This thread says they were download only. But this thread says they were released on CD.

Which one is correct?

Download only. there was talk of actual disks being pressed but it never happened, the artwork was available to make your own CDs.

Download only.

they're nice

Download from the NPGMC music store only

OK thanks guys.

Someone I work with has offered to sell me all four CDs for £80 (that's around $30 each). They've got the covers and picture labels on the discs; assuming he originally downloaded them from NPGMC, would he be able to print off another set after I've bought them? The price is OK, but I'm wondering how exclusive they are. Were NPGMC members who bought these albums able to run off as many copies and covers as they wanted?

Maybe this is a good deal anyway? Any opinions?

Just find the tracks yourself and burn them to CD. Nearly all of those tracks were only available as lossy 256kbps wmas, so a fake/unauthorized pressed CD will have no better sound quality. The odd ones that were released as CD-Singles can be found on eBay and through other means. Until Prince decides to make these available and get paid, this is your only option. Printable artwork is available online for all of the NPGMC albums.

Official CDs:

Hit & Run:
The Daisy Chain/Gamillah
Peace/2045: Radical Man (2045: Radical Man can also be found on the Bamboozled Soundtrack)
Supercute/Underneath the Cream

Retail:
U Make my Sunshine/When will We B Paid

I hope he releases them but since he rarely (or really ever) does releases of his past stuff and only chugs ahead, it will probably never happen. I regret not owning them but I would want official physical releases anyway.

Pimprag said:

That person is ripping off you and Prince.

squirrelgrease said:

Wasn't The Work Part 1/U Make My Sunshine on cd aswell? i think i have it

Pimprag said:

Not A Good Deal! unofficial cd's mate, i have some artwork from NPGMC some of it was fan made i think i have some official aswell.
Rememember that, Coming Soon 7CD Set 'The Chocolate Invasion', coming soon my arse! due to bugs it has been cancelled!! haha freak!

bigd74 said:

That's true. I forgot that U Make My Sun Shine was the b-side to The Work. Incidentally, The Work Pt. 1 on that CD-single and the NPGMC download is different musically than the album version. It has the infamous "Prince jamming on keyboards and guitar at the same time" solo.

The Chocolate Invasion is a great download

nurseV said:

I was listening to that last night!

luv4u said:

So was I It's lovely

nurseV said:

It sure was

Mars23 said:

I agree with you.

Anyway, sometimes I think Prince deserves to be ripped for this.

Just put the CDS out and make them available for sale.
No one will be ripped again. Not Prince, not you, not me.

Pimprag said:

You have an orgnote!!!

Pimprag said:

4 CD-Rs for £80? Ask him to throw in a chocolate teapot to sweeten the deal!

These files were only released in lossy format, and burning them to CD won't ever bring them upto CD-quality.

NPGMC members who bought these albums could burn the material for personal use, but certainly the license agreements did not extend to burning copies and selling them.

it's also worth noting that official artwork was never made available for these
releases either. So if someone's someone's offering you these discs with full
artwork, then it's fan-made.

The official disc label artwork did surface comparatively recently (at the time
of the albums' releases these were only displayed as small thumbnails). The only
album to have known official cover artwork was Xpectation, but again this was
never made availale to download and was only displayed on Prince's website in
low resolution.

BorisFishpaw said:

True. I probably should have said unofficial printable artwork is available online for all of the NPGMC albums. I've noticed that Steven Parke has taken down all of those official NPGMC designs that were on his website.

Steven Parke designs:

I think these are the official covers.

These are some cool fan made covers













[Edited 9/22/09 11:36am]

↑↑↑↑↑ Thanks for posting those bigd74. Can anyone confirm that these are official?

Very nice bigd74

squirrelgrease said:

No, they weren't official. They were (very good) fan made covers. The same
person made covers for all the individual Ahdio shows too.

The disc artwork you posted earlier is the only official artwork to surface.
Low resolution copies of the Xpectation cover also surfaced, as well as an
early version of the chocolate invasion cover (made while it was still
simply called "Trax from the NPG Music Club Volume 1") which was shown in
the NPGMC's discography section.

BorisFishpaw said:

Thanks Boris! Is there any story behind the above "Glam Slam Club Mix"? Was this ever released online or otherwise? I don't remember a DJ Dudley mix like this.

squirrelgrease said:

Yes, the "Glam Slam Club Mix" was released online as the final Ahdio show for
the first year of the NPG Music Club (in January 2002). Chunks of it (2 or 3
songs at a time) were also streamed in the Glam Slam room over the course of
the year as well.

BorisFishpaw said:

Thanks Boris. I guess it's been a while since I've listened to those Ahdio shows. There must have been at least some in-house CDs of that mix burned for Paisley Park use.