Look at Prince's output the last three decades, even if he was to decide not to release any new material, do you honestly think it would be forever? I think not, why would he suddenly stop, because he could not find a way to distribute his new music? I'm pretty sure there are dozens of labels who would (still) love to put out a Prince album, same with publications, look at Rolling Stone in (i think) Germany with 20Ten. They seemed to be happy with the distribution of a Prince album, i'm sure he could strike up some sort of deal with them worldwide, or even continent wide. Another thing, you mention that 20Ten was released in such a limited way, limited because you could not buy it physically where you are? What was wrong with ebay? There are hundreds of copies (still) floating around auction sites, they are not copies, they are the genuine article.
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20ten was the worst album of his entire career, yet in a single day he distributed approximately 3 million copies direct to consumers homes in a physical format in the uk alone, and many more millions distributed direct to consumers homes in numerous countries across europe that same day, and preceeding few days
if that isn't widespread distribution, then what the fuck is?
his worst album ever, being the fastest most distributed album of all time? that's a record that's hard to beat, if it ever will be beat, particularly in a physical format
it's also perhaps his most profitable release of all time, and all money up front in advance before a single copy is sold. i don't think you could ever get a better deal that that. and no marketing costs, no videos, no supporting tour, no tv or press, nothing to support it's release by the artist. he just passes over a master in exchange for money in advance and has no further work to do. and as far as the music that was released, he would have recorded it anyways, whether anyone wanted to hear it or not, whether anyone wanted to release it or not
the newspapers got a load of extra publicity, they sold more copies, so it was a good deal on their side too. likewise for target, they had an exclusive album deal, plus they could sell it at a bargain low price whilst making a profit, and it just missed being number 1 by a small number of copies
not bad for a washed up rock star who's in his 50s and in his fifth decade of releasing music
so what the fuck exactly is the problem? it's not your problem or concern. he's not going to stop recording or releasing music. he did internet downloads before most, free albums before most, and he's doing it on his own under his own terms | |
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We've heard that he already has three albums worth of material since finalizing '20ten', but will we ever hear them?
Really do you all know that? | |
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Wow. I guess I gotta break it down even more.
If it's a concern of mine, it's valid. Why? Because I enjoy where he's at presently, and want to hear what musical turn he decides to take.
Studio bootlegs?
I've heard a bunch, but they're usually unacceptable quality for me personally.
Yes, there's a bunch of stuff he didn't release, but there has always been new music, and although I most definitely like hearing unreleased stuff, I like the proper released selection and sequencing on the release.
So in summary, YES... Prince will always have a way to distribute his music. Which avenues are available to him is yet to be seen.
YES... Prince could actually decide not to release new music, and keep on making it for just himself and friends.
Is it OK for me to not be writing about Kim Kardashian and Howard Stern?
Is it OK that I enjoy Prince's current output, and that I'm still as musically insatiable as I was back in day?
~G
"He's a musician's musician..." | |
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IS U CRAAZY!?!? Have you forgotten about News, New Powers Soul, Rave, or Chaos & Disorder and Karmasutra or are you just being spiteful?
Second, I thought the release was a smart move by him..the newspaper sold so much more because of it. U right about one thing, he will never STOP making music.... Straight Jacket Funk Affair
Album plays and love for vinyl records. | |
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I think they're just making a point. It's certainly not his BEST album, but it was distributed faster than Purple Rain. My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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Why is this suddenly a concern for you? he's put out 4 discs of material in 2 years. what is it exactly that makes you think he will stop when he put out an album just a little over 7 months ago? | |
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What web site?
The smart move would be to set up a long term deal through iTunes. Put the music where people will actually find it instead of on some obscure web site he'll be bored with in 6 months.
The Beatles haven't made a new album in 40 years yet sold 5 million songs and 1 million albums in just 2 months on iTunes. The #3 best selling album on iTunes right now is the Beatles Love album that was released to iTunes last week. If they can do that with 40 year old music, certainly there's an opportunity here for Prince. | |
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Mostly because of what I wrote in the original post:
A) Limited Worldwide distribution of '20ten', and with a cardboard sleeve (at least the 'Lotusflower' set folds out, securely holding the disks).
B) Because it is possible for Prince to just come to the conclusion that his fans largely don't appreciate his current material, and choose not to release it.
Here's another one:
C) Historically, when Prince has an album in the can, he releases it fairly quickly. When was it that we heard he had three albums worth of new material, ready for release? 6/23/2010.
Like I said, I don't normally have this concern with Prince, and never have. This is new for me, and it's just a concern I have and felt like voicing it.
I don't post here very much any more, because I'm all about the music, and I'd rather discuss sounds, gear, instruments, harmonies, and rythym tracks.
~G
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[Edited 2/11/11 13:25pm] "He's a musician's musician..." | |
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If the next release would be a newspaper, like 20TEN, it would be furhter distributed illegally (or for free one could say) by the fans themselves, or not at all.
