Okay, I finally decided to join the twenty-first century and have bought an iPod. Having downloaded iTunes I am currently going through the tedious task of uploading my CD collection.

Why are half of Prince's albums not even listed? Okay, I can see why the independent releases such as New Power Soul or Emancipation aren't there, but what about 3121 or Musicology?

Because iTunes sucks.

Militant said:

iTunes uses Gracenote, does it not? That's not an iTunes issue.

Mattyjam, just enter the information, and chose Advanced, Submit Tracks.....that way their in the database for anyone in the future.

it could also be a royalties issue. the beatles were not available until recently...

ernestsewell said:

My bad.

I didn't read his post properly. I thought he was talking about the albums not being available for purchase.

Anyway I don't remember ever having to enter information when I ripped Musicology or 3121. In fact any Prince album. I ripped Emancipation fairly recently and it found the information with no problem, so I'm not sure why MattyJam is having problems.

It finds the album info alright, but when I click of "get album artwork" it doesn't come up with anything for Planet Earth, 3121, Musicology, Lotusflower...

MattyJam said:

It's better to add your own artwork. Once you rip the songs to your computer, select all of them in iTunes (click the first, then Shift Click the last). Right click, and chose Get Info (or on PC click Control I) Click on the Artwork tab. Google up the artwork in Google Images. Find the full size, and drag it to the Artwork area in iTunes. (Or Right click on the image, chose Copy Image, then in the Artwork section on iTunes, click Control V to paste the image in there.) "OK", and the artwork is there for you. Sounds intricate, but once you get a rhythm down, you'll fly through it.

ernestsewell said:

Thanks - I'll give that a go.

It works a treat.

You're my new best friend.

MattyJam said:

haha glad it worked for ya. It's how I do my artwork. I can control which pic looks best, etc. I usually stick to the 500-800 pixel range.

The only reason I got a £180 iPod as opposed to a £30 mp3player was to have some flashy artwork to show off.

Yes, I am that much of a poser.

BTW, we're all still waiting for your Lovesexy cover...

MattyJam said:

Well I have an AppleTV and the screen saver is all the album artwork from the music. So the more I have, the better the screen saver is.

Here's what the AppleTV screen saver looks like (although this is just random flower pictures, not album artwork)

MattyJam said:

It gets the album artwork for music they sell in their store (80 percent of the time). However, I've noticed that you can rip certain albums to your library and when you get the art, it turns out to be someone else.

Zune is better none of that bullshit.

realm said:

Yeah, that's why it constantly loses customers, and is at the bottom of the sales list.

Zune HD is supposed to be pretty impressive actually. Can't say I've ever used one as they never released it in the UK.

It never gained any significant market share and likely never will because Microsoft simply left it too late.

iPods are seriously overrated though. They are lacking in functionality, and being forced to use iTunes is just lame, because iTunes is a terrible, terrible, piece of software IMO.

There are a bunch of better programs for cataloguing, organizing and playing one's music library.

As for as PMPs (Portable Media Players) go, I'd take the new Archos 5 running Google's Android platform over an iPod any day.

Just like Android Phones are rapidly stealing iPhone's market share, the PMPs coming out running on Android are superior in every way to iPods.

Geekery talk of market share and android this and acrhose zone ipodsuck that.

BORING.

Listening to Prince at his best is the only way and its WORK.

Experience a real audiophile setup and the 80's CDs and LPs sound incredible. Even if played lossless digitally output to a D/A converter to high end louspeakers.

Whatever you geeks gadget you covet is shit compared to a well invested, well setup audiophile music system.

Sotengro said:

Unfortunately Apple haven't made a portable record player yet.

NouveauDance said:

Hasn't - hasn't.

I did mention CDs and lossless. Fine, hear it how you want, fuck do I care.

Sotengro said:

I don't know, what do you care.
[Edited 12/7/09 5:38am]

Sotengro said:

My Android supports FLAC (completely uncompressed audio), so it's very much possible to hook it up to a great system and have it sound great.

Just FTR.

The 80's vinyl still has the best sound quality though, but that's to do with the fact that the original vinyl to CD transfers were not done very well. The CD's could benefit from some remastering - the "Ultimate" compilation for example sounds great.

