Details? All I know from the news is that P got the ownership of his past WB masters back, but what's the catch?

From what I understand Prince got his masters back and in return WB got the rights to distribute remasters. Whether that was all remasters or just a select few albums I dont think anyone knows. What we do know is that the PR remaster was certainly part of the deal. It never happened but we can only speculate why. Prince said he had delivered it to WB and that it is WB who are sitting on it.

Maybe when the dust settles we will get a clearer picture of the WB deal. At the moment it looks like WB gave up the lions share for very little in return, which I find perplexing. The only thing I can think of that they must have considered is that it would be best for them to get something out of it rather than have to give up the masters to each album as they transfer back to Prince each year, ending up with nothing.

There has been speculation on the org that WB also got first refusal on distributing any new music he released, in other words Prince was once again signed to WB but had the freedom to use other channels if WB were not interested. Others have speculated that they had the rights to distribute (or first refusal at least) his entire catalogue, including his non WB stuff. Who knows? The only facts we have are that Prince signed with WB in 2014 and got his masters back. We also know there would be two new albums released as part of the deal and a remastered PR that would contain unheard music. The 2 albums happened, PR didnt.

However, I am pretty certain that right now they are looking back at that deal and kicking themselves, very hard in the nuts, with steel toe caps.

Rebeljuice said:

However, I am pretty certain that right now they are looking back at that deal and kicking themselves, very hard in the nuts, with steel toe caps.

OUCH!!!

But seriously, thanks for the info. I'm still trying to make sense of it and will do further research. It's one of the most significant deals Prince made recently and I think we need more info.

His back catalog is about to be re-released on vinyl by WB. "Prince" is first off the rank. Label reads "1979 NPG Records, Inc. under exclusive license to Warner Bros. Records Inc."

[Edited 5/10/16 1:03am]

[Edited 5/10/16 1:27am]

criscles said:

His back catalog is about to be re-released on vinyl by WB. "Prince" is first off the rank. Label reads "1979 NPG Records, Inc. under exclusive license to Warner Bros. Records Inc."

Can you tell if it sounds any better or just a reprint of the original release? And, where can we buy these rereleases online as and when they come out?

Rebeljuice said:

criscles said:

His back catalog is about to be re-released on vinyl by WB. "Prince" is first off the rank. Label reads "1979 NPG Records, Inc. under exclusive license to Warner Bros. Records Inc."

Can you tell if it sounds any better or just a reprint of the original release? And, where can we buy these rereleases online as and when they come out?

It's pushed back to May 27th.