I've been reading here that the reason many of his 90's CD's are rare is because Warner refuses to rerelease them. Well, why are his non-Warner CD's like Rave and Crystal Ball also rare?

doctamario said:

I don't know about Rave, but if Crystal Ball is rare(I see it ALL the time in stores), it would be because not a lot of them were pressed to begin with.

Really, the only 90s release that I don't see on a regular basis is The Gold Experience. I see everything else pretty regularly.

TheBigBang said:

Right, unfortunately the music from this era, was either distributed by the NPG or a company that they dealt with temporarily just to get the record out there. On some occassions, the distribution wasn't very successful, so Prince jumped around alot: EMI, Redline Entertainment, Arista, Big Daddy ( or something like that ). That's why Prince finally went to Sony, he wanted Musicology to really sell, because he knew it would be a 'commercial, chart topper' type of success.

I had to buy The Gold Experience (CD) form EBay.
[Edited 6/1/05 15:00pm]

If you are trying to collect the majority of the official releases, grab a phone book and call every music store you can find and see what they have. That always helps me get my hands on whatever I may be looking for.

The only 90's releases I had a bit of trouble finding were
The Gold Experience, Crystal Ball, and the Black Album (which I still don't "officially" have)

but if you frequent used record shops as I do, they pop up from time to time
(though I have't seen another copy of TGE since I bought mine)

Rave is pretty easy to find almost everywhere though

TBeatty716 said:

the most underrated way of finding albums

TBeatty716 said:

What's a record store???

mkaye8 said:

.. and this "phone book" of which you speak of?

thekidsgirl said:

thats a shame because i dont have any of those albums am sad.

medina said:

Are you serious?

thekidsgirl said:

Hell yeah, I have the address and phone number of practically every store that ever carried a piece of music in my city.

TheBluePrince said:

Isn't Arista a big deal company that wouldn't have trouble pressing all the CD's Rave was supposed to sell? Wasn't that the Musicology of the late 90's?

TBeatty716 said:

Excellent idea

Out of print - get 'em while/if you can:

Black Album
Emancipation
Crystal Ball
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic
The Gold Experience
Goldnigga
Exodus
Newpower Soul
Rainbow Children(?)

any of these on store shelves
still in shrink-wrap would be new-old-stock.

squirrelgrease said:

I was actually happy to find out yesterday that Rave In2 is sold on the npgmusicclub website even to non-member. I'll definitely have to get that one.

So and Come aren't OOP? What about Girl 6? Why are some out of print and others aren't?
[Edited 6/1/05 19:30pm]
[Edited 6/1/05 19:32pm]

There's always Ebay. (If you don't mind paying way too much).

doeineffect said:

well, ebay actually can have really nice deals, I just don't like having to buy Crystal Ball from the UK and paying 15ibs for shipping. Plus, not all the sellers are trustworthy. Had some bad experiences.

doctamario said:

You might wanna try these guys in the UK. Always been reliable for me!

http://www.madhousemusic.co.uk/

the Rave cd at NPGMC is a remix

doctamario said:

Quite the opposite.
The albums that Warners have control of are the ones that you CAN still get.
The ones that Prince has control of are the ones that are unavailable.

gemm.com is also really good if eBay can't help. It contains the listings of loads of independent record stores.

BorisFishpaw said:

So does P have control over Come and TGE?

1800NewHunk said:

Wow! This site is the bomb. They have the really rare stuff too like the batcan and singles and shit. And best of all, most of it is new. Thx

BlurredEye said:

looks like this place has a wide variety of hard to find stuff. thku

doctamario said:

Come - No
TGE - Yes

About TGE - You'll notice (if you have a copy!) that the NPG Records label is on the back - It is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that TGE was simply distributed by Warners, and Prince indeed owns the masters to that album.

You'll also notice it's all the stuff Prince owns that is hard to get (all the NPG Records releases, and Rave, which Prince owns the masters too).

The Black Album was a *limited edition* so it's out of print for that reason.

Between Gemm.com, eBay, Amazon sellers (remember to try all Amazon sites, not just .com - try .co.uk, .ca etc) - Between all these sites, your local chain stores and 2nd hand stores, I see no reason for anyone to have problems finding ALL of Prince's official recordings.

Stuff like Gold Nigga is different, it never had a large scale release, and Exodus was not released in the USA, so it's import any way for you guys on that side of the Atlantic - but still, just with eBay you can find several copies of both these releases almost every single week.
[Edited 6/2/05 14:36pm]

MetroArea said:

ohh that mean i cant get the tge huh. man

Tiffypoo2004 said:

http://www.amazon.com/exe...000002N1E/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/e...000002N1E/
http://search.ebay.com/go...acatZ11233
http://www.gemm.com/c/sea...Go%21.y=12

Treat yourself, it's a great album.

MetroArea said:

thanks for the link i just ordered the tge

Tiffypoo2004 said:

Yay! You'll love it! It's widely regarded as the best album of the 90s!