Has The Prince Estate Done Enough So Far?

Quality of quantity remains the debate among Prince fans

Since Prince’s passing in 2016, the estate has released a slew of albums and singles (many on color or black 7" vinyl), videos, clothing, guitars, item replicas and books (including his autobiography). Yet some Prince fans see it as not enough. Prince fans know there are thousands of songs in the vault. Fans want to hear all the music, and right fucking now. The mere logistics of that make it impossible. But the fan’s need is counter-weighted against the efforts of the Prince estate.

After Prince’s death, the courts got involved. One thing that the court-ordered was that the estate monetizes itself. In short: start making money. Paisley Park was turned into a museum open for tours in less than a year, generating income. The first compilation was released within months of his death, Prince 4Ever, including a new song, “Moonbeam Levels.” Most saw it as a cash grab, but it’s never been unusual to release a greatest hits set after an artist either leaves a label because of an expiring contract or their death. The record company puts a button in that era, and everyone moves on. So when the estate released 4Ever, it wasn’t surprising. I bought it, of course. Then I waited. I knew there was more. I also knew it would take time to put it all together. Hell, it’d take time even to know what’s in the vault, what is decaying beyond repair, what needs to be digitized, cataloged, indexed, etc. Michael Howe, the estate archivist, continues to archive Prince’s vault music, song by song, day by day, ensuring there is an exhaustive list of music with title, date, an indexed master tape, and more. (I’m assuming all that, but it’s plausible.) I remained patient.

Prince tells his originals story

To their credit, the estate has listened to the fan base, whether on social media or fan sites like prince.org. They’ve documented and released songs the fans wanted. For me, I wanted a copy of “Moonbeam Levels.” It’s been released twice, once on 4Ever, and on the more recent 1999 Deluxe set (said to be remastered but sounds more hissy to my ears). The estate, in conjunction with Warner Bros., also released Purple Rain Deluxe†. 1999 Deluxe is an exhaustive look at the 1982 recording period, including the remastered album, all the b-sides, and edited singles, plus two full disks of unreleased music. It will take fans months to absorb and appreciate everything in the 1999 set. And those releases are what fans wanted. Legacy Records (an arm of Sony) has handled reissues of newer albums not available on vinyl before, like Chaos and Disorder (1996), Musicology (2004), 3121 (2006), and Planet Earth (2007), The Rainbow Children (2001), plus his first post-Warner album Emancipation (1996), and a set of albums and a video-centric to Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. All the Legacy releases have been on purple vinyl or some sort of colored vinyl as well as black 180g vinyl. Some are released to have a vinyl release in general; the purple is the gimmick. (And that’s no shade to tricks; everything we buy, we do so because of a gimmick.)

It’s an incredible amount of work to compile, design, manufacture, market, and sell any product. One has to appreciate the sheer magnitude of selling all the released products in four years since Prince’s death. It’s more music than any other dead artist’s estate ever released in the same time frame. Some of his early albums were already reprinted and remastered. They were set for release before he died, which was part of the Warner deal. Those were released on April 21, 2016. Albums like Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999 had been remastered before that date.

Fans still balk at the limited feel of it. I’m on the estate’s side here. They have to make money, but they also don’t want to overflood the market. It’s noteworthy that some of the releases from Warner and Sony have been in the same year, so most years (2017–2019) have seen multiple releases (albeit some are first-time vinyl reissues while others are unreleased material). For me, the pace of the estate seems to be working in everyone’s favor. I’m the first to be in line to hear new Prince music. But I’m also logical. I try not to look at everything through purple-tinted glasses. I’m also not trying to break my bank account, what little there is of it, so a staggered pace is good.

The estate has also set up an online store to purchase all his available music in many formats. They’ve put his discography on streaming services from Spotify, Tidal, YouTube, Pandora, Amazon Music, Google Play, and more. They’ve created exclusive merchandise ranging from coffee mugs, jewelry, clothes, accessories, the cloud guitar replica, his autobiography, and books on Fashion, Guitar & Bass, and Paisley Park. All of that pulls in money to run the business. That’s not to mention the tours at Paisley Park itself, plus concerts, and other events at the Park.

One Song — Prince’s Leap Into Religiosity

Prince fans have to exercise patience. Things will come out in time. None of us are going to get to hear everything in that vault, and that is what pains Prince fans. That’s why there is this nuance of quasi-urgency. I’m not even sure everyone at the estate itself is going to hear it all. Michael Howe will listen to most of it. So why stress over something no one can change? Let’s just enjoy music as it comes out, embrace, and appreciate it. But has the estate released enough so far? I’d say they’ve done more than any of us deserve.

As Billy Sparks said in Purple Rain, “Dis a bid’ ness! You ain’t too far gone to see dat yet!”

