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PrintableBartVanHemelen said: HonestMan13 said: Most of us have obtained more than a little bit of unreleased material from the man and never gave him a dime for it.
Again: that's PRINCE's fault. Plenty of bands have been doing for a decade and longer what we'd have been asking for. Unedited, CD-quality soundboard recordings of current and past concerts, Deluxe editions of classic CDs including previously unreleased content,... Prince could have re-issued Purple Rain two/three/four times, each time improving the audio and/or adding more goodies, and tons of people would have bought those items each time. Ditto for just about every of his 1980s albums. He could have done a "Bootleg"-series like Dylan, or an "Archives"-series like Neil Young. Just look at the enthusiasm about the recent Japan-reissues: contained ZERO new stuff, weren't remastered, and yet people LOVED those. Simply by making his back catalog available in up to date remastered quality he would gain TONS of love. If he was to also release all of the 12" and 7" mixes on CD: even more love -- I'd love to get him to do something like Duran Duran's "Singles" box sets, or even better Depeche Mode's box sets: http://boxsets.depechemod...index.html . And if he'd also re-release those on vinyl: even more love. But handing out a re-recording of IALRWNL to the Montreux Jazz Festival so they can put it on their website and not selling it online, is just inviting bootleggers to appropriate it for their own profit. There are plenty of bootlegs out there that largely consist or music that was only available online and that can't even be purchased these days. Worse: in some cases people had purchased it but can't play it anymore. Again: bootleggers laughing their asses off. 25 years ago Purple Rain was released, and the only people to take notice were frikking SPIN magazine. That's what happens when you let your legacy go down the drain. 
I think the majority of us as fans (of the music) want to see Prince get paid for his work. Prince could easily undercut the bootleggers - who are now giving the stuff away out of the love for the music. Experience Hendrix has Dagger Records which release online-only, previously bootlegged material on pressed CDs for the music lovers. Prince could easily do this via a Crystal Ball type situation (though, I suggest a different distribution tactic this time). This could be online-only. What's holding him up? Probably attitude, religion, ADD, hating his fans, ego, entitlement, the tapes have deteriorated beyond hope. If prince.org were to be made idiot proof, someone would just invent a better idiot. | |
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^^ Hopefully the tapes are still okay. After all, they did just remaster the Beatles catalog and it was all recorded well before the first prince recordings.
This is way off topic, but it is a shame to see what Prince has done to his legacy. He broke free from his record company, then has been too cheap to give his music the proper promotion. Just before he broke free, he tied the record for consecutive years with a top 10 hit in the Hot 100 with the most beautiful girl in the world in 1994. This was his "proof" to WB he could promote his own music. He hasn't had one top 10 hit since (on the hot 100). The music has been quite good. The promotion has been spotty at best. He thinks he's successful in his post WB days because of the money he's making, but completely ignores that most of it comes from the fan base WB helped him build. The thing is, the money isn't what lasts, the music is what lasts. How much of Prince's post WB music is going to last? |
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alandail said: ^^ Hopefully the tapes are still okay. After all, they did just remaster the Beatles catalog and it was all recorded well before the first prince recordings.
This is way off topic, but it is a shame to see what Prince has done to his legacy. He broke free from his record company, then has been too cheap to give his music the proper promotion. Just before he broke free, he tied the record for consecutive years with a top 10 hit in the Hot 100 with the most beautiful girl in the world in 1994. This was his "proof" to WB he could promote his own music. He hasn't had one top 10 hit since (on the hot 100). The music has been quite good. The promotion has been spotty at best. He thinks he's successful in his post WB days because of the money he's making, but completely ignores that most of it comes from the fan base WB helped him build. The thing is, the money isn't what lasts, the music is what lasts. How much of Prince's post WB music is going to last? Are you sure? I don't think that Prince had a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the year 1993. | |
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^^^ 7 was a top 10 hit |
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alandail said: ^^^ 7 was a top 10 hit
OK, I just assumed that it hit the top ten in the year 1992 but I just checked and the single was released on November 17, 1992 so it's plausible that it took six weeks or so for it to hit the top ten. | |
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alandail said: ^^ Hopefully the tapes are still okay. After all, they did just remaster the Beatles catalog and it was all recorded well before the first prince recordings.
The main problem with Prince's tapes would be the date of manufacture. Magnetic tapes made in the 1960s have proven to be far more resilient than those produced in the 1980s. Many 80s artists have found this out the hard way. I'm not saying Prince hasn't made contingency plans and backed things up digitally, but the stories coming out so far is that he's detrimentally neglected his Vault tapes. If prince.org were to be made idiot proof, someone would just invent a better idiot. | |
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I didn't realize that older tapes last longer than tapes from the 80s. I sure hope he takes the steps to preserve them before music is lost forever. |
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