This is probably a dumb question. I have been a Prince collector for years. I know that Prince requested that fans mail in their bootlegs to NPGMC for some lawsuit, I assume against WB records, but I wonder where, why (I'm sure for profit) and by whom these bootlegs were originally leaked. Was it WB, someone in his band, studio or was it him? How do these things get leaked and I assume that the reason Prince is such a commonly bootlegged artist is because he has so many songs? I am refering to studio recordings not live recordings, those are pretty obvious. Perhaps there is someone out there with some record company experience who could explain how these things come to pass?

I should have worded my title better. This by no means is a request to find out where I can get bootlegs, I just want to know who leaks these things. Sorry Moderators in advance.

when a mommy bootlegg and a daddy bootlegg love each other very, very much...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

...they shoot a stork and take its eggs, which hatch into baby bootlegs.

FunkMistress said:

brilliant!

siriusfunk said:

Wow, I guess this is a really stupid question, I should have thought it over before I posted. I guess I dish out poking fun at people for dumb postings, so this time I am going to have to take it.

Maybe Prince sits on the thrown and flushes the bootlegs into the sewer and some guy at the sewer treatment plant presses the cd's and we buy them.

Someone delete my posting before I look like a complete idiot to the entire forum.

siriusfunk said:

siriusfunk said:

Mostly they came from personnel who worked at the recording studios. Sometimes they are passed around by someone Prince gave a tape to and then copied and then make their way into bootleggers hands. Also pre-release copies of projects were given to executives and radio personnel who sometimes pass those along to the black market.

siriusfunk said:

I'm certainly not an expert on this, but this question has been asked before and the usual response is that the studio bootlegs come from a range of sources - mostly he gives (or at least, used to give pre-1997 when the studio bootlegs dried up) demo tapes to people/girlfriends/friends which end up in the hand of bootleggers. I think also various employees of him and WBs have snuck out some recordings.

As for that request to send in material to the npgmc, I think that was more aimed at various semi-official alternate WB releases in various countries that Prince hadn't directly sanctioned, it seemed Prince thought he might be able to sue WBs over them and therefore needed the releases as proof - but nothing came of it, that we know of.

metalorange said:

I see, makes since. Thanks for the info.

and one time it was from his car while it was in the repair shop... so the legend goes.

ufoclub said:

OR when he went to 7 eleven and gave a tape to a girl that freaked when she saw him. There were GB tracks on it?? Or so the legend goes...