Let me first quote what that prompted me to create this thread-

Starbuck said:

Draw your attention to the bolded line which basically said Prince is avoiding the real issue - why not release it yourself then? You know we all love your music...we have been here (many of us anyways) for a couple of decades, putting out our own hard earned money to purchase music we consider to be more than worth its weight in gold.

Indeed, other posts have mentioned the exact same thing...will Prince ever listen to anyone? He talks at people all the time, how come he won't listen to sound advice?

Instead of why won't he release it, why doesn't everyone concerned with the issue of Prince's Art of Realeasing Music... speak up, right here and now. It appears as though this board is monitored by someone at Prince's camp, therefore...maybe, just maybe - if we ALL write our feelings on WHY Prince is keeping them alive by not releasing the music he knows - just by our reactions to it at his live shows - we absolutely adore, and would just LOVE to have it to listen to until our next Prince show! Pretty please with sugar on it?

Any other folks want to add to this "plead"? We have nothing to lose - who knows? Let's give it a try...will ya?

Thanks!





---

a-the phuc-men. exactly--it's like i say, don't wait on us fans/fams/freex/friends/whoever 2 release your stuff before u and then bitch-n-moan about it!

btw...hi, lav!

PlastikLuvAffair said:

Exactly!!! Do I hear an Amen!

back!!!

I thought the whole idea of an online NPGMC would be the perfect way of getting live music to the fans, but instead in the first year we got snippets of live music, saying isn't this better than the bootlegs... err ??? no actually the bootlegs give you the whole concert start to finish, not interrupting the flow that makes a concert what it is, a set put together meant to be heard in full. Why when finally PP had a way of having people pay for this material did they not take advantage of it, i have always said if Prince released live material i would buy it and the bootleggers would be no longer. What the PP organisation don't seem to realize is that it isn't even becoming a case of money, with nowadays fans swapping music with no cost involved, isn't this what Prince always wanted to achieve Free Music?

One thing i will say is that if Prince thinks i am destroying his career owning bootlegs, well i have purchased every official release you have out there that i could get my hands on, apart from and i did this for you, the Warner Bros greatest hits, which out of respect i didn't buy, which when you think about it, is strange because you also told us not to buy that music you get royalties from, even if a small amount...

So what exactly are we meant to do?

Please use the NPGMC to better effect...


Peace we rise!
[This message was edited Fri Oct 4 7:11:52 PDT 2002 by Handels]
[This message was edited Fri Oct 4 7:13:14 PDT 2002 by Handels]

Handels said:

Thanks Handels

The whole experience you had seems like a really cool moment to sit and just chat with your favorite artist. It would have been nice if he would have honored your question and addressed it. He obviously has an agenda he is trying to put out to the masses, albeit now face-to-face. I must say that I do agree with him, but he can squash the entire process of bootlegging, IMO, by utilizing the site he put up. Come on P, free the music. You've held it in shackles for long enough.

another thing: when the npgmc first came up on the scene, i thought it wuz a pretty neat idea...it still is, 'cept that p's goin about it in an awkward way now...

LaVisHh said:

Yes, Prince could make some money by releasing it himself through NPGMC, but he'll never be able to keep up with the demand, so people will continue to buy bootlegs.

I'd love it if he'd release concerts himself, but unlike other people I don't think it would solve the bootlegging issue. There's simply very little he can do about it.

The one thing that would hurt bootleggers the most is stimulating recording and distribution on a non-profit basis.

He should do what the Dave Matthews Band does (gasp- I can't believe I just said that!) He should release an album, and then several months later, release a live album culled from the tour, before releasing his next album. That would really be awesome.

I pointed this quote out in another thread, and I share the same idea as Lav...let's not give up on PUSHING this issue to Prince, we MUST LET him know that we're serious about this.

PlastikLuvAffair said:

I am trying so hard to look at all aspects. Yes, I REALLY want more music too... but I want what he's into right now. What he wants me to hear. I don't want him to shovel it out in loads and focus his time and enrgy on mass release...

Berry said:

I have to agree with you, Berry. I want his best (now what HE thinks is best, just might be different from what WE think is his best)... but, when it comes to the live stuff - I don't want that "made" to be his best... release it "as is" - we would all love it!!!

I think that by releasing the Live album, he's starting to listen to the fans. I wish it was all from one concert though and not a compilation.
Bootlegs will always exist, because Prince creates more than he can ever release. So what doesn't get released officially, will soon find itself as a bootleg.

LaVisHh said:

He doesn't know what he's talking about,cause you can get boots without BUYING them,you can either trade or get someone to make a copy for you of something they have...
I have concert boots of Steely Dan & Laura Nyro that I got from kind,generous people who just made me a copy,I didn't have to PAY for it!!!
There was NO cash exchanged.

