He will release some of it if and when he is offered a check that makes him happy. What number has to be on that check will depend on his finances at the time and the state of the music industry. Just look at what happened with the Black Album in 1994. No reason to release that then except that he wanted or needed money.

The dude's not that hard to figure out when it comes to this kind of thing.

Tremolina said:

JowiiCoco said:

You call hundreds of thousands of people worldwide a niche market when you have the internet at your hands to sell it to them, with practically no production and release costs compared to a normal release? I call that: cha ching!! (provided it is executed the right way of course)

30-40 GREAT songs that WE know of yes. That's still potentially three discs (or more) of extremely worthy material.

And that COULD be issued together with the remasters of 1999, Purple Rain and Sign of the Times.

EASILY, including live material.

Also, how many were people lining up to get a copy of CB?

From what I've gathered on this site, he made SHITLOADS of money with CB.

But it was a distributional DISASTER.

[Edited 7/14/11 6:14am]

I don't think there's hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are that interested in his unreleased songs.

Yes, 30-40 songs that we know of, which is roughly 10% of the songs we know? And those were the "good" years. So let's say that 10% of the songs in his vault are of said quality. That means he has to pick the right time to release them to maximize the profits. As long he can tour and make good money, he won't be in a hurry to release them (I think).

I'd love to see him release more vault material, but I just don't see it happening any time soon and from his perspective I can understand why.

JowiiCoco said:

Tremolina said:

I don't think there's hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are that interested in his unreleased songs.

Yes, 30-40 songs that we know of, which is roughly 10% of the songs we know? And those were the "good" years. So let's say that 10% of the songs in his vault are of said quality. That means he has to pick the right time to release them to maximize the profits. As long he can tour and make good money, he won't be in a hurry to release them (I think).

I'd love to see him release more vault material, but I just don't see it happening any time soon and from his perspective I can understand why.

There are that amount of people interested in his concerts and his 80's material. Shit, even his hardly promoted albums of the last decade managed to sell several hundreds of thousands copies each at least.

I don't see remasters and vault plus live releases happening any time soon either, but not because he doesn't see the money in it himself.

More likely that there are a lot of legal issues to deal with first and that potential distributors don't want to pay him millions upfront, afraid they would not make enough, off work that has already been paid for and produced decades ago.

Selling a lot is always a matter of the right timing and marketing. But damn, we are talking PRINCE here. Not some long forgotten act from the 80's. No, one of the greatest of that decade along with MJ, Maggie and U2 that is still going strong. Like fuck, that he wouldn't sell when they do it right.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:10am]

Tremolina said:

JowiiCoco said:

I don't think there's hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are that interested in his unreleased songs.

Yes, 30-40 songs that we know of, which is roughly 10% of the songs we know? And those were the "good" years. So let's say that 10% of the songs in his vault are of said quality. That means he has to pick the right time to release them to maximize the profits. As long he can tour and make good money, he won't be in a hurry to release them (I think).

I'd love to see him release more vault material, but I just don't see it happening any time soon and from his perspective I can understand why.

There are that amount of people interested in his concerts and his 80's material. Shit, even his hardly promoted albums of the last decade managed to sell several hundreds of thousands copies each at least.

I don't see remasters and vault plus live releases happening any time soon either, but not because he doesn't see the money in it himself.

More likely that there are a lot of legal issues to deal with first and that potential distributors don't want to pay him millions upfront, afraid they would not make enough, off work that has already been paid for and produced decades ago.

