Here's One Weird Trick to stop that from ever happening again:

Buy the damn music, don't lease it.

RodeoSchro said:

Here's One Weird Trick to stop that from ever happening again:

Buy the damn music, don't lease it.

Well, no, because if you purchase them from any download site, you're likely to get the same fucked up versions of 1999 and Parade.

databank said:

RodeoSchro said:

Here's One Weird Trick to stop that from ever happening again:

Buy the damn music, don't lease it.

Well, no, because if you purchase them from any download site, you're likely to get the same fucked up versions of 1999 and Parade.

Buy a physical copy. Like us dinosaurs do.

RodeoSchro said:

databank said:

Well, no, because if you purchase them from any download site, you're likely to get the same fucked up versions of 1999 and Parade.

Buy a physical copy. Like us dinosaurs do.

And get a glitch on Erotic City... Or 18 seconds of silence instead of 4 after TGRES on the Rave CD?

Whetever fuck up that happens on digital can happen on physical, but on the other hand you won't find it on HDTracks (when it comes to Parade and 1999).

Labels can make shit on physical as much as digital. The problem is not there (or with streaming for that matter). The problem is about labels doing their job.

databank said:

RodeoSchro said:

Buy a physical copy. Like us dinosaurs do.

And get a glitch on Erotic City... Or 18 seconds of silence instead of 4 after TGRES on the Rave CD?

Whetever fuck up that happens on digital can happen on physical, but on the other hand you won't find it on HDTracks (when it comes to Parade and 1999).

Labels can make shit on physical as much as digital. The problem is not there (or with streaming for that matter). The problem is about labels doing their job.

.
There are soooo many technical glitches, issues on releases (both physical and online) I wouldn't even know where to start to list even just the ones I've noticed. Labels (especially the majors) can be so careless sometimes it's unbelievable. Even when it comes to albums that are selling steadily for 3-4-5 decades – even on the 43rd rerelease, after 3-4 major remasterings you can still find issues. Even on some Pink Floyd albums that were reissued a zillion times
.
But speaking of Prince: even 'Piano & A Microphone 1983' was transferred at the wrong speed and no-one noticed (or cared) that it plays sharp. I'm sure Prince didn't have his piano tuned to A=445. Makes me so sad... His legacy really deserves more caring and attention to detail.

I bought the Gold Experience from Tidal last year (I don't think it's available anymore). I just checked. The version of Eye Hate U they sold me is wrong. It fades out. It's suppose to go right into the segue between it and Gold.

.

So far these are the songs on the streaming services that I believe to be the wrong version:

.

1999 (fades out)

Little Red Corvette (*this could be correct if you're version of 1999 includes the segue)

Girls & Boys (fades out)

Kiss (is the single version with the guitar)

Eye Hate U (fades out)

.

Has anyone discovered anymore?

.

I do have the CD versions of each of these, so this isn't causing me any practical problems -- it's just a matter of principle.

[Edited 4/20/19 13:59pm]

I remember running into a few problems with the Apple Music digital catalogue for Prince as well - I complained but no one gives a shit. So heartbreaking, the albums are his legacy, they could at least get that right.

lurker316 said:

I bought the Gold Experience from Tidal last year (I don't think it's available anymore). I just checked. The version of Eye Hate U they sold me is wrong. It fades out. It's suppose to go right into the segue between it and Gold.

.

So far these are the songs on the streaming services that I believe to be the wrong version:

.

1999 (fades out)

Little Red Corvette (*this could be correct if you're version of 1999 includes the segue)

Girls & Boys (fades out)

Kiss (is the single version with the guitar)

Eye Hate U (fades out)

.

Has anyone discovered anymore?

.

I do have the CD versions of each of these, so this isn't causing me any practical problems -- it's just a matter of principle.

[Edited 4/20/19 13:59pm]

Terrible news

This version of Eye Hate U, is it one of the single versions?