Prince obviously doesn't care much. He figures that if he can get another newspaper to pay him a million or two for a new CD, what gives the downloads. He got paid already and you can't stop the downloading anyway, so there.
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um, late 2009 when he announced LotusFlow3r. and some of that was from about 4-5 years worth of work. which negates both of your points. | |
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Dude. Belgian interview - 6/23/2010. This is when he said he had three albums finished.
You do have a point there, though, with there being a gap sometimes between recording, engineering, mixing, and mastering and physical production and distribution.
BUT... This is kind of like when he has a few intensive recording sessions, let's say with Sonny and Mike. He then pulls out those sessions, and tracks other instruments and vocals. Then it gets mixed, mastered, etc.
I'm thinking when he said that he had three albums "ready", that means everything is done and finished, except for the physical duplication and distribution.
"He's a musician's musician..." | |
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I don't know that I agree, although I want the remasters as much as anyone. Releasing new music and putting out a first-class remaster program are not mutually exclusive. The Beatles remasters were a huge success, but they were preceded by an album of remixes (the Love CD) and, earlier, two songs patched together with old John Lennon demos (Real Love and Free as a Bird). Bob Dylan has been cranking out new music for years, some of it well received; hence Sony could afford to invest in a mono box set that otherwise might not sell many copies.
Demand fuels additional demand. If Prince puts out a decent new album that brings in big crowds for a large-scale arena tour, WB will be itching to get those remasters out, and that will make it more profitable to do a first-class remaster project with new tracks from the vault and updated artwork. If the remasters come out on their own, you're likely to get something akin to the Ultimate CD. So, bring it all on! The Census Bureau estimates that there are 2,518 American Indians and Alaska Natives currently living in the city of Long Beach. | |
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Giovanni, I feel where you are coming from. I'm always concerned about Prince but this is one area where I'm actually not concerned. Prince will always find a way to release music. I don't think that things are in a dire place for him. He just finished selling out not 1, or 2, or 3 but 4 MSG shows. The show didn't have much promotion other than online and some radio contests but over all it was less than what I saw for Musicology and he STILL sold that out. That leads me to believe that Prince will always be alright in terms of getting the music out there for us to get. The concern I have and have had since the WB days is how will the CD be promoted. That's the one area where I think Prince needs to be slapped into reality with because he totally sucks in that department. Aside from that where distribution is concerned, we'll be fine and Prince will be fine too. [Edited 2/11/11 14:40pm] I'm not a fan of "old Prince". I'm not a fan of "new Prince". I'm just a fan of Prince. Simple as that | |
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now i see i was stupid enough to enter discussion with someone who isn't a prince fan or knows his music well
NEWS is a great album, one of his best in the last decade. C&D is another album full of great tracks, rave is patchy but has some great tracks, newpowersoul is shit, but at least it has some decent and catchy tunes like the one and come on. kamasutra was released as part of crystal ball, so taking the entire package as it was sold, it was a fucking great set. if you don't like NEWS i don't expect you to like kamasutra
planet earth was also patchy, but it had some interesting stuff, plus catchy tunes like guitar and chelsea rodgers. there isn't a single track on 20ten that could be a hit single in the making. the entire album is filler. the tracks could have been stuck on lotusflower to fill the prince discs up a bit
the best thing for 20ten was to give it away, as it would have been slated critically as part of a normal release, and simply wouldn't have sold very well. better to give away a few million copies for free, get some publicity and cash, than try and sell it via normal channels and it ends up bombing. the release via newspapers was a smart move
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I think he meant that Lotus was 3 discs, so when he announced it he was announcing that he had 3 albums ready. You might make the same argument about Emancipation, New Power Pack, CB, Dream Factory, or other times where there was a couple protege's projects ready at the same time as one of his.
The point being, Prince always has tons of new music ready to go. My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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It's worrying me, 2. He needs 2 realize that if he doesn't have a website that people can download the music from, he's not gonna get anything from it. Also, the CD should be available in more places. The only 2 places I could find the 20Ten CD were ebay and amazon, and they were both like $40. I would never pay that much 4 9 songs! | |
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I do agree P has been terrible about marketing himself at times. Why does he not have a single regular concert DVD of him singing his hits? He should have half a dozen of them by now. My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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Prince just got a million dollars worth of free publicity with Big Bootie Kardashian. He should quickly announce a few shows in Vegas and drop a new cd with a major label. The first single should drop a video also with Kardashian in it as well. But the song definitely should be about the bootie. The song has got to be bootie catchy like Baby Got Back or Rump Shaker but with a little SEXY MF and Get Off vain. org me mayrain i had a stroke | |
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Yep. That said, I want my Prince CD's from the 80's remastered. RIGHT NOW!!!!!!! "New Power slide...." | |
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Prince CDs re-mastered...... I want those too!!!!!!!!
