What if Prince decided to auction his unreleased songs on a website like ebay?

Where the winner would have the complete sole rights to the song and Prince could not release them.

How much would you offer and for what unreleased song?

Nothing, i'd just wait until whoever bought them put them on a torrent site.

Can we have them in FLAC please?

I'd pay a pretty penny for a mastered version of extra loveable.

MajesticOne89 said:

I'd pay a pretty penny for a mastered version of extra loveable.

I'd obviously have to heckle u for a bootleg lol

the stuff is priceless.

MajesticOne89 said:

I'd pay a pretty penny for a mastered version of extra loveable.

How much?

MajesticOne89 said:

I'd pay a pretty penny for a mastered version of extra loveable.

I definitely agree!!

Give the fact that those old tapes would, literally, need to be "baked" in order to even get any sound off them at this point, I'd hope he would be paying ME to save them!

muskiediver said:

MajesticOne89 said:

I'd pay a pretty penny for a mastered version of extra loveable.

How much?

$150,000 at most for any given song. Anymore and you're being ripped off. Any less and he is.

I wouldn't offer anything 'cause I know I wouldn't have enough anyway.

Spinlight said:

muskiediver said:

How much?

$150,000 at most for any given song. Anymore and you're being ripped off. Any less and he is.

How are you coming to that amount?

Next up, Muskie impersonates Prince on eBay to sell outtakes!

I'm not sure what the cut off point would be, but it would have to be an amount that would allow for a profit on the investment. So really, probably not very much when you consider a single track goes for $.99 - $1.50 (most of the time) and it's instantly going to be "shared". Auctioning an albums worth of songs would be a different story.

paisleypark4 said:

I would not buy from some random person...Id rather purchase it from the person who made the music. Then I would just download it like said, from flac off the guy who shared them..however I would rather PAY PRINCE.

I kinda chuckled at your comment, but it is true...why purchase your favorite unreleased track when it will eventually be "shared"? Hey, I have legally purchased alot of Prince music, however, the industry as a whole has changed since the internet, so purchasing unreleased tracks for any large sum of money wouldn't be a good business deal.

If I could personally give the money to Prince, heck yeah I would. He has given me so much joy from his God given genius, however, there is always someone out there who has a copy of unreleased tracks that they are more than willing to share.....sad but true.

I find it interesting that people are assuming the purchaser of the song would "share" it. I wouldn't! But I'd be happy to sell downloads.

Cerebus said:

I find it interesting that people are assuming the purchaser of the song would "share" it. I wouldn't! But I'd be happy to sell downloads.

You'd only sell one.

AsylumUtopia said:

Cerebus said:

I find it interesting that people are assuming the purchaser of the song would "share" it. I wouldn't! But I'd be happy to sell downloads.

You'd only sell one.

Please. To assume that every person who purchases downloads is going to immediately share them, or is even a file sharer at all, it just silliness. My niece and nephew both ask for iTunes gift cards for Christmas and birthdays, don't share and down download. Would whatever file(s) you purchased be shared? Yes, absolutely. That's why I said in my first post that the price I'd be willing to pay would have to be weighed against a profit line. It certainly wouldn't be $150K. Not in this universe or any other. MAYBE $5K. At that, if you had a remastered version of a great outtake you MIGHT make a profit selling it as a download.

Serena said:

Next up, Muskie impersonates Prince on eBay to sell outtakes!

I give what I have away. At this point, the more people who have high quality copies of Prince's stuff the better. We are not all going to be around forever, but Prince's music will.

And even the source of high quality recordings....Prince himself may be under question.

I don't think Prince will allow his music to be so easily accessable as MJ's is.

Prince probably already has stipulations for his unreleased music in his will. And I hope it is not to destroy them. But nothing would surprise me.

muskiediver said:

Spinlight said:

$150,000 at most for any given song. Anymore and you're being ripped off. Any less and he is.

How are you coming to that amount?

By considering how much he is paid for a full album and then considering how much money you could potentially make for releasing an exclusive track by Prince.

muskiediver said:

Serena said:

Next up, Muskie impersonates Prince on eBay to sell outtakes!

