Well i have a friend who works for Warner and he says they still have all the rights to the backcatalogue and there are no plans to revisit the catalogue at this time and certainly nothing will materialize this year. All release dates are set until Feb March 06.

I asked about any news of a Purple Rain remaster (Sign of the Times would be nice too) and he says, it would be nice, but there is nothing even in the works...



So I guess we can all dream on huh...

Damn it, they remastered so many crap back catalogues...why not Prince?? Don't we deserve digital in 2005??

OK, last time we had a thread about this stuff, some folks asserted that Prince gets back his masters 25 years after the release date of the album. Some folks said it was 30 years. Or is he set to get them back at all?

You're right, it's ridiculous that at least his 80's best-sellers haven't been remastered and rereleased...

I believe thats Warner saying hey he was a Prick to us when he was trying to break his contract so now its our turn to be a prick to him. Its like it was a piss on each other's head contest and I guess Warner is like F*ck it! Screw him!

It doesn't make much sense though because if they own the masters they'd reap a good tiddy sum off of remastering and then re-releasing them.

From what I've read, Prince and WB have to both come to agreement terms in order for any remastered CDs to come out. In other words, both sides have loopholes in their contracts and a stalemate has occured.

CandaceS said:

After reading some contracts this week I can say that since Prince's back catalog AND UNRELEASED DEMO'S, OUTTAKES AND ALTERNATE VERSIONS RECORDED ON WB STUDIO TIME (haven't got a clue which ones or how many those are, could be all of 'em or just a part or even none...) are NOT set to be returned to him after 35 years since his work is considered "work-for-hire" so WB can keep them for as long as they please, Prince has 0 rights to them (it's the contract he signed)
The only way for him to get the rights to his masters is to buy them from WB (which could result in an all out bidding war if WB chooses to auction them off) or strike a lucrative deal with them... (And we all know what Prince thinks of WB profiting off of him...)

Neversin.

Neversin said:

That is bad news. Its a shame that a partenrship that used to work so well, and produced some of the best albums / hits from the 80's came to such a bitter end. To be honest ive not really seen any kind of movement from us fans to try and force warners hand, be it through petitions or whatever. I guess at the end of the day, most remasters aren't greatly lucrative, and are done to maintain the artists image, or reputation. As WB has no interest in preserving either for prince, it would seem we'll be waiting a while. This kind of back catalogue that they have in their ownership should be cherished and glorified as much as possible. It should really be something they are proud of, and be used as a means of selling their company, as well as selling prince's name.

Warners put a hell of a lot into prince in the 80's (im not saying they did no wrong though), and it seems a shame that they're willing to write that whole chapter out of their companies history. Maybe, one day both will come together to see the greater good of working together one last time to give this back catalogue the treatment it so deserves.

Neversin said:

Fuck. So does Warners have the right to remaster Prince's/WB's CDs? Or can they only release to consumers the current mixes/masters?

Sound quality wise, what can they do? Prince's famous stuff was already so digitalized. But it would still be nice to have some extra's I guess?

thesexofit said:

Huh? Saywut? The back catalog that needs remastering is all analog sourced. Magnetic tape. Slowly deteriorating magnetic tape.

Of course, Prince did have the gains up and peaks redlined on some songs like Little Red Corvette, but improvements can be done.

Many of his albums were mastered to CD in the early days of the format, and haven't been touched since. Even Japanese Prince CD pressings have little, if any better quality.

thesexofit said:

But the sound quality can be improved. Analog to digital mastering has improved greatly in the last 10 years, so there could be an audio upgrade. I always wondered why they would need approval from Prince or any artist, if they were just doing an audio improvement through remastering, as opposed to say creating a new or Special edition with outtakes, B=sides, re-mixes, etc, which I could see requiring approval ?
And it's interesting that 2 of the greatest musicians in popular music in the last 25-30 years, namely Bruce Springsteen and Prince, have such lousy sounding CDs in their catalog .

jjhunsecker said:

Oh yeah ur both right I guess. Early cd was crap. I got Bruce's "born in the USA" on cd. Apallingly tinny sounding. Though Prince's sound ok.

I guess what I meant was that princes stuff was so synthy anyway (even if recorded analogue). But Iam over my head here.

squirrelgrease said:

AFAIK (unless they struck a deal) WB can do whatever they want with them, problem is is that Prince has the mastertapes...
So if we're getting remasters WB has to raid Prince's vault or do releases a la "Girl 6" by improving the tapes Prince provided back then for release and release those instead of real remasters (improved vocal track, guitar track etc.) from the mastertapes...

Neversin.

thesexofit said:

Buy Prince's WB LP's instead of his patheticly cheap mastered WB CD's...

Neversin.

Neversin said:

Interesting. What sucks balls is that P has the 24-tracks, but can't release remasters of the WB stereo mixes. Legally, he has to substantially change the songs. And after 1999 "The New Master", we don't want to go there. Thanks Neversin.

Warners to Prince: "How's the family? Bwahahah!!"

Well like I said, I asked my friend from Warner and he said there are no plans to visit the backcatalogue at all.

I guess I have seen Madonna's and Jacko's classic albums redone, with better sound, and even extras like extended mixes, b sides demos, etc included. It would be nice.

I guess also since mp3s come onto the scene, record companies are trying to find low cost ways to make money off back catalogues, like ring tones and real tones, and selling online or whatever...There's no doubt CD sales are down and record companies are being cutback alot in terms of staff and creative types like product managers etc. These are the people who used to refresh album catalogues with remaster campaigns and making new compilations etc.

My buddy said Warner's cost of goods on the 3 CD best of Prince set is pretty high and to sell a large volume of them is the only way they make good money, which means marketing and whatever.

