Maybe I'm spoiled - I have become accustomed to hearing NEW Prince music (album) every year or so. The last album was after World Cup 2010. What's up with that Prince.

Need new Funk, Rock, R&B, and Jazz tunes for the Bose in my car and my house (Double album, even).

Is this the longest wait ever?

regards

The Wizard

A "MasterPiece" takes time

thats normal for any artist except prince

[Edited 5/30/12 13:39pm]

We shouldn't assume that Prince will release another album...

It's unfortunate, especially since I've been more excited about Prince's releases since 2000 than I ever was in the '90s.

'The Rainbow Children'

'N.E.W.S.'

'Musicology'

'3121'

'Planet Earth'

'Lotusflow3r'

All fantastic albums

'MPLSound' and '20ten' were also slammin'.

He's either run out of distribution ideas, or has lost interest in sharing his new creations with a laregly unappreciative fan base.

Who knows... maybe all of this touring is creating enough revenue to fund his own distribution. Previously, he relied on others for distribution of his label. He could have a plan to devise a massive independant distribution.

Of course, there's always the argument of:

"Why doesn't he just create a website, and let folks order new albums?"

I would say that would limit the buyers to mainly just his fanbase.

Others may say:

"Why not just charge for a download, and therefore he would have no material costs?"

Personally, I prefer a physical format with artwork and credits... Vinyl or CD... and no, I don't want to make my own CD inserts.

I'd say he is disgruntled with both the state of the "single-minded" music trends - All based on singles not albums, and downloading mp3s via iTunes, combined with the constant negativity and bashing he gets from a lot of his fans.

?

[Edited 6/22/12 12:26pm]

i wonder if he's been recording during his downtime..

[Edited 5/30/12 14:07pm]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

A "MasterPiece" takes time

my thoughts exactly

i'm not sure that distribution or financial gain from album sales is really a problem

at this point.

even with an album in stores, he'll make, what, 5 million at the very most if he'd

sell 500,000 copies at $ 10.-

that is before printing and distribution and giving a record company some share in

the profits, however small.

he seems to make a lot more money from touring. so much so in fact that 5 mill is

not really an incentive to release a new album.

but why would he not want to release new music anymore? because there is not a

big enough market? because his well has run dry? because filesharing is a problem

to him?

all of those seem like weak reasons.

his fanbase has been pretty steady since 1996, with a notable spike from 2004-2006.

sales went down since then, yes, but he also had some clever ways to still get his cd

out there and make himself a decent amount of cash in the process (probably even a

bit more cash from albums like "Planet Earth" or "20Ten" than he made from having

"musicology" or "3121" distributed by major labels, selling pretty good numbers, since

he was given his money up front before even a single unit was sold. plus having his

new music distributed right to millions of doorsteps in the process).

if the numbers of sales were large enough from 96-09, then there is no reason to be

in doubt that they would be sufficient at this point. eventho prince himself hasn't done

a whole lot exactly to build a solid artist/consumer base. notably the lotusflower site,

which was a total bust, for various reasons (ironically since the lotusflower title disc is

his strongest album since TRC).

so then, has his well run dry? perhaps. although it seems unlikely. he still managed to

give us roughly an album a year for the last decade. one could argue that perhaps a

large portion of those were comprised of vault material, but i don't think that's really

the case. besides, there is "vault material" and "Vault Material". a song written in '04

and released in '07 does not constitute a "vault" track to me.

