A lot of people on this site talk about what they think prince is going to do with his vault when he dies or why he's not doing something with it now. However, I think he will on his deathbed release it's entire contents for free onto the internet (no printing cost) for everybody.

I know this sounds quite crazy but it sort of makes sense 1.) prince is always talking about how for him it doesn't make sense that people who weren't in the studio with him to being capitalising on his art "everybody be wanting their piece" he knows if he dies somebody that isn't him is going to be profitting massively on something they didn't make! Distributing it for free would be a huge slap in the face to anyone who had their eyes on it. 2.) I cannot think of any close family Prince has that he would leave it to... 3.) there's the issue that if he did this he wouldn't get after death soundscan figures or whatever but i think he really doesn't give a shit about peoples perceptions of him or becoming a huge artist because otherwise he would of put out much better albums post 80's with the best material in his vault and not stuff like Rave or NPS etc

As long as he dies tomorrow or so, I'm completely okay with this. Bring it on! (I also don't care about people's perception of me...)

I'd rather have him live 120 years and c where he goes all along the way musically speaking, I think he still has a few great decades ahead of him (remember that I have been very happy with his post WB music). It's a very sad thing when a talented artist dies 4 we'll never know what was going to happen next: think George Duke, Miles Davis... they still has so much music in them...

As 4 the vault I sure hope he won't wait until he dies 2 open it, but in the end if I had 2 choose I want 2 c what he's gonna do next more than 2 reexplore the past, but both at the same time would b the best

I don't think he would, He'd have to pay for it all to be made digital as i'd imagine the vast majority isnt, the time involved in people doing that would be unreal, plus can you imagine the server costs? the man hours it would take to upload, catogorize, bandwidth costs and everything else?

fnksoul said:

I don't think he would, He'd have to pay for it all to be made digital as i'd imagine the vast majority isnt, the time involved in people doing that would be unreal, plus can you imagine the server costs? the man hours it would take to upload, catogorize, bandwidth costs and everything else?

The mans worth more than a 100 million dollars and this will only increase after his death will more cd sales, patnersnhips etc. it can be paid for.

No 1 will care by then! The music will b old ! The vault is Prince Private Joy!!!

Dilan said:

fnksoul said:

I don't think he would, He'd have to pay for it all to be made digital as i'd imagine the vast majority isnt, the time involved in people doing that would be unreal, plus can you imagine the server costs? the man hours it would take to upload, catogorize, bandwidth costs and everything else?

The mans worth more than a 100 million dollars and this will only increase after his death will more cd sales, patnersnhips etc. it can be paid for.

.

.

I know his fans would be interested in it but it probabaly too small minority to even take the time and money to do so. Its a totally different story to Michael Jackson who's music will be in demand by a larger audience for quite some time, because alot of his tracks are timeless

.

Prince will always be a superstar but to the younger generation he was never as commercially successful and in demand (Younger audience will have missed him in his hayday me included at 26), by the time Prince's time is up there will be even smaller numbers of people who care enough about his Vault tracks.

Dilan said:

fnksoul said:

I don't think he would, He'd have to pay for it all to be made digital as i'd imagine the vast majority isnt, the time involved in people doing that would be unreal, plus can you imagine the server costs? the man hours it would take to upload, catogorize, bandwidth costs and everything else?

The mans worth more than a 100 million dollars and this will only increase after his death will more cd sales, patnersnhips etc. it can be paid for. HA HA HA HA HA HA Where or where is Bart Van Halen when you need him????

In the last ten years, there hasn't been a single dead artist that has made significant profit after their death for a label. On first glance it would seem like MJ did, but SONY shelled out all that money for the unreleased material, and then pissed off fans by remixing songs to the point where we are not even sure if it is his vocals or not. Sony paid the estate the largest guaranteed recoding contract in history for songs that were doomed.

After Sony's EPIC failure with overpaying the Jackson estate, NOBODY is going to pay

Prince's estate anything significant.

Sadly, if Prince had handled his career properly, his masters and other things would be worth something after his death, but he just burned too many bridges, and turned too many people off.