Selling a lot is always a matter of the right timing and marketing. But damn, we are talking PRINCE here. Not some long forgotten act from the 80's. No, one of the greatest of that decade along with MJ, Maggie and U2 that is still going strong. Like fuck, that he wouldn't sell when they do it right.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:10am]

Prince has a history of not doing things right, so if or when he's going to release those tracks I wouldn't count on him making all the right choices. Right now he can still tour and he seems to enjoy it as well. He also doesn't need money badly, nor is he offered the kind of money up front to make him change his mind. I imagine vault songs and the royalties to his back catalogue are some sort of financial security. The only reason Prince is still making good money is because he's able to tour. That's also the reason why he isn't completely forgotten, because make no mistake about it, lots of people at his shows can't really tell you what he has done in the past 15 years or so.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:34am]

a minute after never

JowiiCoco said:

Tremolina said:

There are that amount of people interested in his concerts and his 80's material. Shit, even his hardly promoted albums of the last decade managed to sell several hundreds of thousands copies each at least.

I don't see remasters and vault plus live releases happening any time soon either, but not because he doesn't see the money in it himself.

More likely that there are a lot of legal issues to deal with first and that potential distributors don't want to pay him millions upfront, afraid they would not make enough, off work that has already been paid for and produced decades ago.

Selling a lot is always a matter of the right timing and marketing. But damn, we are talking PRINCE here. Not some long forgotten act from the 80's. No, one of the greatest of that decade along with MJ, Maggie and U2 that is still going strong. Like fuck, that he wouldn't sell when they do it right.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:10am]

Prince has a history of not doing things right, so if or when he's going to release those tracks I wouldn't count on him making all the right choices. Right now he can still tour and he seems to enjoy it as well. He also doesn't need money badly, nor is he offered the kind of money up front to make him change his mind. I imagine vault songs and the royalties to his back catalogue are some sort of financial security. The only reason Prince is still making good money is because he's able to tour. That's also the reason why he isn't completely forgotten, because make no mistake about it, lots of people at his shows can't really tell you what he has done in the past 15 years or so.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:34am]

Yes, Prince has a history of not making the right business choices. But the main business choice here is to release remasters, plus live and unreleased material, or not.

To make money with it and enlarge his fanbase or not. To make sure his legacy of masterpieces sounds excellent and his unreleased gems and concerts are shared with the world, or not. To let that sound business opportunity pass again and again or not.

Name me one other artist in his class and category that has released remasters and/or live/unreleased material, but then it flopped.

Further, the publishing royalties from his backcatalogue would receive a major boost if he released remasters. How is that for financial security? But the longer he waits with remasters and unreleased gems, the less interesting they could become.

You know how much Prince likes money. No matter how much he makes touring, if the deal and number offered for remaster releases is attractive enough for him, he would do it.

And who wouldn't really?

My guess is that no such deal has been offered to him (yet).

[Edited 7/14/11 11:13am]

JowiiCoco said:

Tremolina said:

There are that amount of people interested in his concerts and his 80's material. Shit, even his hardly promoted albums of the last decade managed to sell several hundreds of thousands copies each at least.

I don't see remasters and vault plus live releases happening any time soon either, but not because he doesn't see the money in it himself.

More likely that there are a lot of legal issues to deal with first and that potential distributors don't want to pay him millions upfront, afraid they would not make enough, off work that has already been paid for and produced decades ago.

Selling a lot is always a matter of the right timing and marketing. But damn, we are talking PRINCE here. Not some long forgotten act from the 80's. No, one of the greatest of that decade along with MJ, Maggie and U2 that is still going strong. Like fuck, that he wouldn't sell when they do it right.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:10am]

Prince has a history of not doing things right, so if or when he's going to release those tracks I wouldn't count on him making all the right choices. Right now he can still tour and he seems to enjoy it as well. He also doesn't need money badly, nor is he offered the kind of money up front to make him change his mind. I imagine vault songs and the royalties to his back catalogue are some sort of financial security. The only reason Prince is still making good money is because he's able to tour. That's also the reason why he isn't completely forgotten, because make no mistake about it, lots of people at his shows can't really tell you what he has done in the past 15 years or so.