Mikado said:

In a weird twist, the Spotify Gold Experience also has the wrong I Hate U, but their Prince anthology playlist/album has the correct version.

OK I've just checked on Spotify and there Eye Hate U does not fade out but it seems the last 3 seconds are missing, but it cuts abruptly so I think it's a file bug.

On the otehr hand the version on ANthology is not the correct album version but the single version (that was ironically dubbed "album version" on the single but is slightly different).

.

I've just checked and Erotic City (from the 12'' is also still this weird version that appears to be fading out something).

.

I'm going to write to the Estate from the website's email address to signal those problems, I doubt it's gonna help but at least they can't tell they didn't know.

[Edited 4/24/19 3:06am]

databank said:

Mikado said:

In a weird twist, the Spotify Gold Experience also has the wrong I Hate U, but their Prince anthology playlist/album has the correct version.

OK I've just checked on Spotify and there Eye Hate U does not fade out but it seems the last 3 seconds are missing, but it cuts abruptly so I think it's a file bug.

I've just checked and Erotic City (from the 12'' is also still this weird version that appears to be fading out something).

I'm going to write to the Estate from the website's email address to signal those problems, I doubt it's gonna help but at least they can't tell they didn't know.

.
Good luck.
I've tried so many times before. Not just with the Prince Estate but with all the majors and smaller labels too. 99% of them don't care. As I said before, I could put together not just a list but a book about all the errors I've noticed on releases by almost every record company and the biggest selling artists. There are so many stupid mistakes and errors that get past all quality control it's unbelievable.
.
For example, the European Lovesexy Live laserdisc has a horrendous wow&flutter issue for about half an hour on side 1. (I never had the Japanese edition so I don't know if that's the same or not.) I've been in contact about this with Polydor at the time but of course they couldn't do anything about it, they had no intention of creating a new master and new edition. They didn't care. And it's just one of the hundreds of examples in my experience.

lurker316 said:

Mikado said:

On Spotify (and Tidal, so I'm assuming most streaming services) after the second "Mommy, Why Does Everyone Have a Bomb"? it fades out before LRC - destroying the old segue that used to connect the two.

How fucking awful, right? At least I still have my CD....

I started a similar thread about the incorrect version of Girls & Boys on iTunes -- it fades out insteading segueing into Life Can Be So Nice. It's the same exact problem you're describing with 1999/LRC. This thread prompted me to check the iTunes' versions of 1999 and Kiss and they have the same problem as the ones you descibe with Tidal. Which means the problem must be with the content provider, not the streaming service. Anway, I recommend you check the Tidal version of Girls & Boys.

OK I just checked on Spotify, I just wanted to hear those things for myself before writing to the Estate: the problems with 1999 and Kiss are there but G&B is correct.

I was about to write to the Estate but it'd be nice if various services users (I normally use none of them) could check the following tracks on SPotify, Google Play, iTunes and Amazon, so we'd know which is wrong exactly:

1999/LRC (1999 album versions)

G&B (Parade version)

Kiss (Parade version)

I Hate U (TGE version)

Erotic City (long Let's Go Crazy single version)

databank said:

lurker316 said:

I started a similar thread about the incorrect version of Girls & Boys on iTunes -- it fades out insteading segueing into Life Can Be So Nice. It's the same exact problem you're describing with 1999/LRC. This thread prompted me to check the iTunes' versions of 1999 and Kiss and they have the same problem as the ones you descibe with Tidal. Which means the problem must be with the content provider, not the streaming service. Anway, I recommend you check the Tidal version of Girls & Boys.

OK I just checked on Spotify, I just wanted to hear those things for myself before writing to the Estate: the problems with 1999 and Kiss are there but G&B is correct.

I was about to write to the Estate but it'd be nice if various services users (I normally use none of them) could check the following tracks on SPotify, Google Play, iTunes and Amazon, so we'd know which is wrong exactly:

1999/LRC (1999 album versions)

G&B (Parade version)

Kiss (Parade version)

I Hate U (TGE version)

Erotic City (long Let's Go Crazy single version)

.

