Why is PRINCE always so against Greatest Hits Complilation albums??

In 1993 after several years of trying to earlier, WB paid PRINCE over 1 million just to stay away from The Hits/The B-Sides project.

In 2001 with the Very Best of Prince, Prince was upset and even wanted to release The Very Best of 0+> just to compete with the album.

In 2006 Ultimate Prince was delayed 3 times by Prince, he didn't want it to compete with 3121... Eventually being released on the 3rd attempt by Warners...

My question is why PRINCE so against compilation albums of his greatest hits? Commercially he killed all his chances throughout the years. His greatest hits collections were so badly put together, there was so much material...

When you look at Madonna's greatest hits packages like The Immaculate Collection it sold over 30 Million copies world wide.

Prince on the other hand had very low sales with all his greatest hits compilations, never endorsing the projects or contributing properly.

The Hits/The B-Sides only sold 1 million, Very Best Of only sold 1 million, and Ultimate barely went Gold...

Maybe the reason also ties in why we still have no re-mastered albums from his 80's catalouge after 30 years as well as the promised Purple Rain Deluxe reissue...

He simply does not like to revist or glorify his past, even if his "past" is what his legacy is built on. It's sad he keeps sabotaging his exposure... No youtube, his complete collection is almost impossible to obtain by regular music listeners, his social media prescence is a disaster, he's playing games with streaming sites now, and on top of that to a non Prince fan trying to discover Prince is like a lost cause... In 2015 the first thing you do to search for an artist is youtube them... All the amazing concerts... It's so sad... He just keeps killing his legacy more and more.

[Edited 8/15/15 19:48pm]

Because Prince want you to only be able to hear crystal clear versions of his old hits, is by purchasing a ticket to one of his concerts. Prince is all about those $$$ these days (as in decades).

Because if he released a career-spanning box, people will say: 'why didn't he just stop making music in 1993 [1995]?'

NorthC said:

Because he doesn't want Warners to make money from them. It's as simple as that.

Of course, that's why he signed back with Warner Bros.....

According to Prince, a greatest hits album should only be release when a recording artist is dead and gone, NOT when he/she is still alive.

TonyVanDam said:

According to Prince, a greatest hits album should only be release when a recording artist is dead and gone, NOT when he/she is still alive.

But playing a friggin sampler set and shouting "I have too many hits!" is totally fine with him.

[Edited 8/16/15 5:50am]

I'm surprised you need to ask that question, considering :

- his well-known feud with WBR;

- his well-known desire to release his latest work;

- the many times he stated he was looking forward, not backward;

- how after he left WBR, he had his own NPG albums to sell;

- the more hit collections an artist has, the more likely it is customers don't buy the albums themselves (now that's irrelevant because you can buy a single tune, but it used to a factor.

feeluupp said:

Why is PRINCE always so against Greatest Hits Complilation albums??

In 1993 after several years of trying to earlier, WB paid PRINCE over 1 million just to stay away from The Hits/The B-Sides project.

In 2001 with the Very Best of Prince, Prince was upset and even wanted to release The Very Best of 0+> just to compete with the album.

In 2006 Ultimate Prince was delayed 3 times by Prince, he didn't want it to compete with 3121... Eventually being released on the 3rd attempt by Warners...

My question is why PRINCE so against compilation albums of his greatest hits?

Because they're for legacy acts. They only get released when a record company decides there is more money to be made from re-selling hit songs than what there is selling new music.

Commercially he killed all his chances throughout the years. His greatest hits collections were so badly put together, there was so much material...

The Hit's B-sides was well put together. Sold well, all 3 discs charted. How many artists had multiple top 10/20 albums that year?

When you look at Madonna's greatest hits packages like The Immaculate Collection it sold over 30 Million copies world wide.

Not sure what your point is here? Prince has never sold numbers like Madonna?

Prince on the other hand had very low sales with all his greatest hits compilations, never endorsing the projects or contributing properly.

The Hits/The B-Sides only sold 1 million, Very Best Of only sold 1 million, and Ultimate barely went Gold...

... and SOTT sold piss poor numbers. You're talking like everything Prince does sells 20 million albums. Purple Rain was the exception rather than the rule.

Maybe the reason also ties in why we still have no re-mastered albums from his 80's catalouge after 30 years as well as the promised Purple Rain Deluxe reissue...

He simply does not like to revist or glorify his past, even if his "past" is what his legacy is built on. It's sad he keeps sabotaging his exposure... No youtube, his complete collection is almost impossible to obtain by regular music listeners, his social media prescence is a disaster, he's playing games with streaming sites now, and on top of that to a non Prince fan trying to discover Prince is like a lost cause... In 2015 the first thing you do to search for an artist is youtube them... All the amazing concerts... It's so sad... He just keeps killing his legacy more and more.

