Prince's Estate Launches 23 of His Albums and New Anthology on Apple Music and Other Streaming Services

[MacRumors]

Sony Legacy announced over the summer that it had obtained the rights to release the "bulk" of Prince's back catalog, namely the albums he debuted after he left Warner Bros. in the mid-nineties. Today, The Prince Estate digitally released 23 total Prince albums that first launched between 1995 and 2010 onto "all major streaming services," including Apple Music and Spotify.

As Variety points out, today's launch marks the first time that many of these albums will be available for listeners to stream and download. Along with the individual albums, The Prince Estate released a new album called "Anthology: 1995-2010," which curates a collection of 37 songs from this period in Prince's career.

The 23 Prince albums now available on Apple Music include:

[*]The Gold Experience (1995) ("The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" greyed out, partial album streaming only; album unavailable for download)
[*]Chaos and Disorder (1996)
[*]Emancipation (1996)
[*]Crystal Ball (1998)
[*]The Truth (1998)
[*]Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999)
[*]Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic (2001)
[*]The Rainbow Children (2001)
[*]One Nite Alone... (2002)
[*]One Nite Alone...Live! (2002)
[*]One Nite Alone...Live - The Aftershow: It Ain't Over (Up Late with Prince & The NPG) (2002)
[*]Xpectation (2003)
[*]N.E.W.S. (2003)
[*]C-Note (2004)
[*]Musicology (2004)
[*]The Chocolate Invasion (Trax from the NPG Music Club: Volume 1) (2004)
[*]The Slaughterhouse (Trax from the NPG Music Club: Volume 2) (2004)
[*]3121 (2006)
[*]Planet Earth (2007)
[*]Indigo Nights (2008)
[*]LOtUSFLOW3R (2009)
[*]MPLSoUND (2009)
[*]20Ten (2010)

To find the albums and anthology, visit the Browse tab on Apple Music and swipe through the carousel until Prince's "Featured Artist" spotlight card appears. In this section, subscribers can also pre-add the upcoming Prince album "Piano & a Microphone 1983," which will be a compilation of previously unreleased home recordings for tracks like "Purple Rain," "17 Days," and "International Lover." The album launches September 21.

Before today, many of Prince's classic albums were already available to stream on Apple Music, so now that his later work is on streaming services, fans have the chance to listen to most of the albums from the late singer's lifelong career.

There are still numerous Prince albums missing from streaming services, but a deal struck between Sony Legacy and The Prince Estate should see these missing albums appear to stream in the future. Unfortunately, it won't be until 2021 at the earliest, at which time Sony Legacy's distribution rights will expand to include 12 of Prince's non-soundtrack albums from 1978-1996.

Prince passed away in April 2016, and prior to that time he had pulled all of his music from every streaming service except Tidal in the summer of 2015.

Article Link: Prince's Estate Launches 23 of His Albums and New Anthology on Apple Music and Other Streaming Services

 

[Rogifan]

I don’t see it on Apple Music yet.

 

[ppdix]

I'm a huge Fan. This is great

 

[ohbrilliance]

As a Prince fan who has every one of these, this is *huge*. There is so much high quality music over these albums that a lot of the general public hasn't had access to in years.

 

[earthTOmitchel]

I don’t see it on Apple Music yet.

Hm weird. If you don't see on Browse, try searching "Prince," tap his picture, scroll down, tap "See All" next to albums and see if the new ones are there for you.

 

[Rogifan]

Hm weird. If you don't see on Browse, try searching "Prince," tap his picture, scroll down, tap "See All" next to albums and see if the new ones are there for you.

Hmm they weren’t showing up on my iPad but I see them on my iPhone now. Some of these I already had in my Library because I bought them on Tidal. Let’s see how AM screws that up.

 

[adamjackson]

I don't see this brought up often but I like supporting the artist but after they die, you're only supporting the people who had the better lawyer to benefit from the post-death sales

So is it morally okay to pirate music or works from an artist after they've passed away? I guess you're still taking money from the other artists, writers, producers of the album but from what I can tell, Prince did it all himself so you're only stealing from his heirs / named beneficiaries, right?

I'd actually be pretty pissed if someone I hated won all of my assets after I died in a legal battle and kept making money off my name long after I died.

 

[78Bandit]

I don't see this brought up often but I like supporting the artist but after they die, you're only supporting the people who had the better lawyer to benefit from the post-death sales

So is it morally okay to pirate music or works from an artist after they've passed away? I guess you're still taking money from the other artists, writers, producers of the album but from what I can tell, Prince did it all himself so you're only stealing from his heirs / named beneficiaries, right?

I'd actually be pretty pissed if someone I hated won all of my assets after I died in a legal battle and kept making money off my name long after I died.