I've already checked 1999/LRC, G&B, Kiss, and I Hate U on iTunes. They are all definitely wrong.

.

I still need to check the long Erotic City on iTunes. It's on PR Deluxe, right? What exactly am I listening for?

.

lurker316 said:

databank said:

OK I just checked on Spotify, I just wanted to hear those things for myself before writing to the Estate: the problems with 1999 and Kiss are there but G&B is correct.

I was about to write to the Estate but it'd be nice if various services users (I normally use none of them) could check the following tracks on SPotify, Google Play, iTunes and Amazon, so we'd know which is wrong exactly:

1999/LRC (1999 album versions)

G&B (Parade version)

Kiss (Parade version)

I Hate U (TGE version)

Erotic City (long Let's Go Crazy single version)

.

I've already checked 1999/LRC, G&B, Kiss, and I Hate U on iTunes. They are all definitely wrong.

.

I still need to check the long Erotic City on iTunes. It's on PR Deluxe, right? What exactly am I listening for?

.

Thx

No EC is the original upload from 2007, it crossfades with another (non-Prince) song at the beginning, you can't miss it and it actually appeared on iTunes first.

Ironically with the glitch on PR Deluxe both digital uploads of EC are fucked one way or another

Kares said:

databank said:

OK I've just checked on Spotify and there Eye Hate U does not fade out but it seems the last 3 seconds are missing, but it cuts abruptly so I think it's a file bug.

I've just checked and Erotic City (from the 12'' is also still this weird version that appears to be fading out something).

I'm going to write to the Estate from the website's email address to signal those problems, I doubt it's gonna help but at least they can't tell they didn't know.

.
Good luck.
I've tried so many times before. Not just with the Prince Estate but with all the majors and smaller labels too. 99% of them don't care. As I said before, I could put together not just a list but a book about all the errors I've noticed on releases by almost every record company and the biggest selling artists. There are so many stupid mistakes and errors that get past all quality control it's unbelievable.
.
For example, the European Lovesexy Live laserdisc has a horrendous wow&flutter issue for about half an hour on side 1. (I never had the Japanese edition so I don't know if that's the same or not.) I've been in contact about this with Polydor at the time but of course they couldn't do anything about it, they had no intention of creating a new master and new edition. They didn't care. And it's just one of the hundreds of examples in my experience.

I know, and I don't hold high hopes either but I think it's worth a try if going straight to the Estate (as opposed to WB or Sony).

Fixing this really wouldn't involve too much cost or work: they could just use the HD tracks masters for 1999 and Parade, and they must have a clean copy of TGE somewhere. Hell they could even rip the CD's and have an intern reupload all 3 albums.

databank said:

Kares said:

.
Good luck.
I've tried so many times before. Not just with the Prince Estate but with all the majors and smaller labels too. 99% of them don't care. As I said before, I could put together not just a list but a book about all the errors I've noticed on releases by almost every record company and the biggest selling artists. There are so many stupid mistakes and errors that get past all quality control it's unbelievable.
.
For example, the European Lovesexy Live laserdisc has a horrendous wow&flutter issue for about half an hour on side 1. (I never had the Japanese edition so I don't know if that's the same or not.) I've been in contact about this with Polydor at the time but of course they couldn't do anything about it, they had no intention of creating a new master and new edition. They didn't care. And it's just one of the hundreds of examples in my experience.

I know, and I don't hold high hopes either but I think it's worth a try if going straight to the Estate (as opposed to WB or Sony).

Fixing this really wouldn't involve too much cost or work: they could just use the HD tracks masters for 1999 and Parade, and they must have a clean copy of TGE somewhere. Hell they could even rip the CD's and have an intern reupload all 3 albums.

