...and anyone with half a commercial brain should see this. If he is to maintain a quite unique position in being able to do distribution deals with companies on an album by album basis then his commercial viability needs to be kept in tact. Therefore i , like many of you, really do need to be patient, what is obvious is that 1] the man is pushing 50 and needs a break and 2] he's clearly learning the lesson that less is more. There is obviously some work in progress and the info so far about who he's working with on video shoots etc is cool[probably corny!] but lets hope he's patient, doesn't get bored and above all else that the next CD will be worth the wait. Dare I say it but if I were in his shoes I'd be tempted to put out a greatest hits live CD out next year with DVD. Lets give the guy a break, when all said and done he's released more than we could ever have hoped for and toured like a demon, let the man sleep.
Surely you must agree?.

Age clearly has nothing to do with releasing music or being Prince at all!

LOVEandLIGHT said:

agreed !

Well, I'm from the old school when everyone, not just Prince, released an album a year. As far as commercial success goes, Prince has a big enough fan base that buys every album without even hearing tracks first. These fans kept him afloat in the 1990s and these are the same ones that will keep him afloat today.

vainandy said:

Rubbish, these 'll be the same fans that supported him so well in the 90's that he was virtually bankrupt and saved himself with some good upfront deals with Record labels. As for crap argument about the old scholl releasing an album every 6 months or every year, pah, this is 2005, the market ain't like that any more. Artistic integrity is all well and good when you have WB backing you and indulging you , but when it's on your balance sheet it don't pay the bills!. Props to Prince and his advisors for finally realising this.

the year is almost over anyways.

javed said:

uh, maybe you've heard... Prince don't work for the industry anymore and he certainly doesn't live by industry standards. money ain't no problem. and making music ain't either. peace.

javed said:

Last year he was the top earning celebrity with over 56 million !

Snap said:

No, no, no, you're missing the point. Clearly there is a parallel here between the success of Purple rain and the the success of Musicology. In '85 the commercial mistake was to release ATWIAD too soon, it spoke volumes artistically about him and his boldness but the flip side of that is that it also showed his lack of commercial awareness. The money that he made from Purple rain soon dwindled away. I think it's pretty clear that he does not want to repeat that error. As for Pricne not working for the Industry no more, i suggest you wake up, Prince, by his very own admittance needs the Record industry machine to get actually manufacture the CDs, to get airplay and to get the CD in the store. His argument is that he does it on his terms with a bigger share of the Purple Pie.
Imagine if he didn't release a new CD until October/November 06! ,a new Prince CD would then go back to being an event. In the year til then he could , WITH GOOD PR still stay in the limelight and create a good buzz around it.

Dewrede said:

Fair point, but given the running costs of Paisley Park, staff , Tax, donations to JW's via the lovely Mrs Graham!!! etc he needs to make it last. Celebs have shown time and again how easy it is to blow fortunes through silly excess i.e. Mike Tyson amongst many others.Don't forget that Prince is operating as a business unit now and needs that corporate head rotating with his Artistic head.

Yeah, if you choose to live the lavish lifestyle that Prince lives, you will soon go through all your money, no matter how much you have. Also, Prince is so damn diverse that he started adding even more musical styles like rap and people like Tony M. that turned even some of the hardest core fans off and drove them away. Prince still made it through though and yes he did sell out with the Arista deal and the horrible "Rave" album. But since Prince is so obsessed with "artistic freedom" and being "free", that's the price you have to pay.




Artists back then were turning out albums every year and they were good albums made with real music, lyrics (that were sung, not rapped), melodies, and bridges in the songs. Today's artists, that don't even play instruments, take two and three years to make an album that consists of samples and weak midtempo drum machines with "talking" over it. No originality, no rhythm, no funk, and not a fast damn song on the whole damn album. It takes two years to make this? No, music has been sacrificed for profit in an era where people wouldn't know good music if it bit them in the ass.

If Prince wants his "artistic freedom" and is willing to pay the price, I fully support him.

The mistake with "Around The World In A Day" was not the length of time it came out after "Purple Rain". The mistake was that he released that particular album that particular year. If he had released an album that same month with his signature "Minneapolis Sound" that everyone one was loving at the time, it would have been a huge success. People were anxiously awaiting the new Prince album and were extremely disappointed when they heard a totally different sound like "Around The World In A Day". It's the same that applies today though, he wanted his "artistic freedom" and he had to pay the price.

I'm a consumer and I want music that sounds good to my ears. I could give less than a damn what kind of commercial success Prince has. In 1985, yes I wanted Prince to make a good commercial album because commercial music was damn good back then. In today's era though, I want the complete opposite. The last thing I want is something commercial because today's commercial music is a bunch of bullshit.
[Edited 11/1/05 6:50am]