iTunes currently has 41 out of 43 Prince albums. The two it's missing are The Black Album and The Gold Experience. Does anyone know why those two aren't avialable? They're both Warner Bros. and the rest of the Warners catalogue is on iTunes.

Could The Gold Experience be missing due to the copyright lawsuit involving The Most Beautiful Girl in the World?

Could the Estate be withholding The Black Album because they knew Prince never wanted it released?

I realize my guesses may be totally off base.

[Edited 3/26/19 6:29am]

Gold experience shows for me on Apple music in the UK, but it doesn't include TMBGITW, which is funy because the description of the album name checks this track.

Can't see the Black album though.

TheEnglishGent said:

Gold experience shows for me on Apple music in the UK, but it doesn't include TMBGITW, which is funy because the description of the album name checks this track.

Can't see the Black album though.

Does Apple Music UK have Lovesexy as one long track or individual tracks?

lurker316 said:

iTunes currently has 41 out of 43 Prince albums. The two it's missing are The Black Album and The Gold Experience. Does anyone know why those two aren't avialable? They're both Warner Bros. and the rest of the Warners catalogue is on iTunes.

Could The Gold Experience be missing due to the copyright lawsuit involving The Most Beautiful Girl in the World?

Could the Estate be withholding The Black Album because they knew Prince never wanted it released?

I realize my guesses may be totally off base.

[Edited 3/26/19 6:29am]

Indeed do not know why.

On top of that weird thing regading videos. New uploads can be seen on Apple Music site but not purchased (as not available..) through the Itunes store!!

lurker316 said:

Does Apple Music UK have Lovesexy as one long track or individual tracks?

One long track.

My understanding is that the Black Album was released in 1994 and deleted the same day so it wouldn't be an "active" album that could be released to streaming/download like the other ones?

Gold experience has the issue with TMBGITW, dunno what's going on with HitnRun1.

jaawwnn said:

My understanding is that the Black Album was released in 1994 and deleted the same day so it wouldn't be an "active" album that could be released to streaming/download like the other ones?

I don't think that's right. In 1994 there was no such thing as streaming or downloads. The Black Album was released as a hardcopy CD. You can't delete physical media sitting on store shelves and in fan homes. To look at it another way, no one would have been worried about it being streamed/downloaded because no one had ever heard of streaming/downloading.

[Edited 3/27/19 5:10am]

lurker316 said:

jaawwnn said:

My understanding is that the Black Album was released in 1994 and deleted the same day so it wouldn't be an "active" album that could be released to streaming/download like the other ones?

I don't think that's right. In 1994 there was no such thing as streaming or downloads. The Black Album was released as a hardcopy CD. You can't delete physical media sitting on store shelves and in fan homes. To look at it another way, no one would have been worried about it being streamed/downloaded because no one had ever heard of streaming/downloading.

[Edited 3/27/19 5:10am]

Ha, no when I say "deleted" i'm using archaic language meaning that they print a certain amount of copies for the first day of release and then pull the album, meaning no more copies are printed. Wiki says it was released in November and deleted in January although it doesn't give a source.

I'm guessing this has a knockon affect on digital rights but this is only a guess, there's so many confusing legal decisions with Prince in the 90's that I can't say for sure. The fact that it is or was on tidal suggests that Prince rather than WB owned the rights to it.

I need Bart to come shout at me and tell me to google better, he probably knows the ins and outs of this one.

[Edited 3/27/19 5:32am]

jaawwnn said:

Ha, no when I say "deleted" i'm using archaic language meaning that they print a certain amount of copies for the first day of release and then pull the album, meaning no more copies are printed.

In UK retail that's called a "discontinued" line and IIRC that's exactly what happened with the Black album, over here at least.

It was never clear to me if Warner's released the Black Album over his objections (perhaps to spite him in the midst of their legal battles), or if Prince himself begrudgingly agreed to release it simply to help him satisify his contract and get out from under it. Either way, I'm sure he wasn't happy about it. That's why I speculated his estate may be holding it back simply to respect his original wish that it never see the light of day. Perhaps there is no actual legal reason.

With respect to the The Gold Experience, if the issue is the copyright lawsuit over TMBGITW, then why don't they simply release the album without that track in the US like they did in the UK?

lurker316 said:

It was never clear to me if Warner's released the Black Album over his objections (perhaps to spite him in the midst of their legal battles), or if Prince himself begrudgingly agreed to release it simply to help him satisify his contract and get out from under it. Either way, I'm sure he wasn't happy about it. That's why I speculated his estate may be holding it back simply to respect his original wish that it never see the light of day. Perhaps there is no actual legal reason.

With respect to the The Gold Experience, if the issue is the copyright lawsuit over TMBGITW, then why don't they simply release the album without that track in the US like they did in the UK?

It sucks that the most successful song on that album is not even included anymore.