.
I'm afraid it's not how it works, and it's not the Estate's job to prepare files for distribution, but the record companies'. And these days companies don't simply rip CDs to generate files for online distribution, they use their high resolution master file and have it mastered by a mastering engineer who will create the different file formats for online distribution. Optimally they will be mastered by an engineer to 'Mastered for iTunes' specs (even the files that will be distributed by another service) because that will provide better sound quality for formats using lossy compression.
.

Kares said:

databank said:

I know, and I don't hold high hopes either but I think it's worth a try if going straight to the Estate (as opposed to WB or Sony).

Fixing this really wouldn't involve too much cost or work: they could just use the HD tracks masters for 1999 and Parade, and they must have a clean copy of TGE somewhere. Hell they could even rip the CD's and have an intern reupload all 3 albums.

.
I'm afraid it's not how it works, and it's not the Estate's job to prepare files for distribution, but the record companies'.

I know, but they could (and should) make a fuss.

.

And these days companies don't simply rip CDs to generate files for online distribution, they use their high resolution master file and have it mastered by a mastering engineer who will create the different file formats for online distribution. Optimally they will be mastered by an engineer to 'Mastered for iTunes' specs (even the files that will be distributed by another service) because that will provide better sound quality for formats using lossy compression.
.

A CD rip would still be better than the shit they've uploaded so far because at least it would be the right songs!

Many people listen to CD rips at home, they don't come from special digital masters and we're fine with them.

+ I'm really not convinced all labels bother spending extra dough on the process you describe given that at least 80% of listeners listen to music on cheap devices that wouldn't allow them to differenciate a Flac from a @128 if their lives depended on it. I mean I know you're working in this field so you know what you're talking about, but for example many people, including writers, tend to believe that all professional publishers pay people to proofread the books before they publish them. It seems to be the minimum quality control you can think of. The basic process for publishing a book. Well, many publishers don't do it, because paying the guy to proofread the book would cost them whatever little profit they hope to make from each book. So things aren't always done the way they should be, as you yourself acknowledge when you say there is so little quality control.

.

Regardless, at the end of the day I realize that neither the people running the Estate at the moment nor the labels give a shit about Prince's music, they're just after quick bucks, but I guess all I'm trying to say is that if they wanted to correct those errors, it could be done relatively easily, without spending a fortune. I realize that even if we all sent a mail to the Estate, it probably wouldn't have any effect, but I feel it's still our duty to at least tell them.

databank said:

Kares said:

.
I'm afraid it's not how it works, and it's not the Estate's job to prepare files for distribution, but the record companies'.

I know, but they could (and should) make a fuss.

.

And these days companies don't simply rip CDs to generate files for online distribution, they use their high resolution master file and have it mastered by a mastering engineer who will create the different file formats for online distribution. Optimally they will be mastered by an engineer to 'Mastered for iTunes' specs (even the files that will be distributed by another service) because that will provide better sound quality for formats using lossy compression.
.

A CD rip would still be better than the shit they've uploaded so far because at least it would be the right songs!

Many people listen to CD rips at home, they don't come from special digital masters and we're fine with them.

+ I'm really not convinced all labels bother spending extra dough on the process you describe given that at least 80% of listeners listen to music on cheap devices that wouldn't allow them to differenciate a Flac from a @128 if their lives depended on it. I mean I know you're working in this field so you know what you're talking about, but for example many people, including writers, tend to believe that all professional publishers pay people to proofread the books before they publish them. It seems to be the minimum quality control you can think of. The basic process for publishing a book. Well, many publishers don't do it, because paying the guy to proofread the book would cost them whatever little profit they hope to make from each book. So things aren't always done the way they should be, as you yourself acknowledge when you say there is so little quality control.

.

Regardless, at the end of the day I realize that neither the people running the Estate at the moment nor the labels give a shit about Prince's music, they're just after quick bucks, but I guess all I'm trying to say is that if they wanted to correct those errors, it could be done relatively easily, without spending a fortune. I realize that even if we all sent a mail to the Estate, it probably wouldn't have any effect, but I feel it's still our duty to at least tell them.