It is no less morally wrong than to say after an entertainer dies that you have free use of their house or their car. The value of the songs are what they are as protected by copyright. The fact that the person doesn't have the direct use after they died doesn't mean they didn't want that asset to be used by their heirs to provide a future income stream.

If you've got a problem with it then you need to contact your congressperson about the ridiculous length of copyright in the U.S. Until then you have a legal and moral obligation to pay for songs, books, movies, etc. that are not in the public domain.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I’m glad they’re available for purchase, it’s long due. The streaming aspect doesn’t bother me.

In cases like this, I do wish all digital
Albums came with a PDF of the original booklet and complete front/back album art.

 

[MacsRgr8]

As an eighties Prince fan I had hoped for more "vault" stuff from that era coming out sooner that 2021..
Still, very good news!

 

[m0sher]

I like diverse music and I really enjoy Prince for his uniqueness in style and music. This is good news, will be looking toward adding these songs to my Apple playlist.

 

[dannyyankou]

I’m glad, but I know Prince wouldn’t have allowed this.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I'm a huge Fan. This is great

Huge fan since his debut and I’m VERY excited.

I cancelled my subscription as it messed up my library ... after it’s fixed will resubscribe once again JUST for Prince!



Wow this pst fee years:
M.J.
Aretha Franklin
Prince
Etc etc The Lord is building the BEST team to have the best concert the universe has ever known.

 

[Kaibelf]

I’m glad, but I know Prince wouldn’t have allowed this.

True, but Prince was very mercurial as we all know and as a fan I am glad to have access to works like this. By most accounts a lot of the albums were uneven in quality so I didn’t want to be forced to buy the whole thing or hunt for tracks I liked with no chance for others to grow on me.

 

[corebeliefs]

I don't see this brought up often but I like supporting the artist but after they die, you're only supporting the people who had the better lawyer to benefit from the post-death sales

So is it morally okay to pirate music or works from an artist after they've passed away? I guess you're still taking money from the other artists, writers, producers of the album but from what I can tell, Prince did it all himself so you're only stealing from his heirs / named beneficiaries, right?

I'd actually be pretty pissed if someone I hated won all of my assets after I died in a legal battle and kept making money off my name long after I died.

Imagine if you're Franz Kafka. They published stuff he never intended to be published, not only The Trial and The Castle, but his letters and journals. In Prince's case, these were albums that he already sold commercially.

 

[Rogifan]

I’m glad, but I know Prince wouldn’t have allowed this.

His last two albums were on Apple Music before he died. A number of artists that said they’d never go streaming have done so. I’m sure he would have too if the price was right.

 

[CarlJ]

Hmm they weren’t showing up on my iPad but I see them on my iPhone now. Some of these I already had in my Library because I bought them on Tidal. Let’s see how AM screws that up.

I feel contractually obligated to upvote your posts on a Prince-specific thread. Happy to see this music here.

 

[adamjackson]

Imagine if you're Franz Kafka. They published stuff he never intended to be published, not only The Trial and The Castle, but his letters and journals. In Prince's case, these were albums that he already sold commercially.

Yeah, I'm not saying my question is exclusive to Prince. Let's pretend I'm an artist, I do everything myself and pay people for their work without any residuals. I die with no will, people spend millions on lawyers for the right to own my catalogue...people I don't even like. I'd probably much prefer that everything I made be completely free but I guess that's what a will is for.

 

[iGeek2014]

Anyone happen to know why Most Beautiful... isn’t available to download at all?

Like a lot of his work and it’s one of my favourite tracks... still Gold is now there to purchase.

 

[Rogifan]

Anyone happen to know why Most Beautiful... isn’t available to download at all?

Like a lot of his work and it’s one of my favourite tracks... still Gold is now there to purchase.

Something very odd with that track. Grayed out on AM.

 

[justperry]

AFAIK know the songs I liked most aren't even available for purchase anywhere, one is "Motherless child" and the other one is "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)"
*Both live

 

[CarlJ]

AFAIK know the songs I liked most aren't even available for purchase anywhere, one is "Motherless child" and the other one is "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)"
*Both live

If you haven't already, check Prince's channel on YouTube, they've got some rare-ish gems there (dunno if they have what you're looking for, though).

 

[justperry]

If you haven't already, check Prince's channel on YouTube, they've got some rare-ish gems there (dunno if they have what you're looking for, though).

Yes, they have, that's where I found those gems.

Cheers

 

[b11051973]

I was a big Prince fan from 1999 thru the symbol album. I think I basically never listened to anything new he put out after that. I'm giving this 1995-2010 anthology album a listen right now.

 

[DePaulBlueDemon]

"The Gold Experience (1995) (“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” greyed out, partial album streaming only; album unavailable for download)"


UGH! That's all I want. I don't want to stream, I want to buy it.