There's been lots of discussion about the official released & "un-released" music of Prince, so I was just wondering has Prince released more music than any other artist ever? I can't think of any other musician that would come close? Bands maybe the Rolling Stones, but not solo musicians.

many jazz artists, frank zappa, ryan adams could catch up with prince in
just a few years if he continues. i'm sure there's plenty.

i'd say the residents have released at least twice as much music as prince has.

they've been putting out roughly an album a year since 1970, PLUS collections and live albums and whatnot.

and nobody knows who they are.

Anxiety said:

But that's a band + personally I don't think they're any good.

chocolatehandles said:

oh, never mind then. i didn't read the fine print of the thread title, "Has Prince released the most music (not including bands chocolatehandles doesn't like)"

Anxiety said:

Hahahaha!!

Anxiety said:

Sorry If I offended you but come on, are you serious?
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...idents.jpg

Frank Zappa
Neil Young
Bob Dylan

Have all released more music than Prince has.

chocolatehandles said:

Prince has released the most 'quality' music of any artist out there. imo

chocolatehandles said:

ummm, let's see. they pioneered multimedia music projects and rock operas, they've done more than their fair share of soundtrack work, they've been around for almost 40 years and they're still considered avant garde by most people.

yes. i think i'm serious about this.

Greatful Dead

Slim Dusty - Australian Country artist - 103 albums

TwiliteKid said:

With artists like Dylan and Neil Young, it's really a different story. Usually, their kind of music doesn't take very long to write/record/produce.

Same with most jazz artists - you could take your band into the studio, press "record" and make a couple of albums in just an afternoon if you like...

Zappa, on the other hand, is a good comparison, I think. Just like Prince, his music tends to be complex (technically as well as musically) and demands a lot of time and effort in all stages of the creation process (writing, arranging, rehearsing, recording, mixing, etc).

The question was "Has Prince released the most music?" but it seems that any answer other than NO meets some opposition.



You can't believe how ignorant that sounds. I would argue that their lyrics take longer to write than Prince's, and are more genuine. You are discounting an entire genre of music because of your "perceived" idea of how long it takes to make.



Some could say the same things about Prince. Madhouse/Xpectation/CNOTE/NEWS/ONALive?

I do know that he sure has a lotta love to share with everyone

James Brown.

I appreciate Dylan's music, but I think Prince has released more than him. Ani Difranco may come close to Prince if she maintains her output beyond his

runningbear said:

Wikipedia says Dylan 33 Studio 13 Live 14 Compilation = 60
Prince 21, 2, 5 = 28

neil young releases damn near one album a year, and has his entire career. I think there are only one or two years since Buffalo Springfield first came out in 1967? that he has not reelsed an album. Add to that there are at least ten different years where he relesed multiple albums in a year. So I would say he would be damn near the top of the list. Tons of Grateful dead concert recordings have been relesed so they'd be up ther also, but i wouldn;t count them due to the fact that if you don't count all the live albums that have come out (most of them) since the Grateful Dead disbanded, that their output actually falls down to only an average of an album every couple of years over the course of their career.

Then you gotta figure an artist like Elvis who came form a time when artists were constantly recording might be up there. I bet Elvis released 65 70 albums in his career.


that being said there are probably tons of artists that have relesed more then Prince.

I think there's a complete edition of Mozart that comprises 196 cds, and Mozart only lived to 36. The complete Stockhausen is up to 70 odd cds.

Se7en said:

You're exactly right Se7en. It seems our friend RealMusician is unaware of the stories about how quickly Prince works. I wish people around here get their facts straight before they offer opinions.

Where does James Taylor come in on the ount?

One criteria of this question/debate/argument should be this:

How many prolific artists have written most of their own songs? Obviously Dylan and Neil Young have, but I don't think Elvis did. Prince - good or bad - has written most of his own stuff (some are covers, some are co-written).

narcotizedmind said:

Aside from the fact that 21 studio albums is incorrect - it's actually 29 studio albums to date (well, by my calculation, and counting Lotus/MPLS as one), it's not an accurate comparison. It doesn't take into account that some of those releases have 3 or 4 discs. It doesn't include the 3 NPG albums, NPGMC download albums and singles, b-sides, tons of protege material, and 100's of songs written for others.

I once did a calculation (which I've just updated slightly to add in the 3 new ones) and estimated that Prince has officially released somewhere in the region of 69 to 83 albums worth of music (based on an average of 10 to 12 songs per album, and counting everything including protege stuff, etc).

I won't vouch for the accuracy of this calcuation, but it's not too far off the mark.

Even that doesn't take into account the fact the quite a few Prince songs are longer than average.

I still don't know whether that means Prince has released more than Dylan, and as I'll still buy everything either of them releases, it's pretty irrelevant to me.

Having said all that, counting "released music" is sort of meaningless. As far as I know Prince has had every one of his live performances recorded. I don't know how many thousands of recordings that makes, but what if he were to release them all?

It might hugely change his standing in the 'most music released' list, but without composing a single note of music, does it really mean anything?

A more accurate comparison would be to measure in minutes of musical output - and that way we could include a considerable amount of unreleased material too - even if it's not 'official', it's still been composed, right?

And even with that fairest of comparisons, I'd be very surprised if Prince was anywhere near the top of the list, I doubt he'd even make the top 20.
[Edited 4/11/09 9:26am]

narcotizedmind said:

Cash = 96 studio, 63 compilations.
Bowie = 28 studio, 8 live, 21 compilations.

realm said:

bowie's compilations are out of hand.

Anxiety said:

As are his reissues!

TwiliteKid said:

that's what happens when you own your masters.

realm said:

well, he's making that money without having to lift a finger. i guess it's really only annoying for the older fans who already have everything.

narcotizedmind said:

i think counting his protege self produced albums should be included since he wrote them.