.
Every trade has its own professional standards and procedures that it aims to follow, regardless of whether all of their customers can tell the difference or not. No self-respecting record company would ask an intern or an admin assistant to just rip a CD in any old optical drive using any old software and send the resulting files out for distribution. Obviously you don't really mean to suggest that either. There's a professional workflow, a process to be followed, there are different departments to go through and there are mastering engineers who perform such tasks following professional standards, who actually know what specs they have to follow and what files they will have to produce. Now of course (unfortunately) mistakes happen left and right and I wholeheartedly agree that quality control should be much better and people should care a lot more. But that's no excuse to try to bypass the whole system and just rip a CD.
.

Kares said:

databank said:

.
Every trade has its own professional standards and procedures that it aims to follow, regardless of whether all of their customers can tell the difference or not. No self-respecting record company would ask an intern or an admin assistant to just rip a CD in any old optical drive using any old software and send the resulting files out for distribution. Obviously you don't really mean to suggest that either. There's a professional workflow, a process to be followed, there are different departments to go through and there are mastering engineers who perform such tasks following professional standards, who actually know what specs they have to follow and what files they will have to produce. Now of course (unfortunately) mistakes happen left and right and I wholeheartedly agree that quality control should be much better and people should care a lot more. But that's no excuse to try to bypass the whole system and just rip a CD.
.

Many self respecting publishing companies do not professionally proofread but admitedly there's less money in literature than in music.

I read ya and I'm sure you read me too. In the end though, just on a purely theorical level (because of course there's no such false dilemma), as an engineer would you rather have a CD rip of the album as such on streaming/online shops or a reconstruction of the album with single edits or fucked-up files in perfect sound quality? I realize you want neither and neither do I, but in an either/or game?

databank said:

Kares said:

.
Every trade has its own professional standards and procedures that it aims to follow, regardless of whether all of their customers can tell the difference or not. No self-respecting record company would ask an intern or an admin assistant to just rip a CD in any old optical drive using any old software and send the resulting files out for distribution. Obviously you don't really mean to suggest that either. There's a professional workflow, a process to be followed, there are different departments to go through and there are mastering engineers who perform such tasks following professional standards, who actually know what specs they have to follow and what files they will have to produce. Now of course (unfortunately) mistakes happen left and right and I wholeheartedly agree that quality control should be much better and people should care a lot more. But that's no excuse to try to bypass the whole system and just rip a CD.
.

Many self respecting publishing companies do not professionally proofread but admitedly there's less money in literature than in music.

I read ya and I'm sure you read me too. In the end though, just on a purely theorical level (because of course there's no such false dilemma), as an engineer would you rather have a CD rip of the album as such on streaming/online shops or a reconstruction of the album with single edits or fucked-up files in perfect sound quality? I realize you want neither and neither do I, but in an either/or game?

.
To be honest I really couldn't choose because in my eyes leaving in a bad edit or mastering something from a 16bit source are equally wrong. (Well, okay, it depends on the severity of the editing error...) Neither of these kinds of issues should happen, and when they do, I wouldn't fix either issue at the cost of leaving in the other. I would only replace something that's already out there when the replacement would be up to a high standard in every aspect.
.
That's why I wouldn't have put out Purple Rain Deluxe the way it was produced either, even though it was definitely something long overdue. I wouldn't have allowed those outtakes to come out being sourced from cassette copies because once you put something out with such huge compromises, you can be sure that you won't get a chance to correct it for at least another 5 years. I think it's a great shame that they were released in that low quality because most of them are very important songs that we've been listening to on even worse bootlegs for many years. After waiting 30-odd years we could've waited 1 or 2 more if that's what would've taken for the estate and Warners to get it right.
.

