electricberet said:

As for our hero, Prince, once he is offered a check that has the right number of zeroes and starts with the right digit, I think that his buddies will tell him that Jehovah would approve of that deal, and a consultation of the chemtrails will reveal that he should go ahead and cash that check.

Word.

electricberet said:

V10LETBLUES said:

I think the reason Apple sought an agreement with the record companies was because the main part of it's plan is to store a "master copy" of recordings at it's data center, instead of having users upload their own copies for the major artists. Making your entire music collection available to you via iTunes from whatever device you use. Simplifying the experience for all involved.

My understanding is that organizations that cannot reach an agreement with the record companies for streaming, use "lockers" for customers to upload their collections. Hence circumnavigating the record companies.

[Edited 4/23/11 11:15am]

That's what I've read as well. I think the Apple agreement is good news for Prince fans, because Apple would probably like to have new Prince remasters available so that Prince fans will keep those in their cloud library instead of homemade vinyl rips. The success of Apple's plan depends on having some standardization in music catalogs. Prince's music not being remastered is an obstacle to that. If Apple tells WMG that standardization is the key to their venture, then WMG might have a bigger incentive to cut a deal with Prince.

If people think Prince's music isn't a significant part of the deal between WMG and Apple, it's worth remembering that Purple Rain is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and the third-biggest selling album on the Warner Brothers label (after Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Metallica's self-titled album). Apple would notice a product like that.

Prince has already spoke against ITunes saying they don't compensate artist enough. So I doubt he will participate in any deal with Apple. Unless there forking up big royalty or upfront mega bucks 2 him.

leonche64 said:

BartVanHemelen said:

Have you listened to SOTT? Sounds like shit. Was mastered for CD back in the stone ages of CD technology, and is downright horrible. The other 80s releases are better, but mediocre at best. These recordings deserve a proper remaster, preferably to Blu-ray audio (far better than CD-quality). They deserve context, like B-Sides and outtakes and liner notes. They deserve to sound pristine.

Hell, by now we should have already seen at least two remastered editions of his 80s classics:

- one in the mid-1990s

- one in the mid-2000s

Just look at Elvis Costello: several of his records have been remastered and re-released several times: http://en.wikipedia.org/w...im_Is_True .

Or look at Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On, which has been remastered several times.

Instead we're nearing the quarter of a century anniversary of his masterpiece, and it sounds like rubbish. Just compare to the SOTT tracks on the Girl 6 soundtrack...

I did not say "what is a remaster"

You said: "Prince could have, at anytime, re-recorded this material." This shows you don't know what a remaster is.

I asked "how is a remaster going to make the kind of money people were talking about".

Go pick up a mag like Mojo and go count the remasters of obscure 1960s folk artists, for instance.

BartVanHemelen said:

leonche64 said:

You said: "Prince could have, at anytime, re-recorded this material." This shows you don't know what a remaster is.

I asked "how is a remaster going to make the kind of money people were talking about".

Go pick up a mag like Mojo and go count the remasters of obscure 1960s folk artists, for instance.

My COMPLETE STATEMENT was"Prince could have, at anytime, re-recorded this material. Even updated the instrumentation to give it a current sound. All this material is out there now. A remastering is going to do what? Make it clearer? As much as I love this music, the sound makes them period pieces. The heavy use of certain synth sounds made them the vanguard in the 80's, but is a scarlet letter on them today. The reason why, as muleFunk said, certain bands like Hendrix, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Bob Marley, Bon Jovie and Bowie have had such success with remasters is that their perspective genres have not changed all that much. Rock is still rock, Reggae is still reggae. Acoustic drums and guitar, occasional piano. They same instrumentation used today. So while being older music, still fits in with a current rotation. The Beatles jumped a generation,and Pink Floyd, spending 15 years on the charts with one album, plowed through one. Musicians still play and record with Fender and Gibson guitars. The mini Moog and Yamaha DX-7 are not coming back."

I am happy to play this game with you, but you don't get to choose a part of a statement to debate, thus changing the context. And to respond to your example, which obsure 1960's folk artist are making big money with remasters of their early work?

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

electricberet said:

That's what I've read as well. I think the Apple agreement is good news for Prince fans, because Apple would probably like to have new Prince remasters available so that Prince fans will keep those in their cloud library instead of homemade vinyl rips. The success of Apple's plan depends on having some standardization in music catalogs. Prince's music not being remastered is an obstacle to that. If Apple tells WMG that standardization is the key to their venture, then WMG might have a bigger incentive to cut a deal with Prince.

If people think Prince's music isn't a significant part of the deal between WMG and Apple, it's worth remembering that Purple Rain is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and the third-biggest selling album on the Warner Brothers label (after Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Metallica's self-titled album). Apple would notice a product like that.

Prince has already spoke against ITunes saying they don't compensate artist enough. So I doubt he will participate in any deal with Apple. Unless there forking up big royalty or upfront mega bucks 2 him.

HO, IS U BLIND?