"the dance electric" or "extraloveable '11", those are vault tracks.

plus, he's already debuted about half a dozen new songs in concert on the W2A tour.

so he's got the material, wether it would be all new material, recent vault material or

vintage vault material. new albums, rerecorded vault tracks, remasters with bonus,

etc etc. the possibilities are endless.

which brings us to the point prince mentioned himself: filesharing.

once again. i fail to see how he would be upset by filesharing. he has a pretty solid

fanbase. longtime, loyal fans. they bitch and moan, yes, but they still buy the album

or the dvd or the concert tickets whenever they get the chance.

and even if half his fanbase illegally downloads his music without buying it. looking at

it from the money point of view: he doesn't need the money in the first place since he

makes tons more from touring and album gains are pretty much 'peanuts' to him if

you compare them to his other revenue.

also, with distribution models like the paper deals etc, he made a lot of money and he

got it up front. no matter how many people 'bought' the album or how many just got

it online. prince already sat on his big fat check by that time.

i'm sure there would be more distribution chances like that. for instance with a really

big U.S. based magazine etc etc.

even setting up his own, very basic website and just advertise his product. no shady

promises, no subscriptions, just emails sent out to all adresses he still has on file and

pressreleases to media stating "new album ready. on sale in 2 weeks, go to website

to preview, and buy" one click stop.

there must be another reason why he hasn't released anything just yet. either he's

just slowing down, or it's something else. but i don't think that it's either numbers,

inspiration or filesharing.

purpleshadow said:

thats normal for any artist except prince

[Edited 5/30/12 13:39pm]

It didn't used to be. Almost everyone, with the exception of Michael Jackson, released an album every year and that was back when it took a full band to record songs. Nowadays, all they have to do is press buttons on computers to make music and it takes people two and three years to release an album. It's ass backwards these days.

Giovanni777 said:

I'd say he is disgruntled with both the state of the "single-minded" music trends - All based on singles not albums, and downloading mp3s via iTunes, combined with the constant negativity and bashing he gets from a lot of his fans.

you made a lot of valid points in your post, as usual.

however, i fail to see why prince should feel 'disgruntled' at the single-minded music trend since he

hasn't been selling for ages to the public who the single-minded market caters to.

his fans are largely people who grew up with his music and appreciate him for his albums and not

just his singles. sure, there are lots of new fans everytime he's done a large tour. he pretty much

confirms that by saying he has to play the hits to 'casual fans'.

however, i think he doesn't realise how quickly a 'casual prince fan' becomes a 'complete fan' if you

could use such a term. i've hardly ever spoken to anyone who had even a faint liking of prince and

didn't go from buying 2 or 3 singles to collecting his entire back catalogue. the people who give his

music a shot soon realise that his albums are solid and prince never was a 'singles artist'.

selling his albums on itunes, for instance, would not result in his 'new' album selling disproportionat

numbers between 'the single' and 'the album tracks'. if anything, he'd sell a couple thousand more

numbers of 'the single' but his album sales would remain where they have been for the past ten to

twenty years. not phenomenal, but decent and profitable.

the second point is the disgruntled fans bitching about his music constantly. once again i don't see

how prince would feel affected by this. people have been saying some nasty shit about him and his

music since he hit superstardom with purple rain. he's a grown man who knows that you can't do

anything that will please everyone. his music is simply too diverse for that anyway.

and no matter how many people call his product sub par or total crap online, they still flock to his

shows in tens of thousands. shows still selling out in a day, more shows having to be added in all

areas where he shows up.

if he cared about what his fans thought about his musical output in regards to albums, he would

have catered to them better as of late. i can see how it would be hard to strike a balance between

giving fans material they would really want (lots of vault tracks) and material that would go down

well with a major label who'm you'd be hoping to distribute and promote it (most likely they would

want something sleak, mainstream and radio friendly).

but even when he had the npgmc, he never really gave us what we were yearning for. we got 2

prime era tracks and the rest was all new material (which was just fine with me as well but it was

a bit of a let down to have so few 'old' tracks).

he knows all the people who complain about his 'new' music are for the most part people who just

want him to go back to what he sounded like in the 80s or early 90s. well, what would be more of

a breeze than just give them the remasters they have been calling out for all these years, coupled

with some vault tracks and alternates etc? win win situation. fans happy, even those who normally

just bitch, and prince happy with his albums being remastered, remarketed and sold like hot cakes.

