Sony Legacy's main masttering engineer is Vic Anesini, one of the best in the business. Let's hope he gets to re-do the Prince albums, especially the ones with dodgy sound such as "Parade" and "Sign". Anesini has worked miracles with the Elvis catalog.

endymion said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

I wonder how much this deal is for? Hopefully WAY over $30 Million.

Why??? What difference does it make if it was $29 million or $50 million ??

It makes a BIG difference. Prince worked VERY hard to get the respect & financial worth he wanted with his VAST catalog of music that rivaled ANY artist. He guarded them with his life and only allowed TWO PEOPLE(Joshua & JAY-Z) access to it. So he would be proud looking down on knowing it's worth was achieved.

jjhunsecker said:

Great that this stuff will be on the shelves, but we already have all this stuff no? Not the most exciting of announcements.

does this mean they will be remastered with bonus tracks? doesnt appear so

Piano & Microphone 83 may not excite many, but it's more interesting to me than offering to sell me albums I already own, most on multiple formats, again.

I'll be the first in line for the albums that never got a physical release.

I'll buy LPs of albums that never got a vinyl release.

I'll buy "expanded" & "deluxe" albums with previously unreleased music and/or which collect singles and b-sides.

I'm not excited for "remasters". The originals may need an update, but, if it's a brickwalling like Purple Rain got, no thanks, I'll stick with the originals. (I'll never play Purple Rain Deluxe CD1 ever again!)

If anything, I would prefer to buy some "unmastered" albums from the last 20 years or so. They're all brickwalled and sound horrible.

I might buy Lovesexy again if it's tracked, but then, how many here would complain because "that's not how Prince wanted it".

I might buy reissues if they come in jewel cases and the original was a digi-pack, but then, it's likely to go the other way.

So, yeah, maybe I'll buy all of the reissues, and maybe I'll buy none of them. That's up to Sony and the Estate I guess.

For sure I'll keep buying every "vault" release, even if it's an illogical choice like P&M83.

since it says they have rights also to b-sides and remixes etc ...hopefully they will include those with each release

djThunderfunk said:

Silvertongue7 said:

jjhunsecker said:

Sony Legacy's main masttering engineer is Vic Anesini, one of the best in the business. Let's hope he gets to re-do the Prince albums, especially the ones with dodgy sound such as "Parade" and "Sign". Anesini has worked miracles with the Elvis catalog.

Great to hear that. But they’re not getting Parade, I don’t think.

Well, pretty much all of the WB catalog sounds like crap on CD, so I hope whatever Anecini and his crew can get their hands on will show sonic improvement

jjhunsecker said:

My dream for Prince was always what Rhino did with the Elvis Costello catalog when they had the rights- put out every album as a 2 CD set- the first CD being the original album rematered, and the second CD containing b-sides, demos, live cuts , and other rare items contemporary or related to the album.

SquirrelMeat said:

So by my count, the 12 WB releases under Sony are: 4U, Prince, DM, Controversy, 1999, ATWIAD, SOTT, Lovesexy, D&P, Symbol, Come and Chaos. PR, Parade, Batman and Graffiti are excluded as WB licenced soundtracks. Black & OF4S must have been in the closing deal and fallen to NPG (guessing)

Th Estate already has ownership of that Master Recording.

so what is happening to the post 95 vault material? are they going to cut a new deal with
yet another company for that? or will the estate create their own store?

it seems so unlikely that unreleased material isn't included in this new sony deal. because,
what's the incentive for people to re-purchase these albums that they will distribute now?

remastered versions? but they sound ok to me from 96 onward.

and what general public is going to buy any of these albums if they aren't big enough fans
to already have them anyway and they are now all going to be on streaming services?

ChocolateBox3121 said:

SquirrelMeat said:

So by my count, the 12 WB releases under Sony are: 4U, Prince, DM, Controversy, 1999, ATWIAD, SOTT, Lovesexy, D&P, Symbol, Come and Chaos. PR, Parade, Batman and Graffiti are excluded as WB licenced soundtracks. Black & OF4S must have been in the closing deal and fallen to NPG (guessing)

Th Estate already has ownership of that Master Recording.

surely the estate already owns ALL the master recordings under the new deal that prince made
with WB. at this moment WB just has exclusive licensing/distrubution up until 2021 for all of the
WB albums. except for PR, Parade, Batman and GB, which they own forever.

or did i not get a memo?

[Edited 6/27/18 12:26pm]

Said a few thoughts on camera here.

