For an artist of this caliber, it seems insane that the original releases of each album on CD are all we have. I've seen speculation that Prince won't allow it because of the profanity, but is that true? Does he hold the masters or does Warner Brothers?

WB owns the masters from 1978-1996 (through Chaos and Disorder), plus "The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale", and all three greatest hits packages. Prince probably holds the master on the 1800NewFunk and The Beautiful Experience disks.

Everything from Emancipation onward is his.

However, after 35 years (I think), the master ownership reverts back to Prince. But, it's only one album at a time.
So For You's ownership reverts to Prince in 2013.
The Prince album in 2014.
Dirty Mind is 2015.
Controversy in 2016,
etc etc.

I've said this before and I stick by it: The vault stuff won't come out, and no remasters will ever happen until Prince dies.

He still can say yes or no to stuff WB might own and want to release, or even has say so over a track list for a greatest hits package. ULTIMATE was a bit different before Prince got his sticky fingers on it, and changed it around, and omitted stuff like "Erotic City" and "Sexy MF". The guy compiling it wanted it to go in chronological order, and Prince wanted it divided up into A-sides and B-sides. Guess who won that one?

Yeah,I'm really starting to believe this I guess we will just have to be satisfied with the copies we already own.It's such a shame,though.Prince has one of the most amazing pop music catalogs and yet it hasn't been given the proper treatment that it deserves.

crutnacker said:

I don't wanna see remasters


I wanna hear them

ernestsewell said:

Might never come out at all if his will says "destroy it all"

No one knows, crutnacker. 2013 is near, what will or will not happen this year or the next will be a good indication of what's to be expected, so we'll see...

Maybe, record companies like WB are having a real hard time right now, they will without question release with prince's say so another Greatest Hits Remastered album before 2013 and it will follow A side B side format.

Prince will collect another fat cheque from WB they have less bargining power as the years roll by, they also need to make sure they tap into that hard core prince fan base which is getting older.

Hold on only another 3 years to wait

So whose fault is it?

ernestsewell said:

From a reliable source who works for WB:

Last year, there was an early project and discussions/meeting with Prince & WB, with deluxe versions, unreleased ( like Pussy Power from the Black Album sessions), no beep on f. .. & S. .. words, but Prince has demanded a delirium amount of Dollars for each album remastered...so for the moment end of the story!!
[Edited 5/18/10 4:15am]
[Edited 5/18/10 4:16am]

love2thenines2003 said:

"Pussy Power"? outtake from 'The Black Album'? Could this be an early version of "P Control"?

Tremolina said:

Prince.

And even if he owned the masters, I wouldn't trust him to do them justice with remasters/re-issues.

Prince will have complete ownership of the 80's material by 2023.
Depending on his frame of mind at that time, we hopefully will have exposed 2 some remastered material. At this point it is a crap shoot as I don't believe he intends on WB making a dime off of his work if he can help it. He has held out this long, a few more years (in his mind) won't hurt.

It'd be great to hear the bonus tracks but remasters per se are compressed and flatter sounding loudening jobs and I prefer to hear an album the way it was originally intended.

SoulAlive said:

Most likely not.

i'd love him 2 remaster his oldies, but only if he takes them by the scruff of the neck & drags them in2 the new whenever. like what he done with little red corvette, coachella/montreux stylee

DoffieParker said:

That would be a remake instead of a remaster though, and I'd rather he keep those in a live setting.

DoffieParker said:

If he's going to rework the songs, then I'd rather just keep what's already out. It's like trying to reengineer your grown child. It's stupid. If he wants to rerecord the songs, like KISS and others have done, then fine. But don't fuck with the originals.

Bonus tracks should be on separate CD's. An album is a whole thing and ends when it does end.

Now that i went all digital, I always take 'em out of the albums' folders and put'em in the "various artists' non-album tracks" folder.

Prince is doing alright financially without the remasters so far, and yes he probably don't wanna give a dime to WB, so i agree he will wait it out until 2013 at least.

then let the funk flow.....

lotusflw3r said:

That's nonsense thinking. He's doing okay at this point financially. The 2004 tour injected a lot of much needed money into his cash flow. The problem is he doesn't know how to NOT spend money. He bleeds money by the bucket, and money doesn't last forever. When the newer version of NPG premiered at the Emancipation concert, some weren't even getting paid at first. It's why Levi left, and the rest of the NPG were let go. No money.

It's not about giving WB money in sales. They get it anyone with what's there and still selling a trickle at a time. Prince stands to make money on it as well. He could easily negotiate a better deal, based on if he finishes the remaster and includes X amount of bonus tracks (those being specified as something like 3 outtakes, all b-sides, and something else, etc etc), then he could get a bonus from them. He could also negotiate a bigger part of ownership depending on the sales, etc.

The fact is, Prince denies his past, yet plays it all the time in a concert - ad nauseum sometimes. The man has an embarrassment of musical riches, yet it's the same 30 songs over and over. It's a bit hypocritical on his part.

In the end, I don't want a remaster if he's going to rape the fuck out of it. Just clear up the sound, include the extras, do some extra packaging with pictures from the time period, let Alan Leeds write some liner notes (the man is good at it), and put it out.

ernestsewell said:

Completely agreed. If Prince ends up "new mastering" any of the WB stuff, I'm sure it will suck.

I'm imagining beautiful reissues of each album... extra tracks, liner notes, the whole nine yards. Here's to hoping.

thats a shame if we don't.the stuff that was remastered on the "girl 6 sdtrk" sounds awesome!

love2thenines2003 said:

Pussy Power? need more info!

Christopher said:

Nothing was remastered on that, nor on Ultimate.

ernestsewell said:

you sure? they sure sound like it to me.

those old tracks were

Christopher said:

Yeah, sounds nice when the volume knob is turned up - doesn't it?

Those songs aren't remastered. They just have their volume equalized.

i love this

Spinlight said:

Quite true.

As far as ULTIMATE, I'll state this again - there are two "ticks" in "U Got The Look", that are basically milliseconds that are missing from the track, a major glitch somewhere along the line. A remaster would have solved that, but they are still on the ULTIMATE version.

If they were remastered, it would have been advertised as such, but in fact they have just been turned up a dB or two, and EQ'd a slight bit.