Maybe a box set 1978-1988, or better 1978-1995 Prince 4Ever. | |
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Its got to have some unreleased bonus cuts. Sorry I'm just not the type just to hear the same ol songs even if its remastered. Well I take that back I would probablly get Parade and Sign of the Times...hehehehegagagahahahahlalalallahehehehehecalisuperfunkcalikardashiansexy!! org me mayrain i had a stroke | |
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he needs to just quit being such a fcking cry baby and set up a decent website where he can push ALL his post warners material.
something simple and transparant that anyone can access, no weird sign-ups or cash memberships.
just a good clean looking site with a list of everything he's got available and an extensive click thru page for each release, with photo's, lyrics and credits.
if he'd been operating like that from the beginning he would have made himself a nice little bundle off the back catalogue (post 95) whenever he had a new cd released in stores or a successfull tour or some high profile media outing like the superbowl.
i can only imagine how many copies of "all along the watchtower/the best of you" he could have sold through a normal, easy website at that time.
or when he released "planet earth" and later "20Ten" with the newspapers, that got him on the doorsteps of millions of people, many of which no doubt thought, like we hear so often 'does prince still make music?"
what a great chance to get people to check you out online. i'm sure many did so and what did they find? the org. at most. but no official prince site. nothing that could allow them to see that he's had masses of albums out and no chance for the mildly curious to listen to some snippets or read up on stuff, let alone pull out their credit cards and buy, say, "emancipation" or songs like "glasscutter".
thus, you reach an audience of millions (3 million in europe with 20Ten, right?) and allow all that free publicity to go to waste.
sure, i understand his need to get his hands on some money with each album so it's not weird that he would shop it somewhere for a decent advance. but once it becomes out of print or once the newspaper of that day is gone, you'd be better of having a website to sell it on. since, heck, you own the masters to this stuff.
there's a part of me that hopes no one will touch his one off distribution deals at this point and thus force him to rethink his internet presence. but then again, that also scares me since we all know how well that went the last 4 times around.
result: one of the most prolific artists of our decade with tons of music that does not deserve to sink into oblivion, has now got a discography that no one but us can make heads or tails of. and even if someone can figure out just what he did release since parting with WB, they'll have trouble acquiring a lot of it through a legal channel since it's either out of print or "offline".
if he gets his masters back starting this year, what's he gonna do? release them with a big cereal brand?
.. [Edited 2/11/11 18:03pm] and true love lives on lollipops and crisps | |
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There are dozens of copies on ebay.co.uk for around £5-7, plus on average £2 postage to the states, the most it will cost you is $10-12.
All this " I can't find a copy" shit i read all the time really gets on my tits.
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^^ Yes, most of this, in particular the part in bold.
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If I could I would give some of you 77.00 and fucking t-shirt so you could shut the hell up about it. You had no gurantee that the site would continue and nothing in writing stating you would receive multiple music, videos or content. If that site did not generate any profit for P then he was smart to shut it down. I am under the impression that not that many people signed up and many of you are full of B.S about joining.
As far as distrubution he may not be able to do the independent thing anymore as it makes no sense to put up a website that makes no money. People just do not seem interested in purchasing music anymore and I am not sure a 50 something year old artist can get a deal from a major lable with sales being at an old time low. P may have to look a small lable or hanging up putting out new music.
As far as no promotion for Lotus flower he receive money upfront from Target and the last time I looked Lotus Flower was still on the charts so he really had no need to promo the CD. He made his money up front and the CD hung around on the charts for over a year. | |
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If I could I would give some of you 77.00 and fucking t-shirt so you could shut the hell up about it. You had no gurantee that the site would continue and nothing in writing stating you would receive multiple music, videos or content. If that site did not generate any profit for P then he was smart to shut it down. I am under the impression that not that many people signed up and many of you are full of B.S about joining.
As far as distrubution he may not be able to do the independent thing anymore as it makes no sense to put up a website that makes no money. People just do not seem interested in purchasing music anymore and I am not sure a 50 something year old artist can get a deal from a major lable with sales being at an old time low. P may have to look a small lable or hanging up putting out new music.
As far as no promotion for Lotus flower he receive money upfront from Target and the last time I looked Lotus Flower was still on the charts so he really had no need to promo the CD. He made his money up front and the CD hung around on the charts for over a year. | |
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I bought all of Prince's music up until the Warner mess/name change, which happened when I was in college and getting into other music anyway. About a year ago I got curious about what I had missed, and I bought all the 1990s stuff that I didn't have, including the Crystal Ball set. Since it was not in print, I had to buy it used on eBay or Amazon Marketplace. If that material had been available on an official Prince website I would have bought it from him. Instead the money went to random people selling their used CDs. Sorry, Prince. The Census Bureau estimates that there are 2,518 American Indians and Alaska Natives currently living in the city of Long Beach. | |
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He should keep the albums in print (and some need remixing and remastering), release 10 more volumes of Crystal Ball, and release LoveSexy Dortmund, Nude Tokyo and 21 Nights In London on DVD. | |
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I know I'm late but why did he get rid of the NPG website again??? | |
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