The CDs and vinyl are still on my shelf and the rips are still on my devices and backup drives. If you rely on streaming for your media some music (or movies, or tv shows, etc...) will come and go as licenses allow. Just sayin'... again.

Andy's back!

djThunderfunk said:

The CDs and vinyl are still on my shelf and the rips are still on my devices and backup drives. If you rely on streaming for your media some music (or movies, or tv shows, etc...) will come and go as licenses allow. Just sayin'... again.

I have the CDs as well. I'm not relying on streaming/downloads. Just curious why these aren't available.

lurker316 said:

djThunderfunk said:

The CDs and vinyl are still on my shelf and the rips are still on my devices and backup drives. If you rely on streaming for your media some music (or movies, or tv shows, etc...) will come and go as licenses allow. Just sayin'... again.

I have the CDs as well. I'm not relying on streaming/downloads. Just curious why these aren't available.

Best guess...

Black Album because Prince only agreed to a limited release in 1994 with no reissues, The Gold Experience because of the lawsuits regarding TMBGITW.

I don't think your guesses were way off base at all.

lurker316 said:

It was never clear to me if Warner's released the Black Album over his objections (perhaps to spite him in the midst of their legal battles), or if Prince himself begrudgingly agreed to release it simply to help him satisify his contract and get out from under it. Either way, I'm sure he wasn't happy about it. That's why I speculated his estate may be holding it back simply to respect his original wish that it never see the light of day. Perhaps there is no actual legal reason.

With respect to the The Gold Experience, if the issue is the copyright lawsuit over TMBGITW, then why don't they simply release the album without that track in the US like they did in the UK?

As far as we know, Prince definitely agreed and got paid for that. But it was also definitely a one time with no reissue deal.

So IDK, I'd assume it's still stuck with WB, not back at NPG, so maybe WB needs permission from the Estate to rerelease it and didn't bother going thru the legal paperwork. But that's a blind guess. I don't think it has much to do with P's wishes. It's been released once and it was out there long before that anyway, so...

databank said:

lurker316 said:

It was never clear to me if Warner's released the Black Album over his objections (perhaps to spite him in the midst of their legal battles), or if Prince himself begrudgingly agreed to release it simply to help him satisify his contract and get out from under it. Either way, I'm sure he wasn't happy about it. That's why I speculated his estate may be holding it back simply to respect his original wish that it never see the light of day. Perhaps there is no actual legal reason.

With respect to the The Gold Experience, if the issue is the copyright lawsuit over TMBGITW, then why don't they simply release the album without that track in the US like they did in the UK?

As far as we know, Prince definitely agreed and got paid for that. But it was also definitely a one time with no reissue deal.

So IDK, I'd assume it's still stuck with WB, not back at NPG, so maybe WB needs permission from the Estate to rerelease it and didn't bother going thru the legal paperwork. But that's a blind guess. I don't think it has much to do with P's wishes. It's been released once and it was out there long before that anyway, so...

.
Prince agreed to the Black Album being on Tidal too, so I don't think he wanted to bury it forever.
.
Regarding why it's not currently available: perhaps the Estate is holding it back so they'll be able to use it as one of the bargaining chips in negotiations about the unreleased goodies? I dunno, just a guess.
.

Kares said:

databank said:

As far as we know, Prince definitely agreed and got paid for that. But it was also definitely a one time with no reissue deal.

So IDK, I'd assume it's still stuck with WB, not back at NPG, so maybe WB needs permission from the Estate to rerelease it and didn't bother going thru the legal paperwork. But that's a blind guess. I don't think it has much to do with P's wishes. It's been released once and it was out there long before that anyway, so...

.
Prince agreed to the Black Album being on Tidal too, so I don't think he wanted to bury it forever.
.
Regarding why it's not currently available: perhaps the Estate is holding it back so they'll be able to use it as one of the bargaining chips in negotiations about the unreleased goodies? I dunno, just a guess.
.

Oh it was on Tidal? Well then so yeah, it ain't buried forever.

Everything was too have been a Tidal exclusive.

Both the Black Album and the Golder Experience were on Tidal at one point. I had forgotten about that. Which makes the mystery of their abscence from iTunes even greater.

I'm more confused by the absense of HitnRun 1 from streaming services. Bizarre.

So far I've got HnR1 and 2. TGE w no TMBGIW, no Black Album. When stuff like this happens is when having your own copy counts I'll admit.

[Edited 4/1/19 12:06pm]

lurker316 said:

djThunderfunk said:

The CDs and vinyl are still on my shelf and the rips are still on my devices and backup drives. If you rely on streaming for your media some music (or movies, or tv shows, etc...) will come and go as licenses allow. Just sayin'... again.

I have the CDs as well. I'm not relying on streaming/downloads. Just curious why these aren't available.

I just got rid of a lot of CDs (probably 50 or so) of stuff that IF I want to listen to someday will probably be on Spotify. If not, no biggie.

But I'd never get rid of my Prince collection!