He's not killing anything. If you want those old albums go out and buy them rather than expecting everything to be on youtube for free.

Killing his legacy would be uploading it all to the internet and allowing people to just have it for free. His music would become unsellable.

I think he saw them as like an autobiography, it's what you do at the end as a fullstop. He doesn't want a fullstop, he wants to believe the ink is still flowing freely.

Also, Prince changes his mind more than he changes his underwear, there's been times when he was behind a greatest hits or best of release, he had a best ballads album planned at one point iirc. And of course he doesn't mind his shows being a greatest hits-fest these days.

[Edited 8/16/15 12:12pm]

because he hasn't had any greatest hits in the last 20 years to justify a new one! karma is a bitch! lol

[Edited 8/16/15 17:32pm]

feeluupp said:

Why is PRINCE always so against Greatest Hits Complilation albums??

In 1993 after several years of trying to earlier, WB paid PRINCE over 1 million just to stay away from The Hits/The B-Sides project.

In 2001 with the Very Best of Prince, Prince was upset and even wanted to release The Very Best of 0+> just to compete with the album.

In 2006 Ultimate Prince was delayed 3 times by Prince, he didn't want it to compete with 3121... Eventually being released on the 3rd attempt by Warners...

My question is why PRINCE so against compilation albums of his greatest hits? Commercially he killed all his chances throughout the years. His greatest hits collections were so badly put together, there was so much material...

When you look at Madonna's greatest hits packages like The Immaculate Collection it sold over 30 Million copies world wide.

Prince on the other hand had very low sales with all his greatest hits compilations, never endorsing the projects or contributing properly.

The Hits/The B-Sides only sold 1 million, Very Best Of only sold 1 million, and Ultimate barely went Gold...

Maybe the reason also ties in why we still have no re-mastered albums from his 80's catalouge after 30 years as well as the promised Purple Rain Deluxe reissue...

He simply does not like to revist or glorify his past, even if his "past" is what his legacy is built on. It's sad he keeps sabotaging his exposure... No youtube, his complete collection is almost impossible to obtain by regular music listeners, his social media prescence is a disaster, he's playing games with streaming sites now, and on top of that to a non Prince fan trying to discover Prince is like a lost cause... In 2015 the first thing you do to search for an artist is youtube them... All the amazing concerts... It's so sad... He just keeps killing his legacy more and more.

[Edited 8/15/15 19:48pm]

I believe u answered your own question and beat a lot of dead horses at the same time, which is a pretty amazing contribution to this forum.

It's really nice to have a weekly "Prince's business strategy sucks" thread in addition to the weekly "Prince is over and done" thread.

Thank you. Love. Bye.

Probably the main reason is that Greatest Hit albums are usually 'stop gap' projects designed to keep an artist in the public eye between their regular releases. It is very common for a band or musician to want to take a break and during their down time (or during a long tour that keeps them from recording) they release a live album or a greatest hits album.

Prince on the other hand is always recording and almost always more interested in his next project than he is with his previous project. For the most part, Prince tries to put albums and music out as fast as possible. When he doesn't release a new album (such as 1983), this is generally calculated to get people interested in his upcoming release.

Because he has so much music being recorded, he has to make a decision: Do I want my new music out there? Or do I want my old music out there? It is tricky to have both in the marketplace at the same time because they'd be in competition for the same money.

My guess is that this is a calculation he goes through every time one of these greatest hits collections is brought up to him.

I wish he'd release a box of live tours on CD, or a box set of each decade. He just doesn't seem to enjoy going back to the vault as much as his fans would like.

Well Prince is an album artist, he treats most of his album projects like an opera, a symphony and a story so that the album is to be listened to complete like a masterwork.

.

Having singles and cuts from albums destroys Prince's context. He is not an artist like most that issue albums of some loosely cobbled together filler and 2 or 3 hit singles. With Prince, most of his albums, they have a single them and each song or cut has a piece of the tale or the allegory he is laying on us. So I guess to him, greatest hit collections are like a series of poorly planned and malignant cuts in several different pies badly cobbled together so you get something that does not sound like a cobbled whole. Prince is not like many lesser artists (Motown singers, the Hollies, Nelly) who take 10 or 20 years to have 10 or 20 hit singles and 300 or 400 pieces of crap inbetween. Nearly all of Pricne's albums are fullof cuts that easily could have been singles or otherwise strengthened his artistic vision (The late 90s onwards, some albums and cuts challenge this legacy).

.

I can see his point, I find it hard to listen to songs off Controversy and then one off Plectrum Electrum followed by the Gold Experience and a cut off 1999, just sounds wrong. You need to listen to groups of songs from the same album or era to get a fulsome listening experience.