I guess Prince was pretty forward thinking and progressive with his self publishing model he works from now. I guess in this ages of Special Edition DVDs , we all would LOVE to see Prince regain control of them and do something, but the way of the future of music distribution isn't helping.

Neversin said:

I love the phantom in your avatar. It's really spooky.

Neversin said:

Who is Afaik?

OK, let's clear things up as this question keeps popping up all the time.

The person stopping Prince's back catalogue from being remastered is... Prince.
WB would actually quite like to remaster them, and sell all those old albums to
us all again (obviously), but they can't unless they have Prince's permission.
WB can only continue to produce copies of Prince's albums in the form that
they were originally agreed upon and released, they cannot make any changes
to the musical content or packaging (though there may be some leeway with the
packaging) without Prince's consent.

Outtakes are not covered in WB's contract, so they have no power to release
them. Prince can do so if he wishes, he just chooses not to.

Prince obviously cannot remaster his WB back catalogue and release them
independantly as this would violate his contract. He can however re-record
any of the tracks on his WB albums and release them if he wishes as they
would not be the actual recordings under contract to WB.

So the whole situation is actually a stalemate, with the lynchpin being
Prince himself.

BorisFishpaw said:

I'm sure this has been discussed ad naseum, but didn't Prince say he was gonna re-record EVERYTHING at one point? I assume that this is just another one of his fantasy-statements that will never really come true, right?

del
[Edited 8/4/05 23:06pm]

ReturnOfDOOK said:

I remember that also and I think at this point you're right.

ReturnOfDOOK said:

No it was true. He DID re-record everything several years ago, he just never
released them (well, apart from 1999: The New Master).

BorisFishpaw said:

EVERYTHING!??!?! Every song he recorded for Warners? Are you sure? So we can expect them to be released someday? Maybe after death 2Pac style? I didn't know that he actually did re-record them....cool!

ReturnOfDOOK said:

Absolutely certain, they had a private party at Paisley Park when Prince finally
finished re-recording the last WB track (which incidentally was 'Soft And Wet'
strangely enough). He ditched the idea of releasing re-recorded versions of
every single album, and on a couple of occasions intended to release a kind of
'best of' the re-recordings. Obviously this never happened, and the time has
now passed so I doubt these tracks would ever see the light of day now.

I would be happy with this:

Prince Prince Remastered
(with Extended Sexy Dancer)

Prince Dirty Mind Remastered

Prince Controversy Remastered
(with Gotta Stop (Messin' About) Long Version & Let's Work Dance Remix)

Prince 1999 Remastered
(with Extended Version 1999, Little Red Corvette Dance Mix, Horny Toad, Irresistible Bitch, Possessed, Moonbeam Levels)

Prince Purple Rain Remastered Special Edition
CD1: Original Album Remastered
CD2: Let's Go Crazy Special Dance Mix, Erotic City, I Would Die 4 U Extended Version, Another Lonely Christmas, God Long Version, God Instrumental (Fathers Song), 17 Days.

Prince Around the World in a Day Remastered
(with 4 The Tears in Your Eyes, America Extended Version, Hello Extended, Girl Extended, Pop Life Extended Version, Pop Life Fresh Dance Mix, Raspberry Beret (New Mix) and Paisley Park (Remix)& She's Always in my Hair Extended

(this one would probably need to be a double CD set...

Prince Parade Remastered
(with Kiss Extended Version, Anotherlover Extended, Love or Money Extended, Alexa De Paris Extended, Mountains Extended Version), An Honest Man, Others Here with Us, In All My Dreams, Old Friends 4 Sale (original), Movie Star, A Place in Heaven

Prince Sign of the Times Remastered Special Edition
CD 1: Album CD1 Remastered
CD 2: Album CD2 Remastered
CD 3: More Signs
Housequake (7 Minutes MoQuake), U Got the Look Extended, Hot Thing Mixes, La, La, La, He, He Hee Extended, Shockadelica (Extended Version), Good Love, Rebirth of the Flesh, Crystal Ball)

Prince Lovesexy Remastered

with original tracks tracked and remastered plus Alphabet St. (This Is Not Music, This Is A Trip), I Wish U Heaven (Parts 1,2 & 3), Glam Slam (Remix), Escape, Scarlet Pussy, Cross the Line.

Prince Batman Remastered
with Batdance (The Batmix), Batdance (Vicki Vale Mix, Partyman (The Purple Party Mix), Partyman (The Video Mix), The Scandalous Sex Suite, 200 Balloons, Feel U Up (Long Stroke), Sex, I Love U In Me, Vicki's Waiting Live, The Future Remix, Electric Chair Remix.

I could probably live without the rest. Graffiti Bridge maybe..

What do you think?

Anything I forgot? Any other obvious demos we should add?

Maybe I should give it to my friend at Warner!!

funkylust said:

90's stuff.

doctamario said:

I am not really that into the 90's albums... I am more a track by track listener of the 90's stuff. There are great tracks on every 90's album, but I can't name one that I love beginning to end...

Except The Black Album, but that is actually 80's too. But hey, thats just me. I doubt if WB would remaster the 90's stuff... Not much of them did anything...except Diamonds and Pearls and Symbol..the rest kinda bombed, dood..

funkylust said:

Dirty Mind didn't do too well either. Nevermind, tho. I guess not a lot of 90's stuff gets remastered anyway
[Edited 8/5/05 1:18am]

BorisFishpaw said:

That's really interesting. Did he really re-record them from scratch? That must have taken ages. I just cannot see him have the patience for that. Or how much would he have to alter the originals to make them re-recordings?