then he could tour the shit out of all that again and make another 100.000.000

no, i still think that it's none of the above. there's something else going on. either this is the calm

before the storm and the floodgates will open by the end of this year or mid next year. or he is on

some totally different trip and will just lounge it out from now on with perhaps a small release once

every 3 years.

but all these problems we're seeing have been there for more than a decade now. they've never

stopped him from doing his own thing before.

let's just wait until andy's album drops (if and when it drops) and if we haven't heard anything on

the prince new album front a year down the road from that, we might be in for a really long and

boring dry spell.

Maybe he is retiring, many artists do in their 50s, 2 years and I agree, yes it is going past his usual gap. Thee was 20 months between Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r and 2 years between Rave and the Rainbow children, but he did do Rave un2 and was working on NPG projects and albums for Larry Graham and Chaka, but what he is doing now, not even a protege. Usually on tour he would be popping into studios to lay down more tracks, but no, maybe like Coltrane, he's decided he can not do anything new now.

David Bowie ironically has not given us a whole new studio album since 2003's Reality, yet before it he was popping them out on average every 2 years.

Its possible too, he may be planning a Greatest Hits 1993 - 2010 set or even going to start remastering his classic albums as he gains them back, this year he gets 1999 back and in 2 years Purple Rain.

Adorecream said:

Maybe he is retiring, many artists do in their 50s, 2 years and I agree, yes it is going past his usual gap. Thee was 20 months between Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r and 2 years between Rave and the Rainbow children, but he did do Rave un2 and was working on NPG projects and albums for Larry Graham and Chaka, but what he is doing now, not even a protege. Usually on tour he would be popping into studios to lay down more tracks, but no, maybe like Coltrane, he's decided he can not do anything new now.

David Bowie ironically has not given us a whole new studio album since 2003's Reality, yet before it he was popping them out on average every 2 years.

Its possible too, he may be planning a Greatest Hits 1993 - 2010 set or even going to start remastering his classic albums as he gains them back, this year he gets 1999 back and in 2 years Purple Rain.

Actually he gave Andy Allo three of his "MasterPieces" 4 her new album coming out this year...He has been in the studio with her since last year...

Adorecream said:

Maybe he is retiring, many artists do in their 50s, 2 years and I agree, yes it is going past his usual gap. Thee was 20 months between Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r and 2 years between Rave and the Rainbow children, but he did do Rave un2 and was working on NPG projects and albums for Larry Graham and Chaka, but what he is doing now, not even a protege. Usually on tour he would be popping into studios to lay down more tracks, but no, maybe like Coltrane, he's decided he can not do anything new now.

David Bowie ironically has not given us a whole new studio album since 2003's Reality, yet before it he was popping them out on average every 2 years.

Its possible too, he may be planning a Greatest Hits 1993 - 2010 set or even going to start remastering his classic albums as he gains them back, this year he gets 1999 back and in 2 years Purple Rain.

eh?

coltrane died in his early 30's way way too soon and was incredibly prolific

jonylawson said:

Adorecream said:

Maybe he is retiring, many artists do in their 50s, 2 years and I agree, yes it is going past his usual gap. Thee was 20 months between Planet Earth and Lotusflow3r and 2 years between Rave and the Rainbow children, but he did do Rave un2 and was working on NPG projects and albums for Larry Graham and Chaka, but what he is doing now, not even a protege. Usually on tour he would be popping into studios to lay down more tracks, but no, maybe like Coltrane, he's decided he can not do anything new now.

David Bowie ironically has not given us a whole new studio album since 2003's Reality, yet before it he was popping them out on average every 2 years.