IstenSzek said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

Th Estate already has ownership of that Master Recording.

surely the estate already owns ALL the master recordings under the new deal that prince made
with WB. at this moment WB just has exclusive licensing/distrubution up until 2021 for all of the
WB albums. except for PR, Parade, Batman and GB, which they own forever.

or did i not get a memo?

[Edited 6/27/18 12:26pm]

4U IS NOT included in this new Sony deal.

what about 20ten???? since this was never released (sold)

darkroman said:

This is my take on it.


They're saying "the 35 studio albums", but that's a bit vague. This is the best info I could find, breaking down cited albums in press releases vs guesses:

Staying at WB (for now, at least):

The WB Soundtrack albums:

Purple Rain (1984)- explicitly named in Rolling Stone

Parade (1986)- explicitly named in Rolling Stone

Batman (1989)- a guess- but the rights have to be complicated if separated from WB, who owns the movie and the character

Phase 1: 1995 and later-

Explicity mentioned, and starting immediately (although release dates unknown):

The Gold Experience (1995)

Emancipation (1996)

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999) (I'm assuming this also includes Rave In2)

The Rainbow Children (2001)

Musicology (2004)

3121 (2006)

Planet Earth (2007)

Phase 2: The 2014-2015 albums- mentioned in press releases without names, probably waiting for rights to expire:

Plectrumelectrum (2014)

Art Official Age (2014)

Hit N Run Phase 1 (2015)

Hit N Run Phase 2 (2015/6)

Phase 3: 1978-1996 (Warner Bros era)-

These come in 2021, after the current WB agreement expires

Prince (1979)

Dirty Mind (1980)

Controversy (1981)

1999 (1982)

Around the World in a Day (1985)

Sign O' The Times (1987)

Lovesexy (1988)

Diamonds and Pearls (1991)

[Love Symbol] (1992)

So that's 20 albums. That leaves out 15 from their count of 35.

Not explicitly named, my best guess:

Before 1996, probably still at WB until 2021:

For You (1978)

Come (1994)

The Black Album (1987/1994, depending on your view)

Chaos and Disorder (1996)

Released after 1996, but WB may still claim this because of when the material was recorded:

Crystal Ball (1998)

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999)

After WB:

The Truth (1998)

One Nite Alone (2002) (The studio album, not the live set)

Xpectation (2003)

NEWS (2003)

The Chocolate Invasion (2004)

The Slaughterhouse (2004)

Lotusflow3r (2009)

MPLSound (2009) (Is this a separate album from Lotusflow3r?)

20Ten (2010)
By my count, that's 15 albums.

But what about the live albums?
One Nite Alone...Live! (2002)

C-Note (2004)

Indigo Nights (2008)

Also unknown- the NPG albums, the spinoff acts like the Time, anything recorded to Paisley Park, Internet offerings like NPG Music Club, and of course, anything in the Vault or live shows recorded but unreleased.

ChocolateBox3121 said:

IstenSzek said:

surely the estate already owns ALL the master recordings under the new deal that prince made
with WB. at this moment WB just has exclusive licensing/distrubution up until 2021 for all of the
WB albums. except for PR, Parade, Batman and GB, which they own forever.

or did i not get a memo?

[Edited 6/27/18 12:26pm]

4U IS NOT included in this new Sony deal.

aaah! now i get it! thanks

I do think Warners should still continue their reissue programme simply because it was fun. It was great to see replicas reprinted. This is something Legacy won't be able to do.

In fact this Legacy agreement is a little odd as I feel there isn't a market for Prince's old CDs.

There are many titles in the shops but they don't sell that well and the ones that are out-of-print are out-of-print because no one was buying them.

Time will tell but history has shown Prince has moved from label to label because of the kudos the labels were seeking - sales were never great.

Ultimately Legacy will only release the titles and the quantities they think will sell and without doubt they will call a stop to it all if it goes nowhere.

Gonna be weird to see the 1978-1996 albums without the WB logo

wishlish said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

So the “non-album tracks” referred to in the press release are not vault songs? I assumed non-album tracks that were not B-sides, would be vault tracks, no?

The press release states:

In addition to the album titles from the 1995-2010 era, the agreement also includes rights to other previously released material recorded post-1995 including singles, b-sides, remixes, non-album tracks, live recordings and music videos.

I would take that to mean all the items listed we have heard or seen before.

motherfunka said:

SchlomoThaHomo said: