 6 - Apollonia 6 (1984) (side project)
13. Prince And The Revolution - Around The World In A Day (1984)
14. Prince And The Revolution - Double Live (1985) (live + video)
15. Sheila E. - Romance 1600 (1985) (side project) (one song with no Prince involvement)
16. The Family - The Family (1985) (side project)
17. 94 East - Minneapolis Genius (1985) (released without Prince's consent)
18. Prince And The Revolution - Parade (1985)
19. Madhouse - 8 (1986) (side project)
20. Jill Jones - Jill Jones (1986) (side project)
21. Prince - Sign “O” The Times (1987)
22. Madhouse - 16 (1987) (side project)
23. Prince - Sign “O” The Times (1987) (semi-live + video)
24. Prince - The Black Album (1987)
25. Prince - Lovesexy (1988)
26. Mavis Staples - Time Waits For No One (1988) (side project) (two songs with no Prince involvement)
27. Prince - Lovesexy Live 1 (1988) (live + video)
28. Prince - Lovesexy Live 2 (1988) (live + video)
29. Prince - Batman (1989)
30. Prince - The B-sides (1989) (compilation of previously released material)
31. Prince - Graffiti Bridge (1990)
32. Eric Leeds - Times Squared (1990) (side project) (one song with no Prince involvement)
33. Prince And The New Power Generation - Diamonds And Pearls (1991)
34. Prince - Ultimate (1991) (CD 2 only, compilation of previously released material)
35. Prince And The New Power Generation - (1992)
36. Carmen Electra - Carmen Electra (1992) (side project)
37. New Power Generation - Gold Nigga (1993) (side project)
38. Prince - The Undertaker (1993) (video)
39. Prince - The Sacrifice Of Victor (1993) (live + video)
40. Prince - Come (1994)
41. New Power Generation - Exodus (1995) (side project)
42. - The Gold Experience (1995)
43. Mayte - Child Of The Sun (1995) (side project)
44. Prince - The Vault… Old Friends 4 Sale (1996)
45. - Chaos And Disorder (1996)
46. The NPG Orchestra - Kamasutra (1996) (side project)
47. - Emancipation (1996)
48. - Crystal Ball (1996)
49. - The Truth (1996)
50. Graham Central Station - GCS 2000 (1998) (side project)
51. New Power Generation - Newpower Soul (1998) (side project)
52. Chaka Khan - Come 2 My House (1998) (side project)
53. New Power Generation - The War (1998) (side project) (sometimes marketed by Prince himself as a single, sometimes as an album)
54. - Beautiful Strange (1998) (live + video)
55. Prince - Tramps (New York, NY), Sept 26, 1998 (1998) (live)
56. - Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)
57. - Rave In2 The Year 2000 (1999) (live + video)
58. Prince - The Slaughterhouse (2001) (compilation of previously released material)
59. Prince - The Chocolate Invasion (2001) (compilation of previously released material)
60. Prince - The Rainbow Children (2001)
61. Prince - One Nite Alone… (2001)
62. Prince - Xpectation (2002)
63. Prince And The New Power Generation - One Nite Alone… Live! (2002) (live)
64. Prince And The New Power Generation - One Nite Alone… The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over (2002) (live)
65. Prince And The New Power Generation - C-Note (2002) (live)
66. Prince - Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas (2002) (live + video)
67. Prince - N.E.W.S. (2003)
68. Prince - Musicology (2004)
69. Prince - 3121 (2006)
70. Prince - Planet Earth (2007)
71. Prince - Indigo Nights / Live Sessions (2007) (live)
72. Prince - Lotus Flow3r (2009)
73. Bria Valente - Elixer (2009) (side project)
74. Prince - Mplsound (2009)
75. Prince - 20ten (2010)
76. Andy Allo - Superconductor (2012) (side project)
77. Prince & 3rdEyeGirl - Plectrumelectrum (2014)
78. Prince - Art Official Age (2014)

79. Judith Hill - Back In Time (2015) (side project)

[Edited 9/4/15 3:25am]

If you treat Prince has a composer, this list comes closest save for a few exceptions