We know for a fact (thanks to Alan Leeds) that got most of the Paisley Park catalogue's masters back in 1994, when WB shut the label down. This was demonstrated when rereleased The Voice and Hey Man... Smell My Finger through Edel in 95, and we also know that at some point the German label was supposed to reprint several other PP albums: the 2 Madhouse albums, Carmen Electra, the Ingrid Chavez album and the 2 Eric Leeds albums. later totally gave-up on this plan and nothing happened.

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Among the few exceptions were the 3 albums by Sheila and the 4 albums by The Time, most likely because both acts had signed deals directly with WB before Paisley Park was created. Obviously V6 and A6 also remained in WB's possession since they were also pre-PP.

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I may be mistaken but I don't think A6 and V6 ever ended-up on iTunes. On the other hand the Time and Sheila albums did, a few years back.

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Soon after the new WB deal was announced, the 4 The Time album disappeared from iTunes. The 3 Sheila records are still there.

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It's just a guess but it seems to indicate that the Time albums reverted back to but that he couldn't get the Sheila albums to be restituted. I don't see any other reason why WB would take albums off iTunes once they're there, and it makes sense that if they were licenced to WB and they lost the rights they had to ask Apple to take them away. On the other hand the copyright indicia on Sheila's albums there clearly indicates WB is the owner.

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The argument is most likely that The Time was a Prince-made concept while Sheila is a real person, and that therefore Sheila should be the one claiming ownership or at least co-ownership with , and that this can't be settled before 35 years after the albums were release.

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Thoughts?

SuperSoulFighter said:

In that case, shouldn't George and Mavis own the mastertapes of their albums as well? On Hey Man, there's only one song with Prince's invlovement. Half of the Mavis album is without P.

Sheila doesn't own her masters, WB does and will at least until 2019, 2020 and 2022 respectively. What will happen next, if anything at all, is a mystery.

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As said above, the rights to almost the whole Paisley Park catalogue reverted to in 1994, that was part of the deal with WB when PP was founded that, if the label was to cease existing, would get all the masters back. When the Staples and Clinton albums were rereleased on Edel in 95, the indicia said the masters belonged to NPG Records. VERY paradoxically, has been ever since in the exact same position with all those artists as WB was with him until recently, and actually I'd be very curious to see what would happen if, for instance, George Clinton asked him to give his 2 albums back, for isn't entitled to do so until 35 years those albums' release dates. It's very unlikely that other artists than Clinton would claim their masters, but George Clinton may be more in a position to want his past catalogue available in full and try his chance before the 35 years expire in 2024 and 2028. After bitching about his WB "slavemasters" for 20 years, would really look bad if he denied any of those artists, save maybe the ones he produced entirely such as Jill Jones or Carmen Electra, the rights to their own records.

To be more specific, the only side projects that for sure were still in WB's hands after 1994 were:

- The 3 Sheila E. albums.

- The 4 The Time albums.

- Apollonia 6.

- Vanity 6.

There may have been a few other exceptions, such as the 2 Kahoru Kohiruimaki albums (a joint venture with TDK, which was IIRC the Japanese branch of WB at this time) or some of the other joint ventures with Reprise Records, another WB subsidiary (Taja Sevelle, Tony LeMans, any other?) and maybe even some early PP albums such as The Family or Mazarati or some very specific contracts directly signed between another PP artist and WB, but this is pure speculation. Fact is that no Paisley Park album other than Sheila E. and Pandemonium have ever surfaced on iTunes AFAIK. Alan Leeds said there were a few exceptions and that, for that reason, he wasn't 100% sure about the Family album's status back in 2011. Of note is that The Screams Of Passions was on the WB Girl 6 soundtrack without any mention of it belonging to NPG Records, but that may have been overlooked and doesn't constitute an absolute proof. In that case anyway, I bet it went back to this year alongside the Time, A6 and V6 albums (assuming they have).

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Known for a fact to have reverted to in 1994 are:

- The 2 George Clinton albums.

- The 2 Mavis Staples albums.

- The 2 Eric Leeds albums.

- The 2 Madhouse albums.

- Carmen Electra.

- May, 19, 1992.

The Madhouse albums are from 1987 so it's likely that at least all, if not most albums released on PP from 1987 on belong to since 1994.

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This is really all the info we have, to my knowledge there is no other confirmed info regarding this.

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An other interesting thing is that in 2007 IIRC, attempted to copyright the names Mazarati and Good Question, and maybe also The Time and The Family I'm not sure. Either that was a way to secure his ownership of those albums or a way to secure his claim on them when the time would have come to negociate with WB about reversal of the masters. In my opinion the whole fuss about TO7 and fDeluxe not being allowed to use their old names was also a way for to make sure there was no legal ground for anyone else but him to claim ownership of those albums. Of course he can't copyright "Sheila E." nor prevent her from using her name, but I bet he would if he could

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Anyway here are the facts and some theories I've extrapolated from them, for what it's worth

May, 19, 1992?

ufoclub said:

May, 19, 1992?

Because Sheila does not like him now.

Time and Sheila E albums are still available on European itunes and Spotify. Although not The Stick, for whatever reason.

All very interesting stuff. I hope that Prince is /was fighting for the ownership of said masters/albums because he was in the best position to do so, and i would hope he has a grand plan for them and some re-imbursment/settlement plans for all the artists concerned.

He could also just release his 'demo' versions or just re-record them and he would only have to pay performance fees to the 'singers' and co-writers fees.

jaawwnn said:

Time and Sheila E albums are still available on European itunes and Spotify. Although not The Stick, for whatever reason.

Interesting!

This may mean several things:

- WB retained the rights to those albums and, for some other reason, took 'em off iTunes USA.

- iTunes forgot to retreive the albums from its european branch.

- WB conveniently "forgot" to tell them to, hoping to capitalize a bit more on them for some more time.

- WB kept some kind of licencing right for foreign markets and for some time.

No way to know...

The Time albums are still on iTunes US and Canada.

I'm not sure there's much weight to this premise.

Very interesting! I was wondering what you were up to this week, not seeing your avatar on the new album threads. Seems you've been busy sleuthing!

Time will tell...

TwiliteKid said:

The Time albums are still on iTunes US and Canada.

I'm not sure there's much weight to this premise.

I'm in india.

A few months back, already in India, the Time albums appeared, but now they don't anymore.

So it's only here in India and I've been hallucinating entirely???

What about the WB Prince albums, do they still appear (I assume they were on iTunes though I've never checked)???

djThunderfunk said:

Very interesting! I was wondering what you were up to this week, not seeing your avatar on the new album threads. Seems you've been busy sleuthing!

Time will tell...

I'm getting friends with the new albums, we get to know each other, we speak... I wanted to wait for some days before emitting an opinion on them

It seems my sleuthing was vain anyway, since it seems the Time albums appear everywhere on iTunes but in India

the time albums are on itunes uk, but wierdly there are 2 options (links) for each album (both the same), with some tracks omitted from the first album. wish it was like wikipedia where you can edit mistakes!

[Edited 10/7/14 14:48pm]

jaawwnn said:

Time and Sheila E albums are still available on European itunes and Spotify. Although not The Stick, for whatever reason.

I played her stuff the other day.

databank said:

...It seems my sleuthing was vain anyway, since it seems the Time albums appear everywhere on iTunes but in India

You may think your sleuthing was in vain, but this thread you started was very informative. I didn't know the rights to the masters for the PP label's projects had reverted back to . Good for him. (Bless your soul, you even got Good Question in there.)

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As always, love your work, Databank! You are "The Gold Standard" of orgers.