[Edited 7/14/11 10:34am]

I agree. But his ability to sell tickets is tied to the economy. If things get worse and we slide into another recession, he may not be able to make enough from touring to pay all his bills. His various troubles paying tax authorities and lawyers suggest that he isn't far from that point already. Remember "White Mansion?" If things get bad it could put him in a box where he has to choose between several options that he doesn't like. I'll bet he'd rather release some stuff from the vault than have to sell Paisley Park to pay his property taxes.

It would require Prince to sit down and focus on something that occurred in the past and he has little interest in that. I don't know if WB owns any share of the music recorded then or any rights to it because I haven't read their actual contract, but they did pay for the studio time, engineers, equipment, etc. for them to be recorded so there may be a legitimate claim to some share to recoup losses.

Sadly, I don't think that most of the stuff in Prince's vault is all that great. Yes there are some really great songs (Grand Progression, etc.) but most of them are more interesting to hardcore fans. I doubt there are many songs in there that would have real chart potential if released today.

I just don't picture Prince doing this properly because of all of the obstacles involved and that it would focus on his past and not his current music.

My guess is that we'll have to wait until he is gone, then the estate might start releasing things in a focused project or two... if they are being well kept in the vault, which I don't think they are.

If he gave away the songs for free he would difuse all the bootlegs.

madhouseman said:

My guess is that we'll have to wait until he is gone, then the estate might start releasing things in a focused project or two... if they are being well kept in the vault, which I don't think they are.

What "estate"?

Who really would control his work then? His (what) family? The WTS? Nobody???

[Edited 7/14/11 15:04pm]

Tremolina said:

madhouseman said:

My guess is that we'll have to wait until he is gone, then the estate might start releasing things in a focused project or two... if they are being well kept in the vault, which I don't think they are.

What "estate"?

Who really would control his work then? His (what) family? The WTS? Nobody???

[Edited 7/14/11 15:04pm]

I don't know who his estate is, but it could be a charity or family member. I'm sure that he has a will that tells exactly what is to be done with his music, etc.

(Perhaps the myth of the vast quality of Prince's unheard vault material is more valuable as a myth to Prince, and therefore the answer is: never? )

But I do think it'll come out some day, but it will be after his death. It wouldn't be far off to imagine, that Prince might have planned for his estate to release new albums every year far, far, far into the future (with films, music videos, album covers and singles even!) and thereby practically making him an immortal. I'm sure Prince himself would think he could pull a stunt like that off.

And it would not surprise me the least if Prince planned to extend his minute controlling feminine hands into the future, longer after his death. (And I think that it would be cool if an artist kept control like that after his or her death, to avoid the Hendrix/Jackson scenario of aimless exploitation).

But who knows?

this stuff will never seee the light of day. I wouldnt get my hopes up

I think if he does a big reissue project, he'll probably put something out.But I just think we're also talking about material he had put aside for other people to sing, and a lot of that has prob. already been heard, except in the vault, it's Prince singing or an instrumental version.

Tremolina said:

raddahone said:

imho...his music and videos are his children. don't all children come from God. children are birthed when the time is right. it doesn't feel 2 me that it is about $$ that is reaped from selling kidz from the vault. when the 'time' is right for ppl to vibe on what is in the vault, then it will be released. imho. they will be re-leased when Spirit wants them released. it is all about Spirit and God and Soul and the jiva honoring the ParaAtman. love1another.

Yo no creo eso. Sí, creo que canciónes son como creaciónes, pero no son como ninos. Son creaciónes del mente del artista, in realidad, no más y no menos.

Sin embargo, sí es verdad que el artista puede tener una relación muy personal con su trabajo, que puede causar que algunas vezes no lo quiere publicar. O que no crea que sea una buena obra.

Además, cuando el artista tiene un espiritu fuerte que le pone en sus obras tambien, sí puede ser, que sus creaciónes influyen sus admiradores en su mente, possiblemente en formas el artista no quisiera. Es possible sí, que crea que el dia de publicar su creaciones, todovía no ha llegado.

