What if Warners decided 2 release a Live Prince cd about the same time Prince released his ONA Live? If Warner would do this, they would probably compile live recordings from him throughout his tenure there (the ones he gave them). It would be interesting to hear different versions of When U Were Mine (1981 vs 2002). It wouldn't surprise me if they wouldn't do something like this. Every since he has left them, everytime he comes out with a "big" release on his own, they release an album (Rave and The Vault, The Rainbow Children and TVBO).

daPrettyman said:

Ain't gonna happen, because other than Purple Rain and Strange Relationship, I don't think WB actually has any rights whatsoever in relation to his live recordings. Not sure though.

daPrettyman said:

What? WB going broke or sumptin

savoirfaire said:

U could be correct, but it's no telling what WB has in their backcatalog from Prince that hasn't been released yet. In 1994 and 1995, Prince was wanting everything (even things that were not released), but WB told him "uh-uh".

Sorry but it will NEVER happen. WB have no rights whatsoever to Prince or any other artist's live recordings UNLESS they had that as part of their contract.

Prince fulfilled his contractual obligations to WB by giving them*:

Come
The Gold Experience
Girl 6
Chaos & Disorder
The Vault Old Friends 4 Sale

In addition WB had the rights to release ONE more compilation album = The Very Best Of Prince

The Black Album was an additional release that in the end did NOT count towards the remaining albums owed to WB for which Prince received a one-off payment of $1 million plus any royalties.

* He signed a six album deal in 1992 for $100 million that also included two compilations. The first album was "Symbol" and then we had "The Hits" (I presume they counted as one even though there were three versions)

WB broke?
Well actualy since the TimeWarner / AOL merger they have lost a reported $6b ... and no amount of lose change down the back of the sofa or in the stupid weird wooden basket in the kitchen is gonna make that up...

Warners can re-release the material Prince recorded under them any time they like ... thats what owning the masters means...
And besides they have one more album of unreleased material. The vault was the first one. There is another. (hehehe just like Star Wars)...
Also the deal that he signed in 1992 was a 10 album deal.
[This message was edited Tue Nov 19 10:08:30 PST 2002 by Persian]

Persian said:

Persian, all due respect but you're wrong! It was a six album deal as I said above. I am not 100% clear on what owning the masters truly means with regards to how and what WB can release BUT I am pretty certain from what I have read that they CANNOT release any more complete PRINCE albums. However, they might be allowed to include Prince trax on compilation albums.

Where did you read that they had one more vault album? That really is the first I have heard.

jaypotton said:

I find it interesting that Prince (when releasing vault material) doesn't release too many things prior to 1991. If you look at the Crystal Ball cd, the things on there that were recorded prior to 1991 were edited (even if only 10seconds). I have this feeling that WB has the rights to some of those recordings...especially if he gave them an album and they said that "certain songs don't fit" or "we don't like the album so go redo it". I know that happens sometimes. It happened to Anita Baker last year. Her record company, Atlantic, told her that her album she submitted was "unmarketable" and asked her to redo the album. However, Atlantic still has the rights to the recordings that she submitted and can release them with or without her consent.

daPrettyman - that's interesting and food for thought. This whole music bidnez stuff is complicated ain't it?

I believe that Prince edited and rerecorded some of the stuff on Crystal Ball to remove Wendy & Lisa contributions so he did not have to pay them royalties (another reason why Roadhouse Garden has not been released). W&L were so integral to a lot of the 85/86 stuff that they need to be involved now to release the material (co-writing as well as performing).

However, it would be interesting to know if songs on previous configurations of albums subimitted to WB remain in their ownership? If that was the case how could Prince release Acknowledge Me on Crystal Ball because it was part of the original Gold tracklist?

Is it as simple as whether the masters were handed over to WB or not? If they have them , they don't give them back, if Prince didn't give them to WB then he still has them?