PRINCE HAS SHIT UP ON ITUNES RIGHT NOW THAT WAS RELEASED ON NPG.

I already have all of Prince's old stuff on vinyl which has always sounded better than CDs anyway. So as far as the old stuff being "remastered" which to me sounds like making the CD version sound as clear as the vinyl version instead of the present CD versions which sound like a muffled ass cassette tape recorded onto a CD, I could care less about the old songs being remastered because I have great sounding vinyl recordings anyway and can always transfer them onto CD anyway.

The only way I'd spend money on "remastered" CDs, is if they contain unreleased tracks. Other than that, I see no reason throwing away good hard earned money on music that I already have.

Spinlight said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Prince has already spoke against ITunes saying they don't compensate artist enough. So I doubt he will participate in any deal with Apple. Unless there forking up big royalty or upfront mega bucks 2 him.

HO, IS U BLIND?

PRINCE HAS SHIT UP ON ITUNES RIGHT NOW THAT WAS RELEASED ON NPG.

Did U read when told U not 2 respond 2 any comment make? Apparently not, or maybe Ur blind & not just 4 using Ur hand all the time missy...

Apparently Len Blavatnik, a Russian-born billionaire, has made the winning bid for Warner Music Group:

http://dealbook.nytimes.c...-3-billion

Not sure what this means for Prince remasters, if anything.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

electricberet said:

That's what I've read as well. I think the Apple agreement is good news for Prince fans, because Apple would probably like to have new Prince remasters available so that Prince fans will keep those in their cloud library instead of homemade vinyl rips. The success of Apple's plan depends on having some standardization in music catalogs. Prince's music not being remastered is an obstacle to that. If Apple tells WMG that standardization is the key to their venture, then WMG might have a bigger incentive to cut a deal with Prince.

If people think Prince's music isn't a significant part of the deal between WMG and Apple, it's worth remembering that Purple Rain is one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and the third-biggest selling album on the Warner Brothers label (after Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Metallica's self-titled album). Apple would notice a product like that.

Prince has already spoke against ITunes saying they don't compensate artist enough. So I doubt he will participate in any deal with Apple. Unless there forking up big royalty or upfront mega bucks 2 him.

it's not the first time Prince has been wrong about something. How is iTunes selling music any different than Best Buy selling music? In both cases the music is sold at a retail price and the owner of the music is paid the wholesale price.

If anything, iTunes allows artists to make more money as an artist like Prince can release music directly on iTunes without the need for a record label. Prince has seen first hand how expensive it is for an artist to try to do all of this themselves with his many failed online attempts at distributions.

How many millions of dollars has Prince missed my not embracing iTunes. Why do tracks, concerts, albums, etc, keep leaking for free when they could be generating revenue on iTunes. How much money did he lose not releasing 20Ten on iTunes? How much money could he make doing a Beatles type deal that includes a significant amount of exclusive material from the vault? Why isn't the awesome soundboard recording of the 1984 birthday show that's now floating around released on iTunes? Why not release the 3121 movie on there.

What are there, a couple hundred thousand people who would buy all of this stuff and a couple hundred thousand more who would buy various pieces of it? ANd that's if he just quietly released stuff on there. Do something high profile like the Beatles and the number goes up substantially. The Beatles had barely any exclusive content and haven't' recorded anything new in 40 years, yet still have made about $20 million directly off of iTunes in 6 months. That doesn't even include the extra CD sales they've made off of the extra publicity Apple has given them, including putting them on iTunes gift cards all over the country.

Why does Prince have so much material that we never see? He could hire 1 engineer to edit and master it for iTunes distribution and generate a couple million $ of untapped revenue per month.

Tie it all to remastering his back catalog and the revenue goes up substantially. Prince is a legend with a valuable back catalog, a valuable and largely unheard vault, and an extensive collection of unreleased soundboard recordings and video. It's time he leverage all of that and the kind of worldwide publicity Apple can provide better than any record label.

Partner with Apple, work with WB for the remasters, make tens of millions of $ and rebuild his dwindling fan base.

[Edited 5/9/11 6:13am]

muleFunk said:

Who,outside of the fanbase, would jump at buying a old Prince record?

It's just not financially rewarding for both parties.

with the right promotion, it would sell quite well. And could help grow the fanbase.

alandail said:

muleFunk said:

Who,outside of the fanbase, would jump at buying a old Prince record?

It's just not financially rewarding for both parties.

with the right promotion, it would sell quite well. And could help grow the fanbase.

WMG and Prince will get some hard numbers soon that could help them predict the likely market for CD remasters of Prince's early work, now that the vinyl reissues of DM, Controversy, and 1999 are coming out.

electricberet said:

alandail said:

with the right promotion, it would sell quite well. And could help grow the fanbase.

WMG and Prince will get some hard numbers soon that could help them predict the likely market for CD remasters of Prince's early work, now that the vinyl reissues of DM, Controversy, and 1999 are coming out.