I give what I have away. At this point, the more people who have high quality copies of Prince's stuff the better. We are not all going to be around forever, but Prince's music will.

And even the source of high quality recordings....Prince himself may be under question.

I don't think Prince will allow his music to be so easily accessable as MJ's is.

Prince probably already has stipulations for his unreleased music in his will. And I hope it is not to destroy them. But nothing would surprise me.

Same thing I said about Stevie Wonder's unreleased music applies to Prince. There is no reason to stipulate that your unreleased music be destroyed after your death in a will that can be contested. Just destroy it yourself, NOW, if that's how you feel about it.

Sharing the high quality Prince tunes that I have is one thing. I didn't pay for those. I have always refused to pay for bootlegs and I will continue to do so. However, if Prince auctioned off the exclusive rights to unreleased material and I became the owner I would NOT give it away. I ain't no charity.

Cerebus said:

muskiediver said:

I give what I have away. At this point, the more people who have high quality copies of Prince's stuff the better. We are not all going to be around forever, but Prince's music will.

And even the source of high quality recordings....Prince himself may be under question.

I don't think Prince will allow his music to be so easily accessable as MJ's is.

Prince probably already has stipulations for his unreleased music in his will. And I hope it is not to destroy them. But nothing would surprise me.

Same thing I said about Stevie Wonder's unreleased music applies to Prince. There is no reason to stipulate that your unreleased music be destroyed after your death in a will that can be contested. Just destroy it yourself, NOW, if that's how you feel about it.

Sharing the high quality Prince tunes that I have is one thing. I didn't pay for those. I have always refused to pay for bootlegs and I will continue to do so. However, if Prince auctioned off the exclusive rights to unreleased material and I became the owner I would NOT give it away. I ain't no charity.

Very Interesting.........I personally would share the gift, but that's just me....

[Edited 10/20/10 22:07pm]

Cerebus said:

AsylumUtopia said:

You'd only sell one.

Please. To assume that every person who purchases downloads is going to immediately share them, or is even a file sharer at all, it just silliness. My niece and nephew both ask for iTunes gift cards for Christmas and birthdays, don't share and down download. Would whatever file(s) you purchased be shared? Yes, absolutely. That's why I said in my first post that the price I'd be willing to pay would have to be weighed against a profit line. It certainly wouldn't be $150K. Not in this universe or any other. MAYBE $5K. At that, if you had a remastered version of a great outtake you MIGHT make a profit selling it as a download.

That was humour. Well, an attempt at it. Probably not an award winning attempt, granted, but still, I didn't expect it to be taken seriously.

And you're making lots of assumptions about me. You don't know me. Interesting that you assume that whatever file(s) I purchased would 'absolutely' be shared. Interesting that you assume that I assume every person who purchases something is going to immediately share it.

I assume (dangerous thing to do, I know) you think I'm an idiot.

But I'm not. If I were I might attempt to put an arbitrary value on something without having a clue exactly what it is I'm attempting to value.

AsylumUtopia said:

Cerebus said:

Please. To assume that every person who purchases downloads is going to immediately share them, or is even a file sharer at all, it just silliness. My niece and nephew both ask for iTunes gift cards for Christmas and birthdays, don't share and down download. Would whatever file(s) you purchased be shared? Yes, absolutely. That's why I said in my first post that the price I'd be willing to pay would have to be weighed against a profit line. It certainly wouldn't be $150K. Not in this universe or any other. MAYBE $5K. At that, if you had a remastered version of a great outtake you MIGHT make a profit selling it as a download.

That was humour. Well, an attempt at it. Probably not an award winning attempt, granted, but still, I didn't expect it to be taken seriously.

And you're making lots of assumptions about me. You don't know me. Interesting that you assume that whatever file(s) I purchased would 'absolutely' be shared. Interesting that you assume that I assume every person who purchases something is going to immediately share it.

I assume (dangerous thing to do, I know) you think I'm an idiot.

