Greetings everybody!

I don't know if these points have been discussed here before, so let's give me a try...

In starbuck's review of the first London show (http://www.prince.org/msg/thread.html?fid=12&tid=24098), he reported that - concerning the ongoing bootleg discussions on the .Org - Prince told him at the aftershow party:

"They [the .Orgers] ask the wrong questions."

Actually I truly don't know which questions Prince wants to be raised, and in terms of interpreting current copyright laws/issues I think it's hard to come up with a standpoint unspoken of before.

The moral question has also been answered thoroughly: Bootlegging is straight out wrong and accurately illegal, because it betrays the artist of his/her fair share, and it is the artist's right to decide which music should be released and which should not.

But the first thing that came to my mind when reading "They ask the wrong questions." was an analogy to the use of a far more pragmatic and modern drug policy:

If given the right to legally obtain and smoke marijuana, the consumer is at the same time decriminalized and willing to pay a fair amount of money to get a certain quality of the goods instead of continuous buying overprized shit or dope of cheap quality from dealers.

So if Prince offered recordings of superior quality - not only in terms of sound, but also in terms of musical range - and gave the customer the opportunity to test the goods before buying them, generally speaking the option of pre-listenings (via streaming sound files or incomplete sneak mp3 tracks), I think a rather big and new audience would accept to directly order CDs or LPs at npgmusicclub.com, as long as the prizes are reasonable. (If Prince or any other artist is given the chance to earn a higher percentage of money off of each CD sold, it should be possible to offer albums for 10-12 US$/Euros respectively 1 buck per song.)

Give junkies the posibility to live a life outside the world of capital copyright crime

Are these issues worth considering?

Which ones are "the right questions"?

Clarification I: I don't smoke anything, nor do I drink alcoholic beverages. I'm stone cold sober.

Clarification II: I don't own any bootleg, nor do I copy any of the Audio CDs I have ever purchased - no matter which artist. Much to my deepest regret, I actually do own both "New Power Soul" and "Chaos And Disorder" due to the impossibility of pre-listening in both cases.

Only once I made a backup copy of TRC to MiniDisc for my younger brother, who couldn't afford 25 bucks for a regular import of this album. Please don't sue me for being honest and willingly informing.


Best regards,

Anachronist


P.S. Is it possible for 'non-clubbers' to attend the soundcheck before one of the European shows if a valid concert ticket is presentable?

What is the usual soundcheck time?

Thanks in advance.

i hope he will read this and agree...it's a very good solution. About your question: the soundcheck is only for members...sorry.

potser said:

I have heard of NPGMembers bringing thier guests to soundchecks.

I'm tired of endless questions about the boots, if you think it's wrong don't buy/ listen to them.Period.

Soundcheck is opened to member and one guest.
If there is an aftershow the member gets in free but guest has to pay.

jnoel said:

what does Prince playing 'Empty room' on this tour mean in that respect though.

"seek and u shall find?"

as for the soundcheck...

like prince got every npgmusicclub member..."join the club...join the club...join the club..."

you get the point,

www.npgmusicclub.com

peace

Anachronist said:

the right questions would be YOURS. Did he offer up specifics of the questions he'd ask? Doesn't sound like it...I'd be curious.

Well written statement and good analogy. I can't for the life of me figure out why Prince just doesn't cut the legs out from under these people and make all that cash for himself - especially since so much stuff is allegedly already recorded.

Bootleggers make money (and song sharers share) because there is DEMAND, just like the pot reference you cited. Unlike yourself, I own MANY bootlegs, and don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Prince could've had my money if he wanted it - in fact, he has quite a bit of it already.
[This message was edited Tue Oct 8 14:58:26 PDT 2002 by herbthe4]

Seems the .Org was shut down for one day... At least I couldn't load the site.

herbthe4 said:

If you like it or not: I think we have to respect the artist's right to decide what material should be released.

On the other hand in Prince's case I for once cannot understand how so many studio recordings could have leaked w/o any purpose behind it.

Or did they leak because Prince thought they would spread freely and nobody was trying to make money out of them?

Actually you are quite right that Prince has "quite a bit of my [money]", but that doesnt't make bootlegging any better.

Nevertheless I do think that almost all bootleg owners would buy the material another time if Prince released it officially in properly sound quality for an affordable prize - wether it would be studio recordings or raw live recordings W/O OVERDUBBINGS!