Militant said:

It does sound good, but do you hear the "skip" in "U Got the Look"? Someone here pointed it out and it is very audible.

daPrettyman said:

There are two hiccups in "U Got The Look" actually. And Ultimate just has the volume turned up a notch or two; it wasn't remastered. The guy who put it together talked about it. He also talked about how he wanted to put the songs in chronological order, where Prince decided to divide it up, and cut out a few songs like "Erotic City" and "Sexy MF" because of cursing. THIS is why I've said it'll take Prince dying before we EVER get a true remaster of his catalog.

The 'Ultimate' compilation does have SOME remastering, I'm sure of it. I do mastering myself, and the sonics are different on the 'Ultimate' CD, it's not just a case of volume.

The songs have been re-EQ'd for a start and a couple other things. It's not TRUE digital remastering (because that would have to be done from the multitracks), but to say it hasn't been remastered at all is also not valid.

Militant said:

Well, the official word was there was no remastering, just an EQ boost and volume boost.

The hiccups in "U Got The Look" are a blatant piece of evidence for the lack of remastering. Frankly, I'd be embarrassed if I were Prince, but then again....he doesn't give a shit about his own music, so why should anyone else.

Militant said:

No, Prince sucks. In particular his digital rights negotiations suck. iTunes can only sell WHAT PRINCE LETS THEM SELL.

ButterscotchPimp said:

The OP was complaining about missing ID3 tag information, not missing music.
[Edited 12/7/09 11:58am]

ButterscotchPimp said:

I think it's a Prince thing too. He's all about the lion's share of the profits. Some artists have expressed dislike over the amount of the 99 cents that Apple gives them. It could be why he hasn't put a lot of his stuff on there. I would think that some of the WB era stuff is there more from a WB rubber stamp than Prince's okay on it.

ernestsewell said:

I don't think that the WB stuff has to have Prince's final approval to allow it to be sold online. I think WB bases what is sold online by research and/or their own disgression. They have almost everything in print from 93 back. After 93 is when they stop carrying so much of his stuff. I think "Come" was unavailable for a while, now it's back.

Its true - Ultimate was a con, a fraud. Just normalized audio and little EQ to sound louder.

Prince with his Jehovah issues refused Erotic City on the set.

So the bigger question is - will Prince ever remaster a special edition Dirty MInd? NO.

Will you ever hear Wonderful Ass? NO.

SOTT??? Please - one song - THE CROSS. NO.

But it takes two to tango. I have very little hope that any remaining or new staffers at WB Records, if the record label really does exist as it once did, would even know anything about Prince's work.

There are SO MANY issues about remasters. From the actual EFFORT it takes to remaster the work which included salvaging deteriorating aboandonded studio masters, from the time it takes to remaster, from the effort PRince has to place to be present, from the security handling of anything THE VAULT and so on. And the artwork reproduction - the rare photographs and so on.

The Beatles the ultimate representation of the love and care and almost museum preservationist like historical value that real remasters are required. But Prince has squandered ANY legacy or critical respect his work - SPECIFICALLY to the Warner Years should have.

On the other hand I applaud Prince for standing up to the artist abuse that happens in the entertainment world. SOmething very similar happened to me - I threatened I'll just re do all the work, they backed off. Brilliant move on Prince's part. ANd I'm glad he doesnt give in to iTunes MS - like Apple is some godly new record store that artists MUST be part of to succeed. Fuck Apple.

Prince should get the LIONs and beyond for his work. You fans/fams have and continue reaping bootleg show after concert making new compilations and making retarded covers and "remastering" (some spectacular - Foefer's) or doing awful "remasters" as if the work belonged to you. You should not complain about a stinking T-shirt...

You're partly at fault - thats why Prince now works in a vacuum. No demo, no alternate or outtakes in the last 10+ years.

ANd you - the fan - accept mediocre sounding music and just jump on the band wagon of FLACs and such and what is your end playback method. An iPod.. or an ARchos...ZUne... what kind of earphones? What kind of speaker?

Warner knows the fans - they don't care about sound quality or high fidelity playback. No wonder they gave the fans The Ultimate Prince which wasnt and probably never truly be ultimate as ultimate is.

Done.