Its possible too, he may be planning a Greatest Hits 1993 - 2010 set or even going to start remastering his classic albums as he gains them back, this year he gets 1999 back and in 2 years Purple Rain.

eh?

coltrane died in his early 30's way way too soon and was incredibly prolific

he wasn't talking about john coltrane, he was talking about billy "hard axe bill" coltrane, the legendary improvisational polka musician.......damn that guy was sick

:

ARock said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

A "MasterPiece" takes time

my thoughts exactly

yeahthat:

He could be waiting for a certain anniversary date to roll around, such as, for example, the 30th anniversary of Purple Rain in 2014. If he released a new album in connection with a remastered Purple Rain box and another major tour, there would be a lot of cross-promotion opportunities. The surviving Beach Boys put out a new album this year to go along with their tour and soon-to-come reissued catalog material. It seems that these days, from the artist's perspective, albums promote tours rather than vice versa.

Before I get flamed as a "hater" this is just my honest opinion...

I am fine if he never releases another album. I really do not believe 80% of the stuff he has released in the past 25 years should have ever seen the light of day. Some of it was meh ok, but it mostly denigrated him and his art in a way that was unnecessary. At this point, after so many half ass albums, if he had another great album in him, and released it, it would probably just gather dust and be ignored by the masses and fans alike, like the rest of his post 80's albums. Whereas people once expected nothing but the best out of him, people (bar the extreme fanatics) expect fluff, filler and pandering now and nothing else.

[Edited 5/30/12 21:14pm]

Giovanni777 said:

We shouldn't assume that Prince will release another album...

It's unfortunate, especially since I've been more exited about Prince's releases since 2000 than I ever was in the '90s.

'The Rainbow Children'

'N.E.W.S.'

'Musicology'

'3121'

'Planet Earth'

'Lotusflow3r'

All fantastic albums

'MPLSound' and '20ten' were also slammin'.

He's either run out of distribution ideas, or has lost interest in sharing his new creations with a laregly unappreciative fan base.

Who knows... maybe all of this touring is creating enough revenue to fund his own distribution. Previously, he relied on others for distribution of his label. He could have a plan to devise a massive independant distribution.

Of course, there's always the argument of:

"Why doesn't he just create a website, and let folks order new albums?"

I would say that would limit the buyers to mainly just his fanbase.

Others may say:

"Why not just charge for a download, and therefore he would have no material costs?"

Personally, I prefer a physical format with artwork and credits... Vinyl or CD... and no, I don't want to make my own CD inserts.

I'd say he is disgruntled with both the state of the "single-minded" music trends - All based on singles not albums, and downloading mp3s via iTunes, combined with the constant negativity and bashing he gets from a lot of his fans.

?

[Edited 5/30/12 13:40pm]

All great points. One day there will be renewed appreciation for his 2000 catalog; so much brilliant organic music. I can't stand fools who dismiss everything he has done since 1990. I would also argue that if you edit down his 90's output, there is a brilliant box set.

But I believe you are wrong with your opening sentence- there is no way he will not create and release new music. He has been doing so for the last 35 years of his life. It is central to who he is. There will always be some market, somewhere or somehow, for his music.

IMO He's finding the funk. He needs to do something different then the 20ten/Lotus vein, he's finding his muse. He needed to get out of his current rut and find something new.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

A "MasterPiece" takes time

says the guy who considers all of Prince's musical farts a masterpiece...

vainandy said:

purpleshadow said:

thats normal for any artist except prince

[Edited 5/30/12 13:39pm]

It didn't used to be. Almost everyone, with the exception of Michael Jackson, released an album every year and that was back when it took a full band to record songs. Nowadays, all they have to do is press buttons on computers to make music and it takes people two and three years to release an album. It's ass backwards these days.

Everyone released an album every year? in the 60's and 70's this was common, and a select few in the early 80's but I can name tons of major artists that had gaps between albums from 1985 on. Prince was flooding the market as the market changed. Sure Prince's big singles got airplay, but his albums didn't sell much after 1985....these groups had great album sales and nice gaps between them :

Aerosmith: 1987, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001

U2: 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009...it has almost been 25 years since they released an album 2 years in a row(1987-1988).

