What harm would it do for Prince to put all of his vault material on NPGMC site? The only people who are in the club are die-hard fans and we'd all be willing to fork over a buck for each tune. He could even group the songs by their intended album or era. We'd be all over it, right? And he wouldn't be flooding the market because it would be material only the die-hards would seek out, you know, the ones who will buy all the other realeases too. I'm dying to have these songs I'm reading about in "The Vault" book and my guess is that Prince wouldn't mind longtime fans having all these great songs.

My respect for Prince and how he relates his fans would increase 10 fold. He already gives us more than the average artist, but making the vault available would put him a catagory that no other musician would ever be in, one that truly brings the loyal fans into his musical world. A shared vision.

"I was dreaming when I wrote this..."

It probably wouldn't do Prince much harm at all. But it's his music and his choice in what to do with it.

andykeen said:

dude the die hard fans are ALREADY making money from it!
atleast if he released it hisself he'd get a piece of the pie 2!

How are people making money off of Prince's vault material?

paisley4me said:

some folks have been sellin bootlegged material for years.

Because it is his body of work and it's up to him what he does with it. Imagine writing an essay or drawing a picture (1st draft), screwing it up and creating something which YOU feel is more true/reflective of what you wanted to produce. Now, imagine that before you get time to reveal the piece of work you are happy with, somebody went through your waste paper bin and gave everybody the rough draft first! full of smudges, errors, coffee cup rings and incomplete ideas! Would you like to be judged by this effort or the final copy that you produced?

Similarly, if you are an artist (say, a writer), how would you feel to have your ability/relevance judged from your writings from high school or the mindless scribbles that you left on the notepad whilst on the phone?

This is what the vault is, a sketch pad of an artists ideas.

Simple put, Prince believes that he, his current message and his music are all still relevant and are continuing to evolve. Releasing everything in his vault isn't an artistic statement, its a yard sale. Also, i think that the sheer volume of work would have no context like a great album has. Putting a bunch of great songs on an album does not automatically equate a great album. Conversely, downloading just an odd song here and there from a large volume of different era's, to me, does not serve some of this unreleased material justice. There is also the issue of 'when does it stop'? putting everything on NPGMC site just isn't feasible - i mean do we need '18 alternate takes of housequake'? considering that there would be little differences amongst most of these cuts?

I think that releasing a past 'gem' (i.e splash) from the vault every once in a while is the best compromise that Prince can offer his hardcore fan base.


Dont get me wrong, i have bootlegs and i love 'em. However, i'm trying to offer a possible explanation regarding the issues from the artists stand point
[Edited 11/22/04 8:54am]

howcomeudontcallme said:

i think it'd be quite nice, actually--have everyone see what you did in order to get to the finished product. to see just the finished product surely has some people goin, "how'd they do that?"

Probably because Prince wants to leave a certain legacy behind should/when something should happen to him (death, natural or unnatural). That way, his music will continue to live on long after he does. Could you imagine being about 70 (I don't know how old you are) and hearing of a previously unreleased album full of material from the guy? Okay, I admit, 70 is pushing it, but you know what I'm sayin'.

yeah, but for better or for worse - the stuff is out there, and it ain't hard to find. The drafts - or whatever you wanna call them - they are out there in the public domain.

That being the reality of the situation, maybe it would be best for him to act pragmatically, rather than in an idealist manner, and make the stuff available himself.

Basically, the ultimate 'fuck you' to the bootleggers would be to release the damn stuff himself and prevent them making cash out of it, like they are doing now.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I agree. If someone has that much interest in the work, then it would simply build a closer relationship, sort of, to the artist by knowing how he got to that point, rather than waking up one morning and recording a full album. It just doesn't happen like that. But, seeing how he is a "quasi-perfectionist", he doesn't always want that side of him or his work to be revealed.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Agreed, i love hearing boots. I yearn for an album in which photographs show the recording process are contained within, accompanied with descriptive liner notes about the songs and the evolution. I hear you, i really do! I just dont think that it's prince's trip and, as it's his creation, we have to respect that (ahem....boots aside, that is)

howcomeudontcallme said:

TheFrog said:

Perhaps. But if i released pages of your diary without your consent, would the ultimate 'fuck you' that you could give me be for you to release your full diary to the public? Prince's continual reluctance to release his vault material in the face of the major bootlegging may be poor business sense but his honour to his work (sticking to his guns on what should be released) is commendable.

howcomeudontcallme said:

to be honest, yep, i probably would release the stuff myself, if you were making money out of the pages you'd released. Possibly only the pages you'd already released.

