Now that album sales are plunging in general, and Prince's new albums seem to sell less and less, are you worried that Prince will stop releasing new music in the (near) future?

I mean, he is getting older and hasn't had a proper hit in 20 years. He has burnt a lot of bridges in the industry and it is getting harder and harder for him to find good channels to release his new creations and get a good sum of money upfront and the right marketing/promotion. Add to that the lukewarm response to his albums from his hardcore fans and the general public alike in the last 15 or 20 years, and I could see Prince doing the maths and stop releasing new music. And just focus on touring his greatest hits, because that is where the money is.

The one thing that I think might keep him going is his work ethic, the man practically lives in the studio and probably doesn't really know what to do else except making new tracks.

Although I am not always very impressed with his new albums, I would still like to get new tunes by Prince from time to time because on almost every new album there are still some gems to be found.

Any thoughts on this matter?

[Edited 10/9/14 6:14am]

funkaholic1972 said:

I am a little worried.

He seems to have put the final nail in his coffin regarding major label releases with the lack of promo for the new albums with WB. His name alone isn't enough to sell records and hasn't been for a long time. Not even all of the regular posters here have bought them, so what hope does he have with the general public? Why would any label want to put his next album out when he won't even go out and promote it?

I'm not sure what the next step is but it'll be interesting to see. I certainly want him to keep putting out new albums.

now would be the perfect time for him to concentrate on his remasters. on a series

of remasters. all his albums from for you up to and including come/gold. that would

give him a chance to get his legacy out there in top quality, to add bonus material -

as a means of extra incentive for fans to buy the product and to get us to just shut

the hell up about his vault.

/

whilst he concentrates on those releases over, say a year or two, he could slowly

assemble another great album (i think AOA is great btw, as is Lotusflower, which

are both albums he took a while to put together). by that time he'll have no problem

finding a distributer, he's prince after all, in a world where the most unknown and

lousy selling acts manage to get cd's released once in a while.

/

in the meantime he could just trickle a few tracks down to us via a website. not at

all unlike he did in the last 4 years.

/

except this time around, he could remain in the spotlight because of the continued

release of remastered albums with bonus material. we all know how good some of

those vault tracks are. such a series would only further cement his legacy and his

position as one of the greatest recording artists in, well, forever.

/

let's just wait and see. but my money, at the moment, is on prince releasing NPGQ,

then another NPG album, another protege album and a few remixes before the end

of the year, whilst completely ignoring the WB released PR remaster

IstenSzek said:

now would be the perfect time for him to concentrate on his remasters. on a series

of remasters. all his albums from for you up to and including come/gold. that would

give him a chance to get his legacy out there in top quality, to add bonus material -

as a means of extra incentive for fans to buy the product and to get us to just shut

the hell up about his vault.

/

whilst he concentrates on those releases over, say a year or two, he could slowly

assemble another great album (i think AOA is great btw, as is Lotusflower, which

are both albums he took a while to put together). by that time he'll have no problem

finding a distributer, he's prince after all, in a world where the most unknown and

lousy selling acts manage to get cd's released once in a while.

/

in the meantime he could just trickle a few tracks down to us via a website. not at

all unlike he did in the last 4 years.

/

except this time around, he could remain in the spotlight because of the continued

release of remastered albums with bonus material. we all know how good some of

those vault tracks are. such a series would only further cement his legacy and his

position as one of the greatest recording artists in, well, forever.

/

let's just wait and see. but my money, at the moment, is on prince releasing NPGQ,

then another NPG album, another protege album and a few remixes before the end

of the year, whilst completely ignoring the WB released PR remaster

Thanks, this was a comforting read! You are probably right.

IstenSzek said:

I'm not worried, as I don't believe commercial success or hits drive Prince at this point. Prince knows he is a seen as a "living legend" now, kind of like Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan probably isn't going to have a hugely commercial succesful album again (meaning an album that produces top 10s etc) but he will continue to release work that is critically acclaimed and recieved well by the fans. I think it's the same for P.

I do agree that right now would be the perfect time to focus on the remasters. I think he should tour to supporst AOA and PE. And over the next few years release remasters and box sets of his classic work, while working on a new album.

What was so wrong with the NPGMC model? He should bring that back and forget about labels and distribution. Once the WB thing is over, Prince probably wont get another label on side again.

Not worried at all.

Prince fans are a weird lot. As far as I know, Prince has recorded more music than any artist in history. Most of that has been released. What hasn't is easily found. If you are a Prince fan today, and you don't have at least 1,000 Prince songs (both live and from the studio), then you just aren't trying.

And yet some clamor for more, more, more! LMFAO, it's so funny to me.

I bet you that if you asked all the Prince fans that complain about output to list their 50 favorite songs of all-time, regardless of artist, Prince songs would make up more than half their lists.

Think about that - for all these people that want more, more, more, half the greatest songs they've ever heard are Prince songs. That's two albums worth, and yet they complain because it's not four album's worth.

Too funny!

Prince is not current, his sales numbers are not a surprise to anyone but .org peps.

He will continue to do whatever he feels like...

After hearing this last album, hell, I wish he would stop if it's going to be more shit like this. Just stop making new music and release the old unreleased jams from the vault as they were originally recorded.

dm3857 said:

warning2all said:

I agree! Now would be the perfect time to focus on his remasters and his legacy.He's neglected it for far too long.

IstenSzek said:

now would be the perfect time for him to concentrate on his remasters. on a series

of remasters. all his albums from for you up to and including come/gold. that would

give him a chance to get his legacy out there in top quality, to add bonus material -

as a means of extra incentive for fans to buy the product and to get us to just shut

the hell up about his vault.

NO

RodeoSchro said:

Not worried at all.

Prince fans are a weird lot. As far as I know, Prince has recorded more music than any artist in history. Most of that has been released. What hasn't is easily found. If you are a Prince fan today, and you don't have at least 1,000 Prince songs (both live and from the studio), then you just aren't trying.

And yet some clamor for more, more, more! LMFAO, it's so funny to me.

I bet you that if you asked all the Prince fans that complain about output to list their 50 favorite songs of all-time, regardless of artist, Prince songs would make up more than half their lists.

Think about that - for all these people that want more, more, more, half the greatest songs they've ever heard are Prince songs. That's two albums worth, and yet they complain because it's not four album's worth.

Too funny!

True.

There's so much to enjoy.

-

As for the topic question, nah.

Prince's soul is music and he wants to be heard.

SoulAlive said:

I agree! Now would be the perfect time to focus on his remasters and his legacy.He's neglected it for far too long.

IstenSzek said:

now would be the perfect time for him to concentrate on his remasters. on a series

of remasters. all his albums from for you up to and including come/gold. that would

give him a chance to get his legacy out there in top quality, to add bonus material -

as a means of extra incentive for fans to buy the product and to get us to just shut

the hell up about his vault.

too busy living in the "now"

A little bit.

I think he's still going to make a few more records, or at least offer some Internet only tracks, and if he goes back to his own "cocoon" of making TRC and Lotusflow3r type of material I won't mind it at all.

Farfunknugin said:

SoulAlive said:

I agree! Now would be the perfect time to focus on his remasters and his legacy.He's neglected it for far too long.

too busy living in the "now"

Yeah,but that needs to change