WWPS? Prince estate hands over 35 catalog albums to Sony Music
What would Prince say?
Get ready to party like it’s “1999,” and dance to “Diamonds and Pearls,” and throw up the “Sign O’ the Times.”
Get ready to party like it’s “1999,” and dance to “Diamonds and Pearls,” and throw up the “Sign O’ the Times.” These are just a few of the album titles that from Prince’s 19-year music career with Warner Bros. Records that we may be seeing sooner rather than never again.
Thanks to an exclusive distribution deal, Sony and Prince’s estate will continue his musical legacy that will re-release 35 classic albums from the late singer’s extensive musical repertoire, reports Variety.
Beginning immediately, 19 previous album titles will be released and distributed under Legacy Recordings, a division of SME, with worldwide rights. Those include: “The Gold Experience” (1995), “Emancipation” (1996), “Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic” (1999), “The Rainbow Children” (2001) and “3121” (2006), as well as titles originally distributed by Sony including “Musicology” (2004) and “Planet Earth” (2007), according to Variety.
Prince had a world of music and there is even more music from 2014-15 that will be distributed too.
And wait, there’s more.
In 2021, 12 more album titles will drop and be distributed under Sony/Legacy’s. With the older music from the albums some of us grew up on like: “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), and “much more,” the announcement reads.
Unfortunately, those of you lucky enough to still own your 1984 “Purple Rain” album will have to keep it safe and sounds because it won’t be included in the deal. Neither will “Batman” (1989), as well as “Parade” (1986) and “Graffiti Bridge” (1990.) It’s because they are soundtrack albums, which are not exclusive to the deal.
Music mogul Jay-Z is also working on a curating full-length album of previously released music from Prince’s vault and will release it on his streaming service, Tidal.
The announcement signifies a resolution of the 2016 lawsuit Prince’s estate filed against Jay-Z’s Roc Nation over Tidal’s claim that it owned exclusive streaming rights of Prince’s catalogue, Pitchfork.com
The legal matter is now resolved and the album is scheduled to be released next year, Pitchfork.com reported, citing a press release. Tidal will stream the album exclusively for two weeks, according to Pitchfork.com.