List of Prince’s post-mortem releases:

• Prince 4Ever — a greatest hits collection, with the unreleased “Moonbeam Levels,” thought to be from a bootleg copy (Warner era music)
• Purple Rain Deluxe — said to have been finished in 2014 as part of a deal with Warner Bros. Records (Warner era music), includes extensive bonus tracks, all single edits & extended versions, plus the Prince and the Revolution LIVE concert from March 30, 1985 in Syracuse, New York, a show near the end of the Purple Rain Tour.
• Anthology 1995–2010 — a digital-only compilation of his NPG Records material
• Piano & A Microphone 1983 — in-studio tapes of Prince rehearsing on piano (Warner era music)
• Originals — a set of Prince’s version of popular songs by Sheila E., Vanity 6, Kenny Rogers, The Family, The Time, Apollonia 6, Martika, The Bangles, Mazarati, Jill Jones, and Taja Sevelle (Warner era music)
• 1999 Deluxe — an expanded and near-exhaustive 5-CD/1-DVD compilation with the original album remastered plus two disks of unreleased material from the recording sessions, one disk of b-sides, plus audio to a 1999 concert, whose video is on the DVD of the set (Warner era music)
• Ultimate Rave — a combination set of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999), its remix album Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (2001), and the pay-per-view special Rave Un2 The Year 2000 (NPG Records era music)
• Chaos and Disorder — Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• Musicology — Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• 3121 — Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• Planet Earth — Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• Emancipation — Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• The Versace Experience (Prelude 2 Gold) — re-released on cassette for Record Store Day 2019, Legacy Records purple vinyl release; never released on vinyl before (NPG Records era music)
• His Majesty’s Pop Life — Record Store Day exclusive; reissue of a Japanese only promo from 1985 (Warner era music)
• The Rainbow Children — his controversial dogmatic album perceived as his commercial for being a Jehovah’s Witness. It was his first under the name Prince since changing his name to a symbol in 1993 (this excludes the ones released by Warner Bros. under the Prince moniker). (NPG Records era music)
• One Nite Alone — originally an exclusive CD only for NPG Music Club members, and never before released commercially, never released on vinyl before. (NPG Records era music)
• One Nite Alone…LIVE! — his first official full live album, including two disks of songs from the One Nite Alone Tour, and one disk of an aftershow. Some of the tracklistings is misleading as the songs listed are in snippets from the piano medley portion of the show or are instrumental sections used as interludes (most notably “Condition of the Heart”). Never released on vinyl before. (NPG Records era music)
• Prince and the Revolution LIVE — audio from the March 30, 1985 Syracuse show, temporarily available on digital platforms in conjunction with an exclusive live stream of the remastered concert during the nationwide quarantine. (Warner era music)
• Single: “Nothing Compares 2 U” (from Originals) — 7" purple vinyl release, also black vinyl
• Single: “17 Days (Piano Version)” (from Piano and a Microphone 1983) — 7" single cover-mount released on Rolling Stone magazine in Germany only
• Single: “Rock n’ Roll Is Alive (And It Lives In Minneapolis) — 7” vinyl distributed to attendees of a Minnesota Timberwolves game
• Single: “Holly Rock (edit)” (from Originals) — digital-only release
• Single: “My Computer” (from Emancipation) — 7" single cover-mount released on Musikexpress magazine in Germany
• Single: “I Feel For You” (from Prince) — 7" purple vinyl, limited release, b-side was the acoustic home demo of the song; it was released without advanced notice to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Prince’s self-titled sophomore album.

†: It was a lifelong fight for Prince to own his master recordings to his music. The Warner Deal in 2014 was to give Prince back his master recordings. An artist would have to wait 35 years for the copyright and ownership to fall back to them, releasing the artist from the record company’s ownership of the master tapes to any recordings. So Prince would expect to get one album back every year starting with For You in 2013, Prince in 2014, Dirty Mind in 2015, etc. The deal gave Prince all his Warner era masters back, up to 1993, in one lump. In return, Prince (as NPG Records) agreed to provide Warner with an exclusive license to distribute those albums. (Meaning, Prince couldn’t take Purple Rain and sell a license to Arista, Sony or Daptone or any other company to distribute. Warner would be the only one with that right and privilege.) The 2016 remastered re-releases now said, “NPG Records, exclusively licensed to Warner Bros,” not the other way around. NPG Records logo was first, and Warner’s was second, showing who owned the music, and who was subservient to who. So, the slave became the master, and the previous master became the slave.

At last, Prince controlled his music. Warner was no longer his former record company. Warner Bros. was now working for him as a distributor. The other part of the deal was that Warner would manufacture and distribute (but not own) two simultaneous releases, Art Official Age and his band 3rd Eye Girl’s PlectrumElectrum. Purple Rain Deluxe was to be remastered and released, but that part never happened. It was later released by his estate, as noted above.

When Paisley Park Records folded at the end of his term with Warner (1993), Prince formed his independent label NPG Records. While still under contract at the time to Warner Bros to produce albums, Prince owned anything done under NPG Records, but Warner was still able to limit his output (not in content, but quantity). Warner was his distributor in effect, but Prince owned the NPG Records moniker and all its subsequent material. Once Prince’s publishing contract finally expired, he was able to keep the NPG Record name since he already owned it (whereas Warner had a financial stake in Paisley Park Records, ergo it’s dissolution). So when you hear Warner or Sony in a media report and who is distributing what, Warner is handling 1978–1993, and Sony is handling mid-1993 until his death. Prince was able to realize his dream in full of owning his music before he died. That’s a gift we can all appreciate.

If anyone has more specific and correct information on this, please let me know.

Ernest Sewell was born & raised in Oklahoma. After living across the U.S. in places like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, he’s settled in upstate New York for the past twenty years. He’s authored and published two books and is working on a smattering of new material, including a new horror novel. He shares his home with a friend, three cats, and his vinyl collection, all of whom have the same level of love from him. When he’s not causing an uproar on Prince forums or social media, he enjoys reads (a lot), trying new recipes, and prank calling people.

“Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else does.”