Or isn't the infamous vault in contrary to the fams' assumings all that big?

To the other "talkbackers" who only replied to my Post Scriptum:

I emailed NPGMC if I could attend the soundcheck if getting a member of the club right in time before the concert took place, and they answered that only those with presale tickets purchased via NPGMC will be let in. Flexibility doesn't seem to be one of the strenghts of the NPG... Saved me 100 bucks while I'll still have a great time at the show.

Best regards,

Anachronist

Lets get serious... Prince cannot release everything he's done officially and we all know it, so I don't think its a question of it being legal or not (like drugs). He releases a lot of stuff already, and we should be content with it. If we're not, I think its simply out of curiosity. We all know he never gives the exact same concert, so its interesting to hear others that have been bootlegged. I'm not saying its right, I think he's right to condemn it, but bootlegs have existed forever. I was raised in Africa, and the only way I could listen to non-african music over there most of the time was to buy illegal copies at the market and thank God for that!!! The American and European artists simply don't release their work in most countries over there! But believe me when a new album comes out, its being sold 2 hours later on street corners!
Its up to us to be responsible and not flood the market with illegal copies so that it doesn't harm his buisness too much. But I don't see any real harm in taping a concert so you can reminice on it!(sorry if there are spelling errors my english is rusty!) I sang at the soundcheck on friday and would give anything to hear it, but a bootlegged copy is the only way, what am I supposed to do?

i pretty much own everything the guy has ever released and i joined the club, i went to 3 london shows, i couldnt give him any more money even if i wanted to.

so how am i hurting him by wanting to lisen to concert recordings and other boots ?

kyra said:

It seems to me that a lot of the bootlegs out there must contain music of higher quality than the official CDs Prince released over the course of the last few years. (While TRC is pretty good, "Old Fiends 4 Sale" is still a bit better, and the latter one wasn't intended to be released to the public by Prince, see booklet.)

If Prince not only does not want certain individuals to illegally make money off of his work, but also wanted to make an extra load of money by himself, it would be easy for him to offer high quality mp3 files of the same music via his website.

One decent CD a year containing ten quality songs/jams would be fine with me, instead of mailing ONA piano DEMO TAPES (!) to members of the NPGMC.

BTW: I read in an Interview with Beck that he plans to release multiple albums a year because he is that productive Prince still claims to be, and Beck doesn't hide the good joints!

I myself can't help but wonder why Prince releases stuff like "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic/Year 2000" when at the same time we are pretended that there is a certain amount of quality music kinda like "She spoke 2 me" or "When The Lights Go Down" behind closed doors and only waits for the fams to get listened to. (What happened to Kevin Smith's TRC documentary? How many DVDs of Rave 2000 were sold? I think Smith's docu could easily triple these sales. Why does Prince allow an acclaimed filmmaker to shoot a documentary at Paisley Park in the first place when no one other than Prince himself is allowed to see it?)



Ask Prince for the soundboard tape and tell him trustfully that you only want to use it for private purposes, and you won't try to make any money off of it since it is furthermore YOU singing and not HIM.

I'd love to see his reaction...

Best regards,

Anachronist

Prince and his ask me the right questions games LOL
The Origional Jepordy dude regardless of what Pat Sejac thinks LOL
I'm at a loss for what to ask ... Perhaps we should start with Why don't you go after the bootleggers themselves ?
or Do you not realize the market for bootlegs is only so big because people want more live recordings and many are like junkies and will buy from whatever source is available ? (great annalogy by the way )
or how about concitering the fact that we are all humans and many humans will do whatever they are able to do to get what they want without thinking if they should !
Well I was reminded last nite of how Frank Zappa delt with Bootleggers ... He simply coppied the bootlegs himself and released them ...
They keep saying it's not an issue of money but of Quality Control ... well then I say beat the bootleggers at their own game by all means ... release more of the live material people would buy from the bootleggers in better quality and then I guess you could call it a compromise ... The artist could then regain some control of the materials that had been released against his will ratther than have Poor quailiy material out running rampid ...
you cant just put the music back in that precious Valt once it's out so you might as well regain what control you can of it ...
Damn it's a bitch when someone else lets a ginni out the bottle aint it ?
Oh By the way .... If my dyslexic spelling offends you take it up with God !
[This message was edited Wed Oct 9 3:43:58 PDT 2002 by Zandi]