[Edited 4/24/19 10:10am]

Kares said:

databank said:

Many self respecting publishing companies do not professionally proofread but admitedly there's less money in literature than in music.

I read ya and I'm sure you read me too. In the end though, just on a purely theorical level (because of course there's no such false dilemma), as an engineer would you rather have a CD rip of the album as such on streaming/online shops or a reconstruction of the album with single edits or fucked-up files in perfect sound quality? I realize you want neither and neither do I, but in an either/or game?

.
To be honest I really couldn't choose because in my eyes leaving in a bad edit or mastering something from a 16bit source are equally wrong. (Well, okay, it depends on the severity of the editing error...) Neither of these kinds of issues should happen, and when they do, I wouldn't fix either issue at the cost of leaving in the other. I would only replace something that's already out there when the replacement would be up to a high standard in every aspect.
.
That's why I wouldn't have put out Purple Rain Deluxe the way it was produced either, even though it was definitely something long overdue. I wouldn't have allowed those outtakes to come out being sourced from cassette copies because once you put something out with such huge compromises, you can be sure that you won't get a chance to correct it for at least another 5 years. I think it's a great shame that they were released in that low quality because most of them are very important songs that we've been listening to on even worse bootlegs for many years. After waiting 30-odd years we could've waited 1 or 2 more if that's what would've taken for the estate and Warners to get it right.
.

[Edited 4/24/19 10:10am]

Fair enough, thx for your reply

For someone who 1/ is a writer, therefore a storyteller first and 2/ only has very slight hearing loss (according to ENT's) but suffers from tinnitus and already couldn't tell @320 from CD 14 years ago (back when my ears were better), I value narrative values waaaaaaaaaaaay over sonic values. But that's just me of course and I also can appreciate the depth of a mix, though obviously not to the extent some people can.

On the other hand I can't stand audience recordings of live boots and I favor 5 minutes of CB Crucial over 7 minutes of bootleg Crucial despite the narrative interruption.

So IDK.

databank said:

Kares said:

.
To be honest I really couldn't choose because in my eyes leaving in a bad edit or mastering something from a 16bit source are equally wrong. (Well, okay, it depends on the severity of the editing error...) Neither of these kinds of issues should happen, and when they do, I wouldn't fix either issue at the cost of leaving in the other. I would only replace something that's already out there when the replacement would be up to a high standard in every aspect.
.
That's why I wouldn't have put out Purple Rain Deluxe the way it was produced either, even though it was definitely something long overdue. I wouldn't have allowed those outtakes to come out being sourced from cassette copies because once you put something out with such huge compromises, you can be sure that you won't get a chance to correct it for at least another 5 years. I think it's a great shame that they were released in that low quality because most of them are very important songs that we've been listening to on even worse bootlegs for many years. After waiting 30-odd years we could've waited 1 or 2 more if that's what would've taken for the estate and Warners to get it right.
.

[Edited 4/24/19 10:10am]

Fair enough, thx for your reply

For someone who 1/ is a writer, therefore a storyteller first and 2/ only has very slight hearing loss (according to ENT's) but suffers from tinnitus and already couldn't tell @320 from CD 14 years ago (back when my ears were better), I value narrative values waaaaaaaaaaaay over sonic values. But that's just me of course and I also can appreciate the depth of a mix, though obviously not to the extent some people can.

On the other hand I can't stand audience recordings of live boots and I favor 5 minutes of CB Crucial over 7 minutes of bootleg Crucial despite the narrative interruption.

So IDK.

.
You can tell the same story on photocopied A4 sheets or in a beautifully produced book using high quality paper and beautiful typography, yet I guess you're much happier with the latter. Even though most people doesn't care about the difference between a Conquerors paper stock and an average photocopier paper, nor do they care about different typefaces and ligatures and such.
Or I could say that listening to music in low quality is similar to looking at a painting on a cheap reproduction – it might "tell you the story" (you see what's happening on the picture), but it's incapable of giving you the impression the original painting would be able to.
.

