Prince Estate Signs Deal With Sony Music to Re-Release 35 Catalog Albums

The titles from 1978-2015 will be re-released via the Legacy Recordings imprint.

Prince's estate and Sony Music Entertainment announced on Wednesday (June 27) they have signed an exclusive distribution agreement that covers 35 of the iconic musician's previously released albums.

Under the new arrangement, the Prince catalog included in the deal will be distributed by Legacy Recordings. Worldwide rights begin immediately for Prince's album releases from 1995-2010, with the others following in years to come.

Among the titles included in the first phase are The Gold Experience (1995), Emancipation (1996), Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999), The Rainbow Children (2001) and 3121 (2006), as well as Musicology (2004) and Planet Earth (2007), which were originally release via Sony through Columbia.

See the links below for all the info :

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/prince-estate-sony-ink-distribution-deal-for-35-previously-released-albums-w522089

&

http://www.musicweek.com/...gue/072976

That's great!

Putting this on the front page and stickying.

Militant said:

Putting this on the front page and stickying.

This is really interesting! So Sony is also getting WB stuff, but not Purple Rain or Graffiti Bridge.

Starting in 2021, Sony/Legacy's distribution rights will be expanded to include 12 Prince non-soundtrack catalog albums, featuring iconic music recorded by the artist from the 1978-1996 era for distribution in the United States. Music from this period covered under the agreement includes the highly renowned albums 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) and [Love Symbol] (1992) as well as hit singles "1999," "Little Red Corvette," "I Wanna Be Your Lover," "Raspberry Beret" and much more.

2020 said:

This sounds great but am hesitant to get to excited....it is Sony after all

Got an eyes on Reissues from Legacy Label (Sony) 4 other Artists....sorry but i'm not excited at all at all for what i saw !!!

[Edited 6/27/18 7:15am]

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

I really hope this includes vinyl releases of those albums

So we'll be waiting a few years for 1999 Deluxe then.

Not really getting the negativity for Sony archive reissues. There have been some great ones and the Legacy issues are usually remastered by the Senior Mastering Engineer at Sony, Vic Anesini. Can't say I've heard anything remotely brickwalled that he's done - check out his Sly & The Family Stone remastering that he's done. He oversaw the best sounding CD reissue of There's A Riot that I've heard - and that's no audiophile album by any stretch of the imagination.

Really hope their Dotted their I's and crossed their T's on this one!

jjam said:

So we'll be waiting a few years for 1999 Deluxe then.

Not really getting the negativity for Sony archive reissues. There have been some great ones and the Legacy issues are usually remastered by the Senior Mastering Engineer at Sony, Vic Anesini. Can't say I've heard anything remotely brickwalled that he's done - check out his Sly & The Family Stone remastering that he's done. He oversaw the best sounding CD reissue of There's A Riot that I've heard - and that's no audiophile album by any stretch of the imagination.

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Sony Legacy has done an amazing job with many great catalogs, including Miles Davis's and Herbie Hancock's, for example. Also, Sony is doing a similarly excellent job with the Bob Dylan catalog under the Columbia label. So the general negativity is childish and ignorant.
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jjam said:

So I guess The Gold Experience will be first up. What isn't mentioned in the article is whether we'll see unreleased stuff on these reissues. The Gold Experience certainly serves to be an expanded release.

Militant said:

SquirrelMeat said:

embmmusic said:

I really hope this includes vinyl releases of those albums

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Maybe, but don't forget that many of those albums never came out on vinyl and most of the artwork was horrible enough in CD-size and would look truly awful when blown up to 12" size... I'm pretty sure there aren't any artwork originals in higher resolution for many of the titles, especially for those internet-only releases. So they'd either have to redesign the covers for most of them or just put them out in awful quality – like that Exodus LP where they couldn't even be arsed to source the artwork without that stupid parental advisory sticker, they just blew it up to 12" size with the sticker on it... Absolutely awful...
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jjam said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Hopefully this means we will start getting true Vault releases, and not garbage like Piano And Microphone 83.

The deal DOES NOT include Vault recordings.

[Edited 6/27/18 8:03am]

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I wonder if the NPG albums are included or not. The press release says 1995-2010, so Exodus and New Power Soul should be included, but then what about Goldnigga? That's owned by the estate so why isn't it included? Or did they perhaps leave out Exodus and New Power Soul too? That would make no sense as all three of these are essentially Prince albums. So is Kamasutra, for example.

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ChocolateBox3121 said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Hopefully this means we will start getting true Vault releases, and not garbage like Piano And Microphone 83.

The deal DOES NOT include Vault recordings.

[Edited 6/27/18 8:03am]

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"As part of the deal, Legacy will also be able to distribute other post-1995 Prince material such as previously released singles, B-sides, remixes, non-album tracks, live recordings and music videos."

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Even if they are all previously released, I'll be happy to see them reissued and properly marketed.

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Maybe Sony can get rid of the awful album version of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World and replace it with the EP version. I don't quite know what Prince was thinking including that mix on the album.

Kares said:

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I wonder if the NPG albums are included or not. The press release says 1995-2010, so Exodus and New Power Soul should be included, but then what about Goldnigga? That's owned by the estate so why isn't it included? Or did they perhaps leave out Exodus and New Power Soul too? That would make no sense as all three of these are essentially Prince albums. So is Kamasutra, for example.

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Sony may not want that stuff. Yes they are "essential" to Prince diehards but the casual fan? Hell, I'm a huge Prince fan and don't think they're "essential" at all.

jjam said:

Maybe Sony can get rid of the awful album version of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World and replace it with the EP version. I don't quite know what Prince was thinking including that mix on the album.

Maybe they can remaster it too. Talk about brickwalled!!!

jjam said:

Maybe Sony can get rid of the awful album version of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World and replace it with the EP version. I don't quite know what Prince was thinking including that mix on the album.

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The last thing we want is someone fiddling with Prince's mixes and finished albums – just leave them as they are! The fact that Prince has made some questionable artistic decisions (and it was just one of the many natural results of his creative freedom and boldness) does not mean that I'd want someone to try "correcting" those "mistakes". So please don't even try to give the Estate the wrong ideas...
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KlyphIsBackAgain said:

Kares said:

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I wonder if the NPG albums are included or not. The press release says 1995-2010, so Exodus and New Power Soul should be included, but then what about Goldnigga? That's owned by the estate so why isn't it included? Or did they perhaps leave out Exodus and New Power Soul too? That would make no sense as all three of these are essentially Prince albums. So is Kamasutra, for example.

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Sony may not want that stuff. Yes they are "essential" to Prince diehards but the casual fan? Hell, I'm a huge Prince fan and don't think they're "essential" at all.

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Please read before commenting. I said "they are essentially Prince albums", not that they are essential releases in his catalog. Casual fans don't even know about albums such as Xpectation or NEWS...

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[Edited 6/27/18 8:31am]

Kares said: