Went on itunes for the first time in yonks today after I found out Extraloveable is on there (then found out it's on Amazon so going there instead).

And I was surprised at the amount of Prince stuff on there - all his films, loads of his WB albums (only a fiver each) and a few individual tracks.

What surprised me was the presence of 'U Make My Sun Shine' and 'When Will We B Paid?' which I thought was an independent Prince release.

Given Prince's stance on itunes (Extraloveable going on itunes has confused me enough!) I'm taking it he couldn't stop WB putting his albums up there - but what about U Make My Sun Shine?

Anyone know - was that done via a major label too?

That's interesting. Perhaps he's done a U-turn (not surprising).

Could he have entered into a contract granting iTunes the right to put the stuff up for a certain amount of time?

They've been on there for years haven't they?

Yeah I thought some stuff had been on there a while, I just didn't quite expect so much of his back catalogue. The belief tends to be that his back catalogue isn't properly available digitally but much of it seems to be on itunes.

I can imagine he can't stop WB putting his main albums on there, but that's why I was surprised that U Make My Sun Shine was on there, as it was when he was independent that came out.

The other thing I thought I remembered was that the full albums are on there but the songs can't be purchased individually for some reason? Except for the odd one like Purple Rain?

I just wondered what the 'deal' was behind it really...

Well "U Make My Sun Shine" bought form iTunes just writes "(P) NPG Records" in the copyright notice.

That would indicate that it was given to iTunes directly (and an Apple-NPG agreement exists).

That copyright notice will usually indicate who distributed the song to iTunes Store

- WB/Prince releases like the Ultimate collection: "(P) Warner Brothers (...)"

- Universal/Prince releases like 3121/Fury single: "(P) Universal Records (...)"

- Extraloveable says "(P) NPG Records, Under Exclusive License to Universal Music Canada Inc."

Obviously most of it is WB's work.

The Universal ones must have been part of the distribution deal?

[Edited 12/1/11 4:58am]

Interesting. I wonder if he gave then U Make My Sun Shine to see how it would work and if he liked it. Which for a time it seemed like he didn't.

Extraloveable is an odd one though - that single does seem like a u-turn given his dismissal of itunes relatively recently.

Princevault: U Make My Sun Shine is a single released initially as a free download single through NPGOnlineLtd.com on 21 December, 2000, credited to Prince and Angie Stone,

So he's had nothing to loose I guess.

However, the iTunes single is marked "Year: 2011", also in the copyright notice.

This is strange, as it would be considered released in 2000?

On CD in 2001.

[Edited 12/1/11 5:05am]

Those two only appeared on itunes earlier this year, for whatever reason.

Itunes hardly consistent, is the F.U.N.K. file fixed yet? It wasn't possible to download for about a year there, something probably went wrong with a database somewhere. Stuff like Erotic City has been up and down in various different rips over the years. Basically don't look to itunes for signs of Prince thinking.