Kares said:

databank said:

Fair enough, thx for your reply

For someone who 1/ is a writer, therefore a storyteller first and 2/ only has very slight hearing loss (according to ENT's) but suffers from tinnitus and already couldn't tell @320 from CD 14 years ago (back when my ears were better), I value narrative values waaaaaaaaaaaay over sonic values. But that's just me of course and I also can appreciate the depth of a mix, though obviously not to the extent some people can.

On the other hand I can't stand audience recordings of live boots and I favor 5 minutes of CB Crucial over 7 minutes of bootleg Crucial despite the narrative interruption.

So IDK.

.
You can tell the same story on photocopied A4 sheets or in a beautifully produced book using high quality paper and beautiful typography, yet I guess you're much happier with the latter. Even though most people doesn't care about the difference between a Conquerors paper stock and an average photocopier paper, nor do they care about different typefaces and ligatures and such.
Or I could say that listening to music in low quality is similar to looking at a painting on a cheap reproduction – it might "tell you the story" (you see what's happening on the picture), but it's incapable of giving you the impression the original painting would be able to.
.

.

Earlier Databank asked which is the lesser of two evils: the wrong version of a song on an ablum or a lower quality version ripped from a CD. You said you think they are equally bad. I'm not sure that I agree.
.

Most fans will notice when the wrong version of a song is present and doesn't segue correctly intohe next. You don't need to be an audiophile to pick that out. It hurts the listening experience for 90% of people.

.

In contrast, most fans will not notice the difference between a CD rip and Master for Apple file. I know many of them will claim that can, but one scientific test after another has conclusively proved they are full of crap. (For example, under blind testing the number of people who can tell the differnec between an FLAC and a 256 mp4 are negligable.) Yes, professional audio engineers listening to music on very high end equipment will notice the difference, but that represents about 2% of the people listening. So using a CD rip would hurt the listening experience for only 2% of people.
.

So the choice is A.) use the wrong song, which 90% of listeners will notice, or B.) use a CD rip, which only 2% of audiophiles using extremely expensive equipment will notice.

.

You're in the audio engineering industry? Did I understand that correctly? That could explain your prejudice towards the perfect mastering. Experts typically give extra weight to the things they are knowledgeable about and less weight to competeting but equally legitimate values.

lurker316 said:

Kares said:

.
You can tell the same story on photocopied A4 sheets or in a beautifully produced book using high quality paper and beautiful typography, yet I guess you're much happier with the latter. Even though most people doesn't care about the difference between a Conquerors paper stock and an average photocopier paper, nor do they care about different typefaces and ligatures and such.
Or I could say that listening to music in low quality is similar to looking at a painting on a cheap reproduction – it might "tell you the story" (you see what's happening on the picture), but it's incapable of giving you the impression the original painting would be able to.
.

.

Earlier Databank asked which is the lesser of two evils: the wrong version of a song on an ablum or a lower quality version ripped from a CD. You said you think they are equally bad. I'm not sure that I agree.

.

Most fans will notice when the wrong version of a song is present and doesn't segue correctly intohe next. You don't need to be an audiophile to pick that out. It hurts the listening experience for 90% of people.

.

In contrast, most fans will not notice the difference between a CD rip and Master for Apple file. I know many of them will claim that can, but one scientific test after another has conclusively proved they are full of crap. (For example, under blind testing the number of people who can tell the differnec between an FLAC and a 256 mp4 are negligable.) Yes, professional audio engineers listening to music on very high end equipment will notice the difference, but that represents about 2% of the people listening. So using a CD rip would hurt the listening experience for only 2% of people.
.

So the choice is A.) use the wrong song, which 90% of listeners will notice, or B.) use a CD rip, which only 2% of audiophiles using extremely expensive equipment will notice.

.

You're in the audio engineering industry? Did I understand that correctly? That could explain your prejudice towards the perfect mastering. Experts typically give extra weight to the things they are knowledgeable about and less weight to competeting but equally legitimate values.

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First of all: frankly, I don't give a flying one about what's on streaming platforms, just as most people who use those services don't give a flying one about quality or about a few seconds missing from a song.
As I said many times, the current business model of streaming is a dead end, it's financially unsustainable, it's unfair to the writers/artists and it will be gone sooner or later (hopefully asap). In my eyes it is only comparable to radio broadcasting, not to record sales, it pays accordingly bad and its accounting system is even more shady and unfair than radios'.

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The market of album downloads is rapidly shrinking and I believe those customers who would even notice a missing second or a wrong fade-out and who truly care about having an album in good quality will either download them in high resolution from sites like HDTracks, if available, or buy the CD – and these formats have far fewer issues of the kind you've described.
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I did NOT say that "a lower quality version ripped from a CD" is equally bad to a version with an editing error (and I've added "depending on the severity" of the latter). I said mastering something from a 16bit source is equally bad in my eyes. I have absolutely no problem with the quality of a straight CD-rip if you leave it as it is. But using it as a source file for further processes is an entirely different question. That is wrong. If your end product will be an mp3, it CAN make quite a difference to start mastering for mp3 from a 16-bit source or to start the whole process from a 24-bit source (especially when you follow 'MFiT'-specs). The latter will sound better at identical mp3-encoding settings.

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You say that most fans won't notice the difference between a CD-rip (an uncompressed, 16bit/44.1kHz file) and a MFiT AAC file (I assume you mean AAC on "mp4" too as mp4 is only a container name). You are right. And it proves my point that MFiT 256 AAC is quite good indeed (for its size). Unlike the average 256 mp3 that many more people recognise to be worse.
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So I was not talking about listening to a CD rip. I was talking about using it as a source for further processing and that is totally different.
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Your assumtion of me being prejudiced towards technical perfection is wrong. You don't know me. I'm prejudiced towards great musical performance so I don't listen to something I'm not a fan of just because it's a technically excellent recording. But when I like something I can enjoy it even more when it sounds great too, hence I'm rather obsessed with getting my favourites (and I have hundreds of favourites in addition to Prince) in the best possible quality and it makes me sad and annoyed whenever a long-avaited opportunity to hear something great is messed up by sub-par audio production as it was the case with Purple Rain Deluxe.
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I listen to and enjoy a lot of great music despite only having it in what I consider bad quality, whether it's because I was only able to obtain it on a bootleg, or in mp3, or simply because it was really badly mastered (as it is the case with a LOT of Prince releases from 2000 and onwards). But if we're talking about producing something for a release, I absolutely hate compromising on either audio quality or editing.
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[Edited 4/25/19 2:23am]

Kares said:

databank said:

OK I've just checked on Spotify and there Eye Hate U does not fade out but it seems the last 3 seconds are missing, but it cuts abruptly so I think it's a file bug.

I've just checked and Erotic City (from the 12'' is also still this weird version that appears to be fading out something).

I'm going to write to the Estate from the website's email address to signal those problems, I doubt it's gonna help but at least they can't tell they didn't know.

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Good luck.
I've tried so many times before. Not just with the Prince Estate but with all the majors and smaller labels too. 99% of them don't care. As I said before, I could put together not just a list but a book about all the errors I've noticed on releases by almost every record company and the biggest selling artists. There are so many stupid mistakes and errors that get past all quality control it's unbelievable.
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For example, the European Lovesexy Live laserdisc has a horrendous wow&flutter issue for about half an hour on side 1. (I never had the Japanese edition so I don't know if that's the same or not.) I've been in contact about this with Polydor at the time but of course they couldn't do anything about it, they had no intention of creating a new master and new edition. They didn't care. And it's just one of the hundreds of examples in my experience.

Sad and infuriating.