WE alll dig the live experience. Whatever complaints we have about this song or that song, sample set or hit medly, we still shell out the bucks to see the man.

He is bootlegged extensively and many appear to be sound board quality. He is recording them, why not release them... better yet, if it is all about the cash, why not take a Pearl Jam/Phish approach and allow concert goers to get a copy of the recording a month later in the mail for a fee at a booth at the show or set up a new site dedicated to archiving the performances over the years.

This is a way for him to earn lots of cash and to satisfy the completist in each of us. It gives us the ultimate souvineer of an experience that may mean something to us.

If nothing else, he should do it just to appease me. I think lots of artists fail on the aspect of music at their shows. The fans came to see their music so they are willing to spend some cash on it, there should be more of this type of thing or exclusive albums/eps/singles/mixes available at merch booths.

Heck, prince could easily make hard copies of all the npgmc stuff and stuff like Exodus that are no longer in print and make a mint on them at shows. Why let third parties benefit from this material?

Prince is good with many things. Releasing music is not one of them. It would be very easy for him to do what Metallica does and just release soundboard recordings of every show as reasonably priced DRM-free mp3 or FLAC files. But this does not fit into his crazy fantasies of yearly subscription schemes, DRM, low-quality audio, and of course, animated floating jellyfishes.

at the jellyfishes.

There's gazillions of astounding live boots that you can get for no money at all and are much better than what Prince would do if he himself released live music.

vitriol said:

There's gazillions of astounding live boots that you can get for no money at all and are much better than what Prince would do if he himself released live music.

this.

the few live releases he did were all pastiches of bits and pieces from different shows.

bad song choices and a boring end result that was nowhere near as exciting as the

separate shows the songs were pulled from.

he's had numerous chances of releasing some great shows. the latest being one or two

of the montreux shows. somehow he seems unconfident to release a complete show.

but who cares, like virtiol says, with all the complete and free boots out there.

I once asked Eric Leeds the very same question. Why don´t they just release a show as is, without fiddling around, without overdubs, without editing? Why not just record it and sell it directly, fresh out the oven?Because most shows are good the way they are, and Prince has this rare talent to mess up a perfectly good show when he decides to release it officially ( see the Aladdin DVD, or most other official live show releases).

Mr. Leeds said something like "Go and ask Prince. I´ve said the same thing over and over again."

If I recall correctly, he said something similar about the Lovesexy album...how the original version sounded much better in his opinion, and how Prince overproduced it...but that is of course a matter of personal opinion and taste. As far as I´m concerned, I feel the same way......I prefer a lot of rehearsals and live bootlegs over some polished, overdubbed and edited official release.

The Noon Rendezvous warehouse rehearsal for instance remains one of my all time favorite Prince recordings of all time, yet I don´t ever want it to be officially released for I know he will find some way to fuck it up.

I´d love to hear those supposedly rawer sounding takes of the Gold Experience album, or the original Lovesexy album, or a soundboard recording of the ONA Bataclan aftershow, or the 1987 Le New Morning aftershow, but I know this will never happen.

We don't need Prince to release this stuff.

I think it is the perfectionist in him. When it comes to his studio releases, I picture him listening to new songs 100's of times in a row, before he's satisfied that he's prepared to share with the rest of us. Okay, this is not always the case with example like Chaos and Disorder, where it appeared he deliberately wanted to WB to but Prince walks a fine line...the live jam, unless highly rehearsed or a true capture of a heightened moment for him, might expose him in ways he does not want to be exposed.

NelsonR said:

I think it is the perfectionist in him. When it comes to his studio releases, I picture him listening to new songs 100's of times in a row, before he's satisfied that he's prepared to share with the rest of us. Okay, this is not always the case with example like Chaos and Disorder, where it appeared he deliberately wanted to WB to but Prince walks a fine line...the live jam, unless highly rehearsed or a true capture of a heightened moment for him, might expose him in ways he does not want to be exposed.

I don´t know how Prince hears or feels his own music, but I know that almost all of my musician friends lose their "feel" or ear when it comes to their own music. I mean, they record something, and I like the result, and then they change this and change that and play with the control settings so much that there comes a point where they no longer feel their music the way I do as a non-musician outsider. And then they come and ask me for my opinion because it no longer sounds fresh to them.

That´s the problem with perfectionist musicians sometimes.

There are many Prince songs that sound much better as an outtake on bootleg than the legit version on an album ( We Can Funk being just one example).

I don't think Prince thinks too deeply about his album releases anymore. So why he would not release a live album NOW is kind of moot. He would likely release it now more than ever before because he has little interest in sharing his music with the world. He'd rather chop up a live show and package it in the same vein as those multitudes of reissues for legendary artists like the Jackson 5, MJ, James Brown, etc. The ironic part of it all is that while Prince invests more into his music than anyone else, he is absolutely the worst at gauging fan interest.

