There’s good news on the way for Prince fans who have grown impatient waiting for new releases from his fabled vault of unreleased music.
That’s what Londell McMillan of Prince Legacy LLC announced Saturday during this year’s edition of the annual Prince Celebration, which took place in Minneapolis and at the late artist’s nearby Paisley Park entertainment complex.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, McMillan said a boxed set edition of 1985’s Around the World in a Day is on the way. The album – home to “Raspberry Beret” and “Pop Life” – found Prince confounding expectations by refusing the repeat the formula which had made his previous album, the Purple Rain soundtrack, so incredibly popular.
Vinyl editions of the last two albums Prince released during his lifetime – 2015’s Hit n Run Phase One and Hit n Run Phase Two – are also in the works. The estate kicked off the weekend activities by releasing a new acoustic version of “Free,” from 1982’s 1999.
Looking a bit further ahead, The Purple Stream reported that McMillan noted, “Next year is 2026 so everyone is going to see something from Parade.” The 1986 album was home to the chart-topping smash “Kiss.”
McMillan also outlined some of the obstacles that have kept the estate from sharing any major reissues since the October 2023 Diamonds and Pearls box, noting that two major labels (Sony and Warner) and two rights owners (Primary Wave and the estate) must be dealt with now.
He also explained that the legal estate wrangling which has occurred since Prince’s death has helped slow down the already mammoth process of cataloging what’s in the vault, explaining that “only about 45% has been digitized” so far.
While admitting that the digitization process needed to be speeding up, McMillan explained the need for patience. “Pushing too fast will result in releases which are not optimized for Prince’s best legacy. … There [were] 6 years before we became involved. We are not genies!’
Hear Prince Perform ‘Free (Acoustic)’
