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Future of Prince Album Releases It seems like the past 4 years have been a struggle in terms of Prince having a solid record distribution deal...
With 20Ten only being released in a few countries in the Daily Mail in Europe, and having a hard time distributing any new albums with any record lables in the U.S. since 2014...
In the summer of 2014 we heard the new deal with WB, receiving his masters back... The PR Delux Remaster that never came through, the 2 new albums AOA and Plectrum Electrum, a recent speculated summer album named Free Urself...
But what do you think is the future of Prince releasing albums again with real record labels after the very poor commercial performance of his recent 2 albums...
According to the Global Album Sales Chart
AOA was on the TOP 40 for 3 weeks, fell off the TOP 40 in the 4th week so sales after that were all below 10k.
Plectrum had dismal dismal sales... Fell off the TOP 40 in the second week.
AOA: 173K world wide
Plectrum: 69K world wide
[Edited 6/24/15 13:12pm] | |
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Lotusflow3r was actually a huge commercial success... Released in 2009 only available at Target and his now defunct website, it sold over 530,000 in the U.S. alone and certified GOLD. Just being sold at Target... However the years after that, with the influx of new streaming music services, social media and his lack of social media prescence especially on You Tube etc... I feel Prince has really really dug himself in a hole where he just has no impact in terms of selling any more records now. | |
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what upside does he have career wise if he say has a top 10 song? Just curious in how his career would be better than it is now..And really, do you really want him to have a strong social netwoking presence with all the foolishness and bs | |
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No I'm just getting worried now... When an artist can't sell more than 200,000 copies world wide... Will that effect his future album releases with record companies or will he just be independt from now on... | |
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Cmon, this is prince. He does not need to sell any more records at all. he sells out arenas consistently on the strength of his name alone. plus A&O SOLD PRETTY well with out any serious radio play or a tour to go with it. | |
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I for one am glad he doesn't have a social media presecne. Too many of the artists I like lose their mystic and coolness they have when they are constantly on social media tweeting about doing things that I am doing too. Oh wow you are eating Pho too, I had that last night for dinner. Prince is still too cool for school because I have no idea what he is doing right now. But if I go to my tweeter feed I can see what 189 of my other favorite artists are doing. I don't think Prince's career could be any better right now. How many artists from 1977 are still sealing out shows, like 10?
As far as album sales go, they will consistently decrease over time. Only hardcore collectors will buy vinyls everyone else will just digitally download music. If Prince wanted to get a top 10 hit he would have to have some social media beef with Chris Brown or get "caught" hooking up with Kim Kardashsian. Only people who are social media whores top the charts these days. | |
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AOA sold 173k WORLDWIDE... | |
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Stop the Prince Apologists ™ | |
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That's the whole point of the thread... I'm concerned now what is the FUTURE for more albums released for Prince. Yes he is a legend, he can tour anytime, etc... But albums?? If he signed this new contract with WARNERS... AOA and Plectrum really bombed, regardless in a decrease of selling albums for artists today, most of the hot acts don't sell well yes, but they STREAM well... Prince has very little streaming prescence... | |
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Just 5 years ago Lotusflow3r sold over 520,000 in the U.S. alone... In 5 more years will Prince even be able to sell 100,000 anymore? | |
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I think Prince will always find a major record company to release an album, but I think those releases will be far and between. I think he will continue to release songs via Soundcloud, Twitter and other sites. His next album on a major might be next year, because I assume Warner Bros will want to milk his back catalogue for remasters if it does happen. I don't know if he is a free agent or not but Prince will always find a way to release new music. New albums is a little bit more murky. 3121 #1 THIS YEAR | |
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Stop the Prince Apologists ™ | |
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AOA sold 173k WORLDWIDE...
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wow...thats shockingly low..
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It really is, that's why im concerned for the future of releasing ALBUMS... | |
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for real...it seems like the current album buying demographic, sees Prince as some sort of caricature of older R&B, instead of the genius that he is/was.... eerily similar to the way my generation looked at Little Richard and Ike Turner...the Dr Pepper/Lil Sweet commercials and the comedians continuously using P for comedy fodder,leads me to believe thats what may have happened...kinda sad...but he always was the 2nd coming of Little Richard...at least image-wise
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People always complain here sales mean nothing blah blah... Well these last 2 albums sales were so atrocious... I wouldn't be surprised if the WB deal is null and void by now... How can he come after a 4 year hiatius and not promote... This sales or not just low sales... These are sales that you have to be worried about if you want Prince to continue making music and releasing it in the market...
