So does the WB news affect the out-of-print associated artist recordings? Could we possibly get domestic CD and/or download releases, or reissues, of Apollonia, Mazarati, the Family, and all the others? Will those masters be returned to those artists eventually, or does Prince get those too?

Just thinking out loud. I'd kill to have a truly remastered version of "Blue Limousine."

PurpleHigh said:

So does the WB news affect the out-of-print associated artist recordings? Could we possibly get domestic CD and/or download releases, or reissues, of Apollonia, Mazarati, the Family, and all the others? Will those masters be returned to those artists eventually, or does Prince get those too?

Just thinking out loud. I'd kill to have a truly remastered version of "Blue Limousine."

Prince got most of the masters of the Paisley Park albums back when the label was shut down in 1994, he could have rerelease/remastered it all anytime ever since (actually he once planned to rerelease many PP albums in Europe thru Edel but quickly changed his mind: the Eric Leeds, Madhouse, Ingrid Chavez and Carmen Electra albums were on that list of cancelled rereleases, and The Voice and Hey... Man, Smell My Finder were indeed rereleased thru NPG/Edel in 1994).

WB retained the rights to all the pre-PP albums (The Time, What Time Is It?, Vanity 6, Ice Cream Castles, Apollonia 6, The Glamorous Life) as well as Romance 1600 and Pandemonium but it's very likely that P got those back alonside his own catalogue. He always made it clear that he considered those records his own. It's also possible that WB had a few more PP albums and the status of the 2 Kahoru Kohiruimaki albums is unkown.

Whether any of the artists involved will try and get "their" masters back remains to be seen. In some cases such as George Clinton it would make perfect sense for Prince to give up on the masters, but when it comes to his own side projects I see little reason why he would (or should) not keep them for himself.

Eventually I am confident that all those albums will be remastered, but maybe not with WB and maybe not soon.

[Edited 4/28/14 4:23am]

I think remasters of Apollonia 6,The Family and Mazarati would be a great idea.There's a small market of diehard Prince fans who would go out and buy those.The two Madhouse albums and the Jill Jones album should also be considered,too.

If Prince and/or WB don't want to do it on their own they should partner with Funkytowngrooves, they specialize in re-releasing "lost" R&B/Funk albums of a similar stature. In fact I've had to practically block that site from my browser because everytime I go there I wind up spending WAY too much money.

redflag said:

If Prince and/or WB don't want to do it on their own they should partner with Funkytowngrooves, they specialize in re-releasing "lost" R&B/Funk albums of a similar stature. In fact I've had to practically block that site from my browser because everytime I go there I wind up spending WAY too much money.

Yes,FunkytownGrooves would be a perfect label to take on this project,if Prince and Warners have no interest in doing anything with those albums.They remastered Andre Cymone's 'AC' album and turned it into a dazzling 2-CD set with outtakes,B-sides,etc.