OKay, I am trying to finish my Prince collection and it seems that the Gold Experience is the most elluslive album there is. I don't understand this.I have found people telling me that they no longer are in print which I don't believe and others trying to sell it for about 100 dollars. There is no doubt in the greatness of the album but why can't I find it anywhere!?

RedMordSith said:

The Gold Experience is long out of print and now quite hard to find. You can pick it up cheap in used record shops and thats probably your best bet. It does as you said go for big bucks on ebay.

soulyacolia said:

Cheap my ass! I bought my copy used for 15.99 at a Wherehouse two years ago--I paid less for the OUtkast album brand SPANKin' new!

Who is the genius who decided to put his best album of the 90's out of print?

Spanky said:

That would be some guy called 'Prince'.

I got mine,still shrink-wrapped, at a record fair for £3...crazy eh???

Spanky said:

I picked a copy up for £4 a few months back

The Gold Experience goes for less than ten bones around here used. There's plenty of 'em, too.

BorisFishpaw said:

Wouldn't that be Warners decision rather than Prince's?

I assume 'out of print' means they no longer manufacture new copies. I would imagine that happens with a lot of albums from years ago that didn't really sell that well on their release, Prince or otherwise.

BorisFishpaw said:

Yep, why don't you blame him for everything that goes wrong in the world too...

I've just bought 2 back-up copies of this from eBay - one for £6 and one for 1 euro! There's always loads of copies for sale on there, not to mention www.gemm.com and other sites. Yes it's out of print, but it really isn't that hard to track down. I dare say some record stores will still have copies gathering dust.
As to why it's out of print, it is down to Prince. He owns the masters to this album, and it's entirely his decision to re-issue/press it. It was released in conjunction with WB, but they have no ownership or say in it's re-issue.

I got mine from the library...copied it rather... Don't tell anyone..

Try to find it through BMG, that's how I got it

Smooches;)

I wasn't aware that it wasn't in the record stores. Usually, when the albums become out of style, they only order of or two copies because they don't sell that often. If it is not out of print, they can order it for you.

In most of the music stores near me there are 3 prince albums in the store...purple rain, 1999 and the gold experience...i'm surprised at hearing that it is apparently rare in other places

RedMordSith said:

and your reason for not believing this is?...

how'bout checking your facts before you make a statement like this which essentially calls those people who have told you it was out of print liars when the fact is you're the one who doesn't know what he is talking about.

of course I expect that from anyone who has a Star Wars reference in their user name.

amazon.com has a used copy right now for $14.99.

Alot of people on there are selling used copies for $30-50 or more

Think I'll burn a backup copy of mine.

metalorange said:

Actually,I think Prince (not Warners) owns the master to 'TGE' so if it's no longer in print,that's because Prince is no longer manufacturing new copies of it.

DavidEye said:

Is this true? I haven't read anywhere that Prince possesses the masters to TGE. As far as I understand it, and from reading The Vault, it was included as one of the albums needed for Prince to honour his contract to Warners, just like Chaos & Disorder, and would therefore be covered under the usual deal where they end up with the masters. Chaos & Disorder is also out of print I believe, is this due to Prince too or Warners?

I can't help thinking the main reason why any album stops being made is because there's no longer a profit in it, for any of the parties involved, even if it's regarded as a good album.

metalorange said:

I'm sure Langebleu or Boris can answer this question,lol.But I was under the impression that Prince owned the masters to this album.Remember in 94/95 when he was feuding with WB,and the release of this album was in doubt? I heard that they negotiated a deal where Prince would own the masters.I could be wrong though.

DavidEye said:

Well, the release was delayed because Warners wanted to let some time pass between albums, whereas Prince wanted it out as soon as possible and to count as one of his contracted albums. The delay wasn't originally about who owns the masters from what I've read.

And if Prince did manage to do a deal to keep his masters on this album, then you would have thought he could have done that with future albums and didn't need to leave Warners at all.

But I could be wrong, just trying to find out, is all.