I don't know if people are reading this correctly but Plectrum sold 69k total worldwide!!! That is shockingly something to worry about. | |
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does that knee grow looked worried, only ones worried are you who have absolutley no horse in the race at all.... | |
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Well this person is the one who buys his albums so the horse can enter the race... | |
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Most record labels don't want to get into bed with this guy because he's too much of a headache to deal with, then there's no guarantee he'll promote the product anyways. | |
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I agree... All these old time acts you see on the top selling albums of 2014- 2015, including one that has passed away (MJ) sold because of promotion...
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feeluupp said:
People always complain here sales mean nothing blah blah... Well these last 2 albums sales were so atrocious... I wouldn't be surprised if the WB deal is null and void by now... How can he come after a 4 year hiatius and not promote... This sales or not just low sales... These are sales that you have to be worried about if you want Prince to continue making music and releasing it in the market...
I don't know if people are reading this correctly but Plectrum sold 69k total worldwide!!! That is shockingly something to worry about. Has anyone representing WB given any indication of being unhappy with Prince or that their contract is null and void? Unless there is evidence of WB's ending their relationship there is no need for worrying....yet. | |
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Selling 69k copies worldwide, any record label should be worried about that... | |
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feeluupp said:
Selling 69k copies worldwide, any record label should be worried about that... You are projecting your feelings on a situation that you are ignorant of any details. Logically one would expect WB to be concerned with the lackluster sales but there have been no signs that they are. I don't believe WB cares about his album sales. WB & Prince ended their years of legal wrestling and the new contract was done to make Prince look like a still viable star. It allowed Prince to save face. WB barely put any promotion into AOA & PE. I doubt if they were surprised at the low sales figures. | |
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(Well at least before his deal with WB.) Stop the Prince Apologists ™ | |
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Yep. Prince is rich and famous enough for his own liking. | |
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Are you sure Lotusflow3r certified GOLD? Accoring to https://www.riaa.com/search.php his last certified album was 3121. http://www.goldiesparade.co.uk/ - Prince discography, tour history, news and more. | |
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Like I already pointed months ago numerous times, Prince's carreer on the BB 200 is now over. He won't release any physical album neither. He would go only digital because nobody would be crazy enough to sign him. I don't understand what kind of proof THEDOORKEEPER wants. You will never heard that a deal is dead in the entertainment business, just that things are delayed. AOA and PLEC were huge flop, Prince didn't do any promotion, they didn't release PR 30, and as of now, more than a year after the deal was announced, WB will maybe release it later this year...digitally only and without any bonus content. I knew that "THE DEAL IS DEAD" was already written in capital letters the day they released AOA and PLEC (and even before), but you were too blind to see it. [Edited 6/25/15 2:56am] | |
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Prince never had issues getting a record or distribution deal. The Target and newspapers distribution of the LF trilogy and 20ten respectively was a choice, he deliberately broke his deal with Kobalt to get back with WB and sales of the last 2 albums, while weak by Prince's classic standards, are reasonable in the current context of the music industry: most of the artists I listen to hardly sell that many copies, and still they have record deals. Majors don't have the same expectations they used to have, and there are hundreds of indie labels who make their dough selling a few dozen thousands of anything they release at the very most. Imagine that Jesse Johnson sold 400,000 copies of Shockadelica in 1986 and at the time this was considered a disappointment by his label, while today a "small" act like Jesse was at the time would struggle to sell 20,000 copies. People on the org have to stop thinking sales as if it was 1991. The problem isn't the labels, the problem is Prince himself: he doesn't consider record sales sufficient enough to be worth the effort, live shows have become is primary source of income and this is why he doesn't care for releasing albums anymore, he said it himself in an interview. I think it's a pity, because since he keeps recording as much as he used to he would still make some small cash by sellinbg the albums, but obviously this is not how he thinks, at least at the moment. A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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Stop the Prince Apologists ™ | |
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Except for a very few names such as Springsteen, this list is made of whores selling vacuum cleaners to debilitated audiences, I'm sure glad Prince isn't making the kind of "music" that allow today's whores to sell records by the hundreds of thousands A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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