I tried yet another Best Buy tonight looking for The Ultimate Prince, and for the first time there was a guy who actually knew what he was talking about.

He said that Best Buy corporate told them to pull the CDs because of a "lawsuit."

Now, I can only assume that means that Prince sued WB to stop the release of "Ultimate", and it's not hard to figure out the reason.

But - the fact that the tracklisting changed at one point seems to indicate that:

1 - WB was on some level willing to appease Prince
2 - Prince perhaps initially didn't force his hand and threaten to sue, but that as the release date of 3121 approached, he decided he had to take serious action - to the point that the CDs were already shipped in some cases.

Now, why would he wait so long before doing this? The fact that he apparently made changes to the tracklist would seem to say this was a recent decision, to try and halt the release. And apparently - if the Best Buy guy is correct - he went as far as to sue. Which makes sense, because a temporary injunction might have been the only way to stop the release on such short notice, or at all.

Which leads me to believe that relations with P and WB are very chilly. WB could potentially be eating ALOT of $$$$$ considering the advertising, printing, shipping, etc. of this CD... And if so, I don't think we'll be getting any P reissues any time soon.

What do people think about all this? I believe the cancellation of Ultimate is a signficant chapter in P's relations with WB.

Far too many assumptions.

For starters, how do we know Prince had any involvement at all?

SquirrelMeat said:

If there is a suit, who is suing?

Even assuming the Best Buy guy is wrong, why would WB pull the plug at the last minute, after they spent all that $$$$ on printing, shipping, and adverstising?

I'm sure Prince is behind action stopping it, the assumption seems to be that Prince was involved before that.

Personally, I'd be very suprised if he got involved with a remastered hits, before remastered albums, simply because he has always seemed to be against "hits" albums.

Besides, if he wanted to cash in, he'd have done it for the 20th Anni of Purple Rain.

SquirrelMeat said:

I don't think he was involved in the compilation, other than to get them to tame it down when he found out about the track listing. Remember, it was the 2 "dirty" tracks - Erotic City and Sexy Mutha - that were changed.

My guess is that Warners changed the tracklisting at his request to try and please him and work with him to an extent, but that eventually P decided he couldn't have the compilation released, so he's either threatened or actually filed suit to stop the release. Prince's only involvement in the compilation early on would be to ask WB to change the tracklisting.

NorthernLad said:

This could very well have been P's intent for the lawsuit, or at the very least a nice side effect.

That's why I'm busting my ass trying to get this cd. I fear that this Ultimate Prince 2cd will never see the light of day again.
[Edited 3/15/06 18:12pm]

More speculation: if Prince got a temporary injunction to halt it claiming that sales of 3121 would be harmed, WB would have to stop the release immediately. But that would ultimately lead to a full hearing - maybe P waited til the last minute to file the injunction so that there wouldn't be time for a full hearing on the issue prior to the scheduled release of 3121.

there are all sorts of possibilities... i'd love to know what went on with it.
[Edited 3/15/06 18:16pm]

Prince must have sent a cease order by his lawyer, which is my guess. Universal has lots of props, being the big record company now.

Prince aint stupid, once people compare his old music to his new music, they will understand how low he has actually sunk.

The significance is that WB are dumbasses attmepting to release this within the same few days Princes current release is set to drop.

I'd halt and injunct that mess too if I was him. WB couldn't have done this a few months ago? Or even wait until summer to promote and release this?

If anything of this is true, looks like WB is looking like the bully on this one, this time.

They got a nukka all worked up for some remastered Controversy song for nothin!

It may be because of the use of bad language on the disks.

Any chance Universal is the one bringing the lawsuit? Because having signed Prince to only a one album deal, they wouldn't want another Prince album competing with their one chance to make money off him ...

Paging Tangerine17!!!

If an actual suit was filed in court, I'd think we would have heard about it, or we soon will.

I'm baffled by this whole thing...wonder if we'll ever get the full story!?

DiamondGirl said:

This kind of cross-promotion is done all the time in DVDs(old movies being re-released when the new movie starring the same actor is released). What makes Prince so special?

u2prnce said:

I've never understood why people say sales of this collection would cannibalize sales of his new album. Why wouldn't they actually reinforce each other? Amazon.com is always linking albums and trying to get you to buy two at once...why not link these two, encourage people to buy both at once!? Gee, maybe Universal, Prince, and Warners/Rhino could have worked together to maximize sales of both albums?

CandaceS said:

I doubt Prince sees it that way. He probably worries that people won't be interested in his new stuff, but instead will want to buy the old hits.

And in fact, he's probably right. I would guess that Ultimate being released so close would cost 3121 several thousand in sales, at minimum.

plymouthavenuenorth said:

I sincerely doubt it... it would be a bad precedent for them. I would imagine they weren't happy about Ultimate, but I don't think they would sue because they would have more to lose than to gain by such a suit. They would become open for similar suits themselves, and i doubt they would want to go after WB. P, on the other hand, doesn't mind going after anybody.

Of course, we don't know for sure there IS a suit. But I don't know how else the release - clearly planned until the very last minute - could have been stopped on a dime like that.

Irony is that this whole thing IS bringing EVEN MORE publicity to Prince....

to me the word ULTIMATE means exactly that
to block the ULTIMATE is it not have any real trust in ur chosen faith

just like saying "Love4OneAnother" then calling ur lawyer is the ULTIMATE hypocrisy

P got all kinds of blockages goin on his brain
mainly because of ego and leeches

I just bought it on Pure Tracks.



www.puretracks.com

CandaceS said:

Put it this way, say you are a non-fan, you go to the shop intending to get something by Prince and you can only afford 1 album, you see 2 albums being promoted by Prince - do you get a collection where you recognise some of the songs and are interested in hearing the others or do you risk your money on an album which is an unknown quantity? That's how it can potentially take money away.

If there is a law suit, the only logical person bringing it forward would be Prince. I think all this goes to prove that Warner's need permission from Prince to do various things with his music and that is why the old albums have not been re-mastered and re-issued - otherwise they would just have gone ahead with this release.

DJ506 said:

wow,thanks for the heads up - downloading now!!

DJ506 said:

F*cking stupid Canadian-only sh*t!

The only thing that is for cert about this is that it's pulled because Prince is being a jerk as usual.

Ever since he started acting the kid with warners his music has suffered and ultimatly (no pun intended) us the fans suffer.

Prince, I wish you'd fucking grow up for once

calldapplwondery83 said:

it worked for me, and i'm in the US

I can't seen to enter the site at all. Bummer.

NorthernLad said:

You have to say, Warners have done a real half-assed cancellation of this album! It's available to download in Canada, it's in various music shops but not others... I've never heard of anything like it.

NorthernLad said:

It's pretty expensive for non-CD quality.

NorthernLad said:

Downloading now in the UK

Not much point downloading crappy MP3s of re-mastered tracks, considering it's not exactly a lossless medium.