Like I said in another thread, we'll probably get more of his stuff released when he's dead...

Leave him alone,and b happy with what u get,ya'll sound like Warner Bros,he aint under a contract with u fanatics.U buy his music or u dont,if u dont he'll still have support cuz he got 97,000 just like u n the club. Now times that buy $100.00,now can u buy that???

I feel if I support Prince in buying his merchandise,his cds, and paying for the concert tickets, I have given Prince a lot of my money. Why would he worry about bootlegs?

I don't feel like anybody is hurting Prince by having bootlegs. I love mine and I would never give them up.

I would never take a recorder into one of his shows.
He could release the music himself if he wanted too.

He has put a stop to a lot of the websites, but he hasn't done anything about sabotage releases.

crs350 said:

Come back 2 me with your criticism when u learn 2 spell and construct proper sentences...

Live music HAS to form a part in the future of NPGMC. Prince fans obsess over his live stuff more than most other artists (mainly because he performs more). I think that the NPGMC should distribute studio albums as CD's and let live stuff and old outtakes (ones thatll never make any album) be distributed as downloads.

Bootlegs will never die, end of. I dont believe they do sufficiently take money away form artists to justify fans ignoring them (and the internet has reduced the market in them anyway). I have bought all of Princes albums that have been released over the years, and have just spent £50 on a box set i could have easily downloaded off the internet.

However the NPGMC in future should change its concept. The idea for access to soundchecks etc is a wonderful idea and I dont think anyone would complain at say a couple of new studio albums each year. But say he included a live show from the past every few months for download (perhaps with artwork too), it would satisfy members a lot more, and for very little hastle on princes part.

I agree its totally up to him, but if youre going to make this exclusive club, you have to make it worth while joining.

Perhaps Prince is not so much considering who the concert recordings come from. Rather, he does not want them circulating at all, whether from a bootleg company or himself. Prince sells a concert ticket as a right to see and hear him perform live on that one occasion, and he has every right to not want that performance being heard again.
If Prince started to release all of his concerts to get an edge on the bootleggers, then he would be doing so for the wrong reasons, and not because he trully wanted that music out there. (and we know how Prince doesn't like bullying).

I kind of get the feeling he doesn't want to make what's in the past available (Crystal Ball 2?), which is a shame.Live concerts would be great, but as it stands he'd dub any bad language out and that would make the whole excercise pointless anyway..

He does listen...CAN you see that?

derek said:

U got the point,and thats all that matters pot'na!!!

sabaisabai said:

Good point, it's not like Prince doesn't like releasing music.

Compared to just about any other artist he officially releases a ton of music. If it's not officially out it's most likely cause he doesn't want it out.

Prince and the NPGMC couldn't get their act together long enough to issue authorized bootlegs for sale. They would charge too much, exercise no control in the shipping of product, would not stick to an announced ship/sale date, etc... Ordering product from him directly is throwing good money after bad. If you need any further proof of that, check out the still non-functional NPGMC website.

I overheard on the radio this morning that, with
the latest techno stuff, an artist can record his
concert, and when the concert is over, sell
that very concert on CD...

caution, there might be a lineup...

P has missed out on sooo much loot!

unless, he's behind some of the bootleg releases,
which would be a brilliant move!

I think that Prince's statement is a weak one. Owning bootlegs of unreleased material is nothing like stealing somebody's clothes. For the metaphor to work, somebody would have to steal the master-tapes!

In my mind, he should know full-well that even if we have a crappy bootleg, as fans we would STILL buy the official release anyway! So if anything, a bootleg recording is "borrowing" rather than "stealing"...

I mean how many of us had at least a quarter of the Crystal Ball set but then went on to but the whole shebang anyway?

Its not just Prince - its most musicians and record companies. If I had a record company, I would allow an album to be downloaded from a website on the same day that it was released to stores. The curious might listen to the album and become fans. Some people may copy the music and sell it - that would happen with or without the internet. The fans would still buy the official product.

I think that a few years down the line, buying records will be seen as more of an unnecessary luxury than it is now and it will enter the realms of antique-collecting or stamp-collecting. People will still buy records as gift items or because they are completists but the music will be basically free. They will have to market the packaging rather than the music within...

How much money does he make from touring and how much does he make from record sales? Nobody could replicate a live performance and that is where all musicians will make the majority of their income in the future.

I would love to have copies of live shows, but Prince releasing them himself would not stop or slow bootlegging when u can go to any file sharing site and download bootlegs of shows as old as the Dirty Mind days. But it would suck if we have to wait for him to die to get access to his vault. If he releases it now while he is alive he could get good feedback from us at soundchecks, etc. That would make the club a whole lot more valueable to him and us.

BinaryJustin said:

But is it still "borrowing" if he has no intention of officially releasing it?