But I'm not. If I were I might attempt to put an arbitrary value on something without having a clue exactly what it is I'm attempting to value.

Well we misunderstood each other, then. But I certainly don't think you are an idiot. If I thought that I'd say it. <---- humor

I clearly misunderstood your "you'd only sell one" statement. It seemed rather like a statement of fact regarding filesharing. You are correct that I didn't catch any humor in those words.

However, what you misunderstood is that I wasn't assuming anything about you when I said the file would, "absolutely be shared". I meant that if you, the owner of said file(s), put it/them for sale as either a hard copy (on a disc or vinyl) or as a download that it/they would THEN be shared (and it/they would, absolutely). The same as I thought you were saying about me selling it once and it then being shared. I wasn't actually speaking about you at all.

However, I did catch your uneccesary jab regarding placing an arbitrary value on something without having a clue exactly what it I'd be attempting to value (or am I assuming again?). I've been a part of the online Prince community for a very long time. I've followed music sales charts, both physical and then digital, for even longer. There was nothing arbitrary about saying that I would pay $5K for a GOOD outtake because selling that one MIGHT bring a profit. It was actually very well thought out, taking into account a large number of variables.

Anyway. Peace pops. Have a lovely day.

Cerebus said:

I clearly misunderstood your "you'd only sell one" statement. It seemed rather like a statement of fact regarding filesharing. You are correct that I didn't catch any humor in those words.

Well, fortunately I don't need to rely upon humour to make a living, or I might be going hungry. There are no emoticons which would accurately convey the sense in which I meant those words, which is why I didn't use any. It was, shall we say, an attempt at wistful humour, insofar as if it were me, it would be just my luck that the first person to buy would be a git who thinks it's fine to share and would be uploading immediately. I guess a smiley face might've at least made it look like it was humour.

Cerebus said:

However, what you misunderstood is that I wasn't assuming anything about you when I said the file would, "absolutely be shared". I meant that if you, the owner of said file(s), put it/them for sale as either a hard copy (on a disc or vinyl) or as a download that it/they would THEN be shared (and it/they would, absolutely). The same as I thought you were saying about me selling it once and it then being shared. I wasn't actually speaking about you at all.

Ah ok, I misunderstood. So we're both essentially saying the same thing - agreed it absolutely would be shared, and it could well be the first person to buy who does so, and if it's a slow - very slow sales day....

Cerebus said:

However, I did catch your uneccesary jab regarding placing an arbitrary value on something without having a clue exactly what it I'd be attempting to value (or am I assuming again?). I've been a part of the online Prince community for a very long time. I've followed music sales charts, both physical and then digital, for even longer. There was nothing arbitrary about saying that I would pay $5K for a GOOD outtake because selling that one MIGHT bring a profit. It was actually very well thought out, taking into account a large number of variables.

Anyway. Peace pops. Have a lovely day.

Again agreed, it was uneccessary. Sometimes I can't help myself.

And speaking of assumptions, I made the assumption that you were putting your 5k value on an unknown quantity - i.e. any outtake and without knowing the quality of what you're getting. I mean, Prince could pull a fast one and try to sell you some masters unseen and unheard, and you think you're getting a great deal, but when you get them you discover they're in worse condition than the Roswell tapes.

Even so, assuming a master of a great song in pristine condition, I wonder if you could turn a profit paying as much as $5k for it.

Just to be clear - that is what you mean, isn't it? $5k for one good song (presumably a snippet like Alphabet St. Blues just isn't going to cut it for that sort of money).

I think the interest in and market for such things is (relatively) small, there's the fact that sales are going to drop off (or stop) very quickly, so you'd need to price them accordingly, which means estimating how much a download is worth to someone else. Probably a bit more than your average song sells for, but even so, would it be possible to sell enough to make back your 5k? Then there's the costs associated with getting a product ready. I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to turn any profit at all if you're paying anything like $5k for just one song.

Now if we were talking about the entire catalog of unreleased music (masters, of course) then I might even go to $5k without seeing or hearing what I was getting first. Yeah, I know - keep dreaming.

Cerebus said:

It was actually very well thought out, taking into account a large number of variables.

Anyway. Peace pops. Have a lovely day.

I would genuinely be interested to know what you're taking into account there. Obviously my verbage above doesn't take all factors into account or attempt to come up with an actual value. I don't think I'd consider it a wise investment for me because it seems like too much hard work trying to figure out where the profit is, so you buy them, I'll buy downloads from you (and not share them) and make all my friends buy them too, and we're all happy.

Peace to you too.

[Edited 10/21/10 12:53pm]

AsylumUtopia said:

Cerebus said:

I clearly misunderstood your "you'd only sell one" statement. It seemed rather like a statement of fact regarding filesharing. You are correct that I didn't catch any humor in those words.

Well, fortunately I don't need to rely upon humour to make a living, or I might be going hungry. There are no emoticons which would accurately convey the sense in which I meant those words, which is why I didn't use any. It was, shall we say, an attempt at wistful humour, insofar as if it were me, it would be just my luck that the first person to buy would be a git who thinks it's fine to share and would be uploading immediately. I guess a smiley face might've at least made it look like it was humour.

Again agreed, it was uneccessary. Sometimes I can't help myself.

And speaking of assumptions, I made the assumption that you were putting your 5k value on an unknown quantity - i.e. any outtake and without knowing the quality of what you're getting. I mean, Prince could pull a fast one and try to sell you some masters unseen and unheard, and you think you're getting a great deal, but when you get them you discover they're in worse condition than the Roswell tapes.

Even so, assuming a master of a great song in pristine condition, I wonder if you could turn a profit paying as much as $5k for it.

Just to be clear - that is what you mean, isn't it? $5k for one good song (presumably a snippet like Alphabet St. Blues just isn't going to cut it for that sort of money).

I think the interest in and market for such things is (relatively) small, there's the fact that sales are going to drop off (or stop) very quickly, so you'd need to price them accordingly, which means estimating how much a download is worth to someone else. Probably a bit more than your average song sells for, but even so, would it be possible to sell enough to make back your 5k? Then there's the costs associated with getting a product ready. I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to turn any profit at all if you're paying anything like $5k for just one song.

Now if we were talking about the entire catalog of unreleased music (masters, of course) then I might even go to $5k without seeing or hearing what I was getting first. Yeah, I know - keep dreaming.

Cerebus said:

It was actually very well thought out, taking into account a large number of variables.

Anyway. Peace pops. Have a lovely day.

I would genuinely be interested to know what you're taking into account there. Obviously my verbage above doesn't take all factors into account or attempt to come up with an actual value. I don't think I'd consider it a wise investment for me because it seems like too much hard work trying to figure out where the profit is, so you buy them, I'll buy downloads from you (and not share them) and make all my friends buy them too, and we're all happy.

Peace to you too.

[Edited 10/21/10 12:53pm]

Woo. Took me forever to find this thread. If you ever read this, apologies for the late response...

A) The track would have to be complete

B) The track would have to be something that clearly had some sort of listener appeal

C) The track would have to be the original master (so you could bring it up to current sonic standards through remastering), or remastered before it was purchased

D) The purchaser would have to be free to do whatever they wanted with the track, no strings attached

If those requirements were meant, at a cost of $5000 I believe you could make a profit by...

A) Licensing the track. Licensing is huge right now. I have no doubt if the song was worthwile that you could make some money licensing to TV, a movie soundtrack, one of the endless funk/soul music compilations, or a combination of all of them.

B) On top of that, since a lot of people only want to purchase single songs these days, you'd be losing an opportunity to create income if you didn't offer it as a download.

C) If you wanted to really get silly with it you could also release it as a piece of limited vinyl. Plenty of people buy Prince vinyl bootlegs. So I'm pretty sure you could move a limited number of copies of your newly purchased track.

That's generally what I was thinking when I got to $5000 as a price I'd be willing to pay. Like I said, I think you could make money at that price. I'm not sure how much, and maybe you wouldn't. But that's as far as I'd be willing to go for unreleased/unknown music.