To me, his masters are worth $400 billion, but to the industry, they are nearly worthless. The only reason Warners is trying to deal with him now is to save the sinking ship and get any possible profit left in Purple Rain that is left...

I remember somebody around here talking about the millions Dirty Mind and Controversy remasters would sell. Uh...the originals combined barely sold a million together, and studies on remasters have shown that only a select group of people buy remasters. Most who bought the album once will only buy it once.

Prince hasn't had a hit in ages, and if he died tomorrow, only us diehards would care and spend money.

Since Prince seems careless about the vault material, there are likely haphazard instructions on how and if it can be released.

There is NOTHING that makes it seem likely that ANY substantial profit could be made.

And give it away for free? Prince has told that "Free The Music" lie before. Other than a few ok downloads/You Tube tracks. Prince does not believe in "Free Music."

stillwaiting said:

Dilan said:

The mans worth more than a 100 million dollars and this will only increase after his death will more cd sales, patnersnhips etc. it can be paid for. HA HA HA HA HA HA Where or where is Bart Van Halen when you need him????

In the last ten years, there hasn't been a single dead artist that has made significant profit after their death for a label. On first glance it would seem like MJ did, but SONY shelled out all that money for the unreleased material, and then pissed off fans by remixing songs to the point where we are not even sure if it is his vocals or not. Sony paid the estate the largest guaranteed recoding contract in history for songs that were doomed.

After Sony's EPIC failure with overpaying the Jackson estate, NOBODY is going to pay

Prince's estate anything significant.

Sadly, if Prince had handled his career properly, his masters and other things would be worth something after his death, but he just burned too many bridges, and turned too many people off.

To me, his masters are worth $400 billion, but to the industry, they are nearly worthless. The only reason Warners is trying to deal with him now is to save the sinking ship and get any possible profit left in Purple Rain that is left...

I remember somebody around here talking about the millions Dirty Mind and Controversy remasters would sell. Uh...the originals combined barely sold a million together, and studies on remasters have shown that only a select group of people buy remasters. Most who bought the album once will only buy it once.

Prince hasn't had a hit in ages, and if he died tomorrow, only us diehards would care and spend money.

Since Prince seems careless about the vault material, there are likely haphazard instructions on how and if it can be released.

There is NOTHING that makes it seem likely that ANY substantial profit could be made.

And give it away for free? Prince has told that "Free The Music" lie before. Other than a few ok downloads/You Tube tracks. Prince does not believe in "Free Music."

.

.

I honestly wouldnt be surprised if Prince compiled a selection of albums of any material together how he wanted it and had it written in his will it had to be released as he laid out or not at all. Like you say, Prince's material to a fan is priceless, but by that time there will be less and less of them around and other than the fans no one will be interested especially in Vault tracks, maybe his hits but thats about it.

This makes perfect sense.

I mean, he's already offering his previously released stuff free on youtube.
And, he encourages bootlegging of his live shows already.

Blixical said:

This makes perfect sense.

I mean, he's already offering his previously released stuff free on youtube.
And, he encourages bootlegging of his live shows already.

He does encourage bootlegging of his live shows. His statement encouraging it was after having

his lawyers go after people who were just sharing it on the internet. Same old Prince. Say one thing do another. Sue fans, and then say fans can share music online that he just sued them to stop sharing.

luv4u said:

really...he HAS been releasing vauilt material since 1990

No one but knows who will handle his legacy but I trust him 2 make sure no one will be allowed 2 butcher his vault the way they're butchering Jackson's.

Anyway I wish him a long and happy life, I find it a bit... odd to discuss this in the end, I mean I would certainly feel like "go f... yourself" if people would be discussing technical issues of my legacy after I die on a public forum like this... Not that death is a taboo, but it's not a comfy topic for every one

databank said:

No one but knows who will handle his legacy but I trust him 2 make sure no one will be allowed 2 butcher his vault the way they're butchering Jackson's.

Anyway I wish him a long and happy life, I find it a bit... odd to discuss this in the end, I mean I would certainly feel like "go f... yourself" if people would be discussing technical issues of my legacy after I die on a public forum like this... Not that death is a taboo, but it's not a comfy topic for every one

I think the discussion is fair game. Since I assume you're not a celebrity with a very public work, you likely will not be discussed like this. I would never assume that his music would be treated properly after his death. I just hope he lives to be 100, so I'll be too old to worry if anything bad happens to his music after he dies.

