Universal to Release Prince’s Vault Music, Post-1995 Albums
Prince‘s material from his legendary music vault will finally be released. On Thursday, the singer’s estate announced an agreement with Universal Music Group to release his music recorded after 1995 along with music from his vault, New York Times reports.
In the mid-1990s Prince formed NPG Records after fighting over his record contract with longtime label Warner Bros. In 2014, he returned to Warner Bros. to release Art Official Age. The new deal with Universal includes 25 albums Prince released on NPG, including Emancipation, Musicology and 3121.
The deal announcement via New York Times indicated that vault material will include outtakes as well as live and demo recordings. While the full contents of Prince’s vault remains a mystery, last year Paisley Park employees told Rolling Stone that thousands of hours of unheard live and studio material – including jams, random songs and entire albums – are housed inside.
Last November, Prince’s estate also inked a deal with Universal to become the worldwide publishing administrator for Prince’s music.
On Sunday in time for the Grammys, it’s expected that many streaming services will have access to Prince’s Warner Bros. work, which includes much of his most popular music, such as “Purple Rain” and “1999.” As New York Times notes, the material from the new Universal deal is not slated for streaming on Sunday.