I've always been of the opinion that Prince "Bootlegg" CDs were silently authorized by him.

I mean Prince is a control freak regarding his music and band so I doubt if these "Bootlegg" recordings could get out to the public without his knowledge.

What does everyone else think?

Le Undertaker

No... Prince has nothing to do with any Bootlegs out there and has been
quite vocal about his opposition to them (though he does understand why
we like them). Plus you'll notice that once Prince DID get control, the bootlegs
pretty much completely dried up.

BorisFishpaw said:

Not disputing your knowledge on most Prince related subjects Boris but I also used to wonder whether Prince had some sort of involvement or tacit agreement with the likes of Sabotage simply due to the volume of material that was "leaked" at a time when Prince was so angry with Warners (ie Sabotage). Also some of those Sabotage releases were simply awesome with great effort put into them.

While it's most likely not the case, it does make for a compelling addition to the whole Prince mythology!

No, Prince definitely didn't have any kind of relationship with Sabotage or
any other bootleg label (he really doesn't like them, for various reasons).

However it is true that around the time of the name change, he deliberately
put a lot of music 'out there' without WB's permission by giving promos to
radio stations to play etc.

Are those las Vegas CD sets that keep poping up on ebay bootlegs? I notice how they say factory pressed, but I guess all bootlegs that are mass produced in the far east are factory pressed too. The labels and artwork all look pretty slick from the pictures advertising them.

Bensonrad said:

Yes those are bootlegs as well. They're companys who who print bootleg albums. They're not just all home made CD-R's or downloads mp3's

P2daP said:

i wondered this too... because i just saw a 6cd set go for 355 bux the other night on ebay

was quite bait that it was a bootleg i guess with the label being called 'Records' lol.

NightwalkerDNB said:

It's Prince's fault these bootlegs are so popular. He's never released one live show, even though he's one of the greatest live performers ever. The only set he released was a hodgepodge of the One Nite Alone shows. The bootleggers have Prince beat -- they released better versions of his classic songs (Crucial.. one with horns, one with guitar... Prince gave us a truly wack version), and many more live performances. The bootlegger is the greatest distributor Prince ever had! Hey, but Prince did release versions of "So Dark" "How U Wanna B Done" and "2Morrow." And the original "Endorphinmachine" is still in Prince's vault? How bizarre!
[Edited 8/14/07 2:42am]