The poor business decisions and awful overly loud mastering of songs like Fallinlove2nite and Breakdown don't give me confidence in the remasters, but one can hope, and I will hope for the best.

luv4u said:

Maybe YOU can come up with some new exciting thread nobody else has made before.

Fat chance of that.

He wouldn't have to though, because I would pay plenty for the things inside of it.

As would many other hardcore fans like myself.

And I am pretty sure he knows this too.

The possible problem of course is would he censor or edit them AND are they being preserved for the future digitally? Because all that analogue tape is very old and possibly degrading over the decades.

Even inside a protected vault, that stuff needs to be transferred to a more stable electronic media.

Tittypants said:

luv4u said:

Maybe YOU can come up with some new exciting thread nobody else has made before.

Are you trying to pull a KCoolmuziq move?

Stevie Wonder has reportedly instucted his estate to destroy all of his unreleased recordings when he dies.Sadly,I think that Prince will do the same thing.

i'd rather just see him pick the best left over songs and put them on his

remastered albums. and perhaps later on release another "crystal ball"

or two with stuff that didn't fit anywhere.

SoulAlive said:

Stevie Wonder has reportedly instucted his estate to destroy all of his unreleased recordings when he dies.Sadly,I think that Prince will do the same thing.

That's not what he said but of course he may change his mind.

Sad news 4 Stevie's vault

no way is he going to give away work he doesn't want to release and profit from today.

the vault will remain vaulted, with mysterious gatekeepers, and lots of rumors.

chances are there isn't as much in that vault in releasable condition as we want to think but it's going to be more than most big name artists leave behind. they'll drip it out like tupac's curiously endless catalog.

databank said:

SoulAlive said:

Stevie Wonder has reportedly instucted his estate to destroy all of his unreleased recordings when he dies.Sadly,I think that Prince will do the same thing.

That's not what he said but of course he may change his mind.

Sad news 4 Stevie's vault

I just don't think that Prince is the type of artist who will want his unreleased music floating around when he's no longer here.I bet that he hates the idea of posthumous albums.

Dilan said:

A lot of people on this site talk about what they think prince is going to do with his vault when he dies or why he's not doing something with it now. However, I think he will on his deathbed release it's entire contents for free onto the internet (no printing cost) for everybody.

Sure, after money his biggest problem are his beliefs.

So no free vault.

Ever.

udo said:

Dilan said:

A lot of people on this site talk about what they think prince is going to do with his vault when he dies or why he's not doing something with it now. However, I think he will on his deathbed release it's entire contents for free onto the internet (no printing cost) for everybody.

Sure, after money his biggest problem are his beliefs.

So no free vault.

Ever.

how have you reached this conclusion? elaborate.

SoulAlive said:

databank said:

That's not what he said but of course he may change his mind.

Sad news 4 Stevie's vault

I just don't think that Prince is the type of artist who will want his unreleased music floating around when he's no longer here.I bet that he hates the idea of posthumous albums.

The only one time he addressed the topic publicly, he said that what wouldn't be released in his lifetime would or at least could be released after he passes. Now that's we're talking about, there is little reason by now 2 believe a word he's saying in interviews (caught lying or contradicting himself waaay too many times) and there's also the risk that he was misquoted, but that's his statement as of now and everything else but that (including my own statement above regarding allowing remixing) is pure, worthless fans speculation.

treehouse said:

no way is he going to give away work he doesn't want to release and profit from today.

the vault will remain vaulted, with mysterious gatekeepers, and lots of rumors.

chances are there isn't as much in that vault in releasable condition as we want to think but it's going to be more than most big name artists leave behind. they'll drip it out like tupac's curiously endless catalog.

I think that if he hasn't found a way to profit from the material in his life time, the material will either be destroyed or released for free. Prince doesn't want anyone else to profit from his work.

"they'll drip it out like tupac's curiously endless catalog." Who are "they"?