Porque es su creación.

[Edited 7/14/11 6:46am]

Hola – su escritura en español es tan hermosa. El príncipe indicó en algún lugar que sus canciones estuvieron como sus niños. Pienso que ha vertido tanto de él mismo en música eso, como indica, es música. Dios es el amor, la vida, la música, y en nuestros niños. Por favor no dibuje la analogía de esto que digo que el Príncipe es Dios. Creo que Dios está en todos nosotros.

La música es un río que fluye de la Fuente/Dios a ésos que tan es fiado muy de oye que o nada en ello. En la misma vena, los niños son un honor y la responsabilidad tremendos de cuidar de. Algunos de nosotros los cuidamos de en un sentido astral – inclusive canciones/música. Sí, el Príncipe tiene cada derecho de no publicar el que él no escoge. ¿Así, quizá la pregunta llega a ser de quién se fía él después de que haya traducido (dio)?

Yo no me siento que Príncipe trata de influir nadie – posiblemente se comparte por la música, y comparte en cambio su Ser más alto. Pero, escuchando la música influye los que escuchan. Optimistamente, la oración es siempre para el alto bueno de cada y cada uno que escucha la música. Pero, oí que el otro día para no orar para nada porque Dios sabe lo que nosotros desea/necesidad. La oración es realmente un acto de gratitud como si todo que necesitamos es ya aquí y dado por Espíritu. Quizá es – para debe fluir del más alto al astral al físico. La música parece fluir como un río que va hacia arriba…. vendiendo la música de cámara para el dinero es sólo un cambio de energía en otra forma.

Tomo esta espalda a L4OA y lo que hace hacemos en un mundo donde dinero ya no fue necesario. Nosotros no podemos tomar dinero con nosotros cuando dejemos este mundo físico...gracias.

ThreadBare said:

What is Prince waiting for?

Hmmm.

Either Larry will sell the songs if P dies soon but probably he won't due to the songs' lyrics.

udo said:

ThreadBare said:

What is Prince waiting for?

Hmmm.

Either Larry will sell the songs if P dies soon but probably he won't due to the songs' lyrics.

So why did Prince already remaster albums like Dirty Mind, with songs like 'Sister'?

Then he wouldn't have done that either because of their explicit lyrics.

My thread went international. I love it. ¡Ay!

Trashcat said:

udo said:

Hmmm.

Either Larry will sell the songs if P dies soon but probably he won't due to the songs' lyrics.

So why did Prince already remaster albums like Dirty Mind, with songs like 'Sister'?

Then he wouldn't have done that either because of their explicit lyrics.

When someone overpays for the right to format and release the songs while allowing him to retain the publishing rights.

soulpride said:

He is not about to go broke, Interest, his money makes it's own money.

Implying what?

We just mean that he does not use his catalogue properly. (when did you see remasters, collector's editions, etc, etc, etc, etc?)

He does not consistently record. (a record a year? every two years? three?)

He does not consistently tour. (any pattern visible in the locations, dates?)

That's not a complaint, but saying stuff like his money works is not so right on the money when he `forgets` to pay certain bills.

Prince must have some multimillionaires as fans. People who would be happy to spend a few million on getting those songs released, without having to own rights.

Let's find these people and hook them up!!

Prince Vault material of Concerts,Videos,Songs the bulk of it will be there until he leaves the earth. I was told by a dancer that use to dance 4 him. She asked him why he records & films so much and never releases it. He told her so when he passes away they can release new material every year 4 21 years after he expires.....

When we all are dead unfortunaltey...we havent seen a sweet set since 1997 and I dont think one is coming anytime soon

I would hate to be 80 and think...oh yeah now it comes out on my hospital bedspread.

its obvious he never will. My only question is when he dies who gets the music if anyone? or will it be cremated with him?

Larry will take care of the vault.

I don't find it too hard to believe he'd put one out without edits any day now.