Lenny Kravitz: 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2011

REM(must have been copying Lenny): 1998, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2011

Bruce Springsteen: 1995, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012....maybe the closest thing to support your point...

These are ones I know, but I could look up The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Madonna, Billy Joel, Elton John....from 1988 or so, doubt any of these had an album every year.

U put Prince's total album sells next 2 them . He still ranks high. Whether it is gaps between theirs or not. Doesn't matter.......

He gave u the answer in the last song on his last US release: No more candy 4 U

Militant said:

jonylawson said:

eh?

coltrane died in his early 30's way way too soon and was incredibly prolific

he wasn't talking about john coltrane, he was talking about billy "hard axe bill" coltrane, the legendary improvisational polka musician.......damn that guy was sick

Man, that takes me back.....I remember stumbling on "The Best of Hard Axe" in a second-hand record store ( that's right...vinyl) when I was in high school. It blew my mind. No one, and I mean NOONE played polka with the passion of Hard Axe. The guy was a freak and really pushed the polka envelope to to breaking point. When he first hit the scene he upset alot of traditionalists with his unusual arrangements of polka classics but they soon came 'round. Of course alot of people say he sold out in his later years but I think his last album "Hard Axe to Follow" was ahead of its time and I think, unfortunately, its genius will only be truly appreciated by future generations of polka fans.

SDNafka said:

Militant said:

he wasn't talking about john coltrane, he was talking about billy "hard axe bill" coltrane, the legendary improvisational polka musician.......damn that guy was sick

Man, that takes me back.....I remember stumbling on "The Best of Hard Axe" in a second-hand record store ( that's right...vinyl) when I was in high school. It blew my mind. No one, and I mean NOONE played polka with the passion of Hard Axe. The guy was a freak and really pushed the polka envelope to to breaking point. When he first hit the scene he upset alot of traditionalists with his unusual arrangements of polka classics but they soon came 'round. Of course alot of people say he sold out in his later years but I think his last album "Hard Axe to Follow" was ahead of its time and I think, unfortunately, its genius will only be truly appreciated by future generations of polka fans.

Giovanni777 said:

We shouldn't assume that Prince will release another album...

It's unfortunate, especially since I've been more exited about Prince's releases since 2000 than I ever was in the '90s.

'The Rainbow Children'

'N.E.W.S.'

'Musicology'

'3121'

'Planet Earth'

'Lotusflow3r'

All fantastic albums

'MPLSound' and '20ten' were also slammin'.

He's either run out of distribution ideas, or has lost interest in sharing his new creations with a laregly unappreciative fan base.

Who knows... maybe all of this touring is creating enough revenue to fund his own distribution. Previously, he relied on others for distribution of his label. He could have a plan to devise a massive independant distribution.

Of course, there's always the argument of:

"Why doesn't he just create a website, and let folks order new albums?"

I would say that would limit the buyers to mainly just his fanbase.

Others may say:

"Why not just charge for a download, and therefore he would have no material costs?"

Personally, I prefer a physical format with artwork and credits... Vinyl or CD... and no, I don't want to make my own CD inserts.

I'd say he is disgruntled with both the state of the "single-minded" music trends - All based on singles not albums, and downloading mp3s via iTunes, combined with the constant negativity and bashing he gets from a lot of his fans.

?

[Edited 5/30/12 13:40pm]

Not necessarily in disagreement with your post, but duck-lips are never sexy and even less often acceptable. Jersey Shore is NOT a drama.

Hopefully it won't be another MDNA

Doesn't really matter to me. The longer he makes us wait for new material, the more I find myself listening to his vault material and other artists.

And to be honest, in doing that, it gives me very little hope that he still has a fresh, relatable, stonker of an album in him.

I still hold out hope, but like I said, the longer I wait, the less I care about new stuff, so it's no biggie.