Spinlight said:

Spinlight said:

I don't think Prince thinks too deeply about his album releases anymore. So why he would not release a live album NOW is kind of moot. He would likely release it now more than ever before because he has little interest in sharing his music with the world. He'd rather chop up a live show and package it in the same vein as those multitudes of reissues for legendary artists like the Jackson 5, MJ, James Brown, etc. The ironic part of it all is that while Prince invests more into his music than anyone else, he is absolutely the worst at gauging fan interest.

& that's why I love downloading the un-released shows from W2A and before. To get the true, pure experience on video or audio. I find myself SMDH everytime I think about it. The One Nite Alone concert album I thought was BRILLIANT and would love to see another show make the light of day but, I don't think that'll ever happen. That's why the boots keep surfacing, oh well ...

i never been a fan of live music being released on cd if i wanna go 2 a show i go 2 a show . prince is one of them artist u have 2 see live not hear. its his career and however he feel 2 do it thats how its gonna be done just because we are fans dont give us the rights 2 decide on what is released. its like if my sister have a baby i cant tell her how 2 raise her child if she takes my advice fine if not its in her hands

cbarnes3121 said:

i never been a fan of live music being released on cd if i wanna go 2 a show i go 2 a show . prince is one of them artist u have 2 see live not hear. its his career and however he feel 2 do it thats how its gonna be done just because we are fans dont give us the rights 2 decide on what is released. its like if my sister have a baby i cant tell her how 2 raise her child if she takes my advice fine if not its in her hands

Oh, I am in total agreement with you but, there's also a market for the unreleased shows and boots. Typically, what-ever show I go to I want the video and the audio. That's just my personal preference, I wouldn't dare to assume or feel compelled to try and MAKE Prince do anything.

Now in regards to if I had a sister that has a baby you can rest assured I'm gonna be a good uncle and give advice about what I believe she should or should not do with her child. If she tells me straight up, don't tell me how to raise her child and I'm the older brother, she better get ready for the hammer to come down ... LoL

& That's a whole nother animal cbarnes3121, that would be comparing apples to oranges. Not the same vein

[img:$uid]http://l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/3.gif[/img:$uid]

... point taken though

I think he gets a thrill by doing just the opposite of what makes sense sometimes. For those who thinks he is just all about the money he sure has left millions on the table by not letting the world hear or see some of his great shows. There is just no freaking logic to it. I have come to accept it.

Maybe Prince wants to live experience to be just that, live. Like when he said "stop tweeting, be here now" Im not saying I wouldn't love more live cd's, Im just trying to think about why Prince wouldn't release live CD's.

Some people think that recording (through pictures or otherwise) steals the soul....

Prince cannot release new music anymore. HE'S DONE

the smartest thing he could do is to release his new albums with Playboy or Penthouse...

[Edited 4/7/11 14:35pm]

JoeTyler said:

Prince cannot release new music anymore. HE'S DONE

the smartest thing he could do is to release his new albums with Playboy or Penthouse...

[Edited 4/7/11 14:35pm]

Of course he can. Rod Stewart still releases new music, shit.

Just cuz no one gives a crap about their lame records these days doesn't mean the Daphnes of the world should go without.

Spinlight said:

JoeTyler said:

Prince cannot release new music anymore. HE'S DONE

the smartest thing he could do is to release his new albums with Playboy or Penthouse...

[Edited 4/7/11 14:35pm]

Of course he can. Rod Stewart still releases new music, shit.

Just cuz no one gives a crap about their lame records these days doesn't mean the Daphnes of the world should go without.

fine. but i still think he should release his new albums with playboy. enough with that silly british newspapers thing

There once was a time when he used to release live material, mostly in the form of home video. Every couple of years there would be something:

1985 Prince & The Revolution Live
1988 Sign O The Times*
1989 Lovesexy Live
1994 The Sacrifice Of Victor
1994 The Undertaker
1998 Beautiful Strange
2000 Rave Un2 The Year 2000
2002 One Nite Alone Live / It Ain't Over
2002 Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas

So... It's not like he's never released live albums (a common Prince-myth I see a lot). But yeah since 2002 it's just dried up. I really have no explanation. He would have made a mint and gained a lot of new fans out of a Musicology, 21 Nights, or Montreux 2009 release.

I've said this before, but it's an embarrassment as a Prince fan when you go to your local wreka stow and see all these fantastic live DVDs and Blue-Rays by all the great artists, and yet in the 'Prince' section all there is are 2 old substandard releases

*Yeah, I know it's not really "live", but you know what I mean

Maybe Prince has decided that too much money is bad for a person. That would explain both (1) his music distribution non-strategy and (2) his issues with not paying creditors.