They'd get better numbers if they remastered at least one CD. How many people even have a record player anymore?

alandail said:

electricberet said:

WMG and Prince will get some hard numbers soon that could help them predict the likely market for CD remasters of Prince's early work, now that the vinyl reissues of DM, Controversy, and 1999 are coming out.

They'd get better numbers if they remastered at least one CD. How many people even have a record player anymore?

I would expect the vinyl sales to be much smaller than what they would get with remastered CDs, particularly if the CDs include bonus tracks. However, if these vinyl reissues sell better than other vinyl reissues on the market, that would help them gauge how many CDs they would sell. There must be a correlation between vinyl reissue sales and CD reissue sales by the same artist. Purple Rain has been out on vinyl for a while, but that's just one data point.

alandail said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Prince has already spoke against ITunes saying they don't compensate artist enough. So I doubt he will participate in any deal with Apple. Unless there forking up big royalty or upfront mega bucks 2 him.

it's not the first time Prince has been wrong about something. How is iTunes selling music any different than Best Buy selling music? In both cases the music is sold at a retail price and the owner of the music is paid the wholesale price.

If anything, iTunes allows artists to make more money as an artist like Prince can release music directly on iTunes without the need for a record label. Prince has seen first hand how expensive it is for an artist to try to do all of this themselves with his many failed online attempts at distributions.

How many millions of dollars has Prince missed my not embracing iTunes. Why do tracks, concerts, albums, etc, keep leaking for free when they could be generating revenue on iTunes. How much money did he lose not releasing 20Ten on iTunes? How much money could he make doing a Beatles type deal that includes a significant amount of exclusive material from the vault? Why isn't the awesome soundboard recording of the 1984 birthday show that's now floating around released on iTunes? Why not release the 3121 movie on there.

What are there, a couple hundred thousand people who would buy all of this stuff and a couple hundred thousand more who would buy various pieces of it? ANd that's if he just quietly released stuff on there. Do something high profile like the Beatles and the number goes up substantially. The Beatles had barely any exclusive content and haven't' recorded anything new in 40 years, yet still have made about $20 million directly off of iTunes in 6 months. That doesn't even include the extra CD sales they've made off of the extra publicity Apple has given them, including putting them on iTunes gift cards all over the country.

Why does Prince have so much material that we never see? He could hire 1 engineer to edit and master it for iTunes distribution and generate a couple million $ of untapped revenue per month.

Tie it all to remastering his back catalog and the revenue goes up substantially. Prince is a legend with a valuable back catalog, a valuable and largely unheard vault, and an extensive collection of unreleased soundboard recordings and video. It's time he leverage all of that and the kind of worldwide publicity Apple can provide better than any record label.

Partner with Apple, work with WB for the remasters, make tens of millions of $ and rebuild his dwindling fan base.

[Edited 5/9/11 6:13am]

U have a point, But Prince has already made more millions than he ever made since leaving The WB, going against the grain. So he has a right to be choosey about who he gives his masterpieces 2. Its about him getting paid what he feels he should get. Music is his life & income..

^^ the money is only half of the issue. Rebuilding the fan base is the other part.

alandail said:

^^ the money is only half of the issue. Rebuilding the fan base is the other part.

WMG and Prince might do well to look at the most recent series of Paul McCartney remasters for some inspiration. Paul started by releasing Band on the Run, his most popular post-Beatles album, in three formats: a simple CD for people who just want the basics, a semi-deluxe edition with some bonus material for the mild enthusiasts, and then an amazing deluxe edition with 3 CDs and a bonus DVD along with a beautiful full color book for the hardcore fans. All priced appropriately, with the deluxe edition costing a lot but worth the money for those who really like the albums. The next series of releases includes McCartney, his first solo album (and one of the more popular ones), along with the somewhat less popular McCartney II from later in his career. I think the idea was to start with a bang and get people hooked with the most popular album, and then release a combination of very popular albums and somewhat less popular albums over a period of several years. I ordered the deluxe editions of all three, but I probably wouldn't have ordered McCartney II if I had the option of getting all my favorites first. I'll probably end up buying them all just to have the pretty books all in a row on my shelf.

Translated into Prince terms, WMG and/or Prince could start with a massive Purple Rain campaign, including two or three different versions to appeal to different levels of fans, with the most expensive version featuring many bonus tracks with new material from the vault in pristine quality. A special Revolution reunion concert would certainly help with the promotional bonanza. Then gradually release a series alternating between big hits and lesser known gems, spread out over a few years. For example, For You could be released along with SOTT, being his first album and his first post-Revolution solo album. In other words, milk us for all the money we're willing to put out. I don't mind paying if I'm getting quality for my money.

I'm sure someone at WMG already has a business plan figured out that would maximize their profits. It's all about convincing whoever is now in charge at WMG that it's worth writing the big check to Prince that will get everything rolling. That depends on how much WMG thinks they could make off of this. The clock is ticking on the CD format.

Interesting news developing on Apple's plans for the iCloud:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes...cement/?hp

As I've said before, I think the future of Prince digital remasters is tied to Apple's plans.