I can see where you're coming from. I just think he should see releasing the stuff which is out there, not as being an admission of defeat, but as being the best way of dealing with the situation pragmatically, and shoving a stick up the ass of the bootleggers.

I don't think you can call all of the vault material "drafts". I bet there are a lot of very finished/polished tracks sitting in there that simply didn't fit into the 1 album a year track Warners forced him into. Now that we are beyond that with the advent of downloading on the internet, why doesn't Prince finally do these tracks justice by seting them free? They don't have to be part of an album/concept. Us fans will appreciate them as stand alone tracks, much as we did on the official Crystal Ball release. Even Prince said in the liner notes for Da Bang that it wasn't intended for any specific album. But is is one of my favorite songs.

It seems to me Prince finally has the direct channel to his fans he's always wanted and now he's not taking full advantage of it wit the exception of the NPGMC.

By keeping those tracks in the vault, he keeps their market value very high, so it's his own fault the bootleggers are reeping the benefit.



I say, post them all at NPGMC for quick distribution, charge whatever you want, or make it free, and make it clear that Prince receives no profit when you buy bootlegs.

He better decide whether he wants to make money off those songs or not, though. If he is too righteous to sell those sex songs now, well then, I guess the bootleggers will continue to reap that "sex" money.

It would ruin the mystery

ya know. prince faught long and hard throughout the 90's with warners bcuz they wouldn't let him release music like he wanted to. and now he has the chance and all that he went through seems 2 be a waste.

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Obviously that wasn't his only issue back then.

hows it a waste if hes happy?

thekidsgirl said:

bcuz one of his biggest problems with warners was that they wouldn't let him release all the music he wanted to. but now after the battles over and he's won...sort of....and now he has the chance to release records from now til kingdom come and he's not taking advantage of it. it seems like all he went thru was a bit of a waste. i mean he aint got his masters...which was another problem..and it just seems like he shoulda just stayed at warners if things was gonna go like they are.

Maybe his holding on to stuff, irrespective of what bootleggers may or may not be doing, is his way of suggesting to the obsessionsists/completionists out there that they sorta kinda get lives or something.

OneMoJam said:

in p's case, that'd be a bit like the pot callin the kettle black.

Moonwlkbjrain said:

maybe he isnt ready to release them?
maybe he just wanted the security of knowing his songs wouldnt turn up on
a Burger King commercial?
maybe hes not done yet?

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Maybe he is releasing music like he wants to...

I'd love to hear a lot of the unreleased stuff too (and I'm impressed by the breadth of previously-unreleased material included on iTunes' The Complete U2) but ultimately it's the man's choice and I'll take whatever he throws out there. Of course, I track down whatever I can find online, but my days of paying money to someone else for music Prince made are over.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Are you one of those folks who just has to know how a magic trick was performed? Me, too!

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Yes, he did. However, his argument was that Warners were unable to keep up with his prolific output. When they were promoting an album, he had already finished recording the next one. Part of his dissatisfaction with the label came from their inability to keep up with his progression. Like a news paper, prince wanted his new recordings released while they were relevant. If he had a new album, well he wanted it out there - with little thought for marketing etc... Unfortunately, this is pretty near impossible for any record company to comply with. See, they kinda want to make some money from there records. And, seven new prince albums a year during the mid 90's wasnt the smartest business move they could make.

So you see, princes need to get out of his contract wasnt a bid to allow him finally emancipate his vault material. Quite the opposite, in fact. He wanted to be free in order to move forwards artistically and without restriction. The vault, to prince at least, is yesterdays news.

Prince is not immune to nostalgia. How many times to we gotta hear 1999 live? And what about all those intro to the live shows? And the lame little radio segue in Musiclogy?

I don't think making his vault material available would compromise his artistry. Most fans differentiate between what he's doing now and the occasional bootleg that pops up. It would only be a problem for Prince if he released the vault commercially because it would confuse the average fan as to where exactly he was coming from.Putting his vault on NPGMC would be a big thank you gift to all the fans who've been with him since '78.

And you can't tell me you wouldn't buy 'em.