We have all seen the tidal waves of unauthorized Prince stuff that has resurfaced. It is as if people think that Prince was personally policing the web and now that he is dead, he cant get after them. To m, it is tantamount to running through his house and taking things that he wouldn't have wanted taken. Whatever your position on bootlegs, the wishes of the dearly departed (if you truly loved Prince) can not be denied even if they are ignored. It is easy to say what difference does it make now - he's gone.

The only "deluge of unauthorized material" I've seen is YouTube vids and the crappy shirts that people are selling on Facebook.

Did a bunch of new audio leak or something?

As Prince fan I'm thrilled some videos are back on YT.

And I hope other people can finally see how great he was live!!

DMSR in Detroit, Jazz festival, Superbowl, Livesexy....

On the otherhand it sometimes doesn't feel right because I know he didn't like it.

Still, it's the best way 2 keep his legacy alive.

When asked about the vault he said it belonged 2 the world when he's gone...maybe this also concerns his videos?

What I wonder about, is that Prince clearly had people policing all this stuff and getting everything taken down. After he passed, did whoever he employed to do such things simply stop? Did they decide to allow it in tribute? Will someone eventually shut everything down as Prince did?

Paisley4u said:

As Prince fan I'm thrilled some videos are back on YT.

And I hope other people can finally see how great he was live!!

DMSR in Detroit, Jazz festival, Superbowl, Livesexy....

On the otherhand it sometimes doesn't feel right because I know he didn't like it.

Still, it's the best way 2 keep his legacy alive.

When asked about the vault he said it belonged 2 the world when he's gone...maybe this also concerns his videos?

Saw a fairly recent interview (maybe the View) where he was asked if he'll ever release the vault material and he said something like, "Well, someone will release it, probably not me."

jpav said:

What I wonder about, is that Prince clearly had people policing all this stuff and getting everything taken down. After he passed, did whoever he employed to do such things simply stop? Did they decide to allow it in tribute? Will someone eventually shut everything down as Prince did?

Right - apparently all these poeple posting in this frenzy think that these employees either dont exist or have simply given up

FUNKYNESS said:

As for the vids, I say great. They are the single biggest thing that is showing the curious what they've been missing, nobody is losing $ and as of yet, there is no "authorized" way of checking them out.

As far as bootlegs, for the most part, at least with public blogs & torrent sites, they seem to be sticking to the same protocol they had before he passed. If they banned & removed his stuff before his death, they still are. If they ignored his wishes before, well, nothing's changed except the level of interest.

As far as material that was uncirculating 2 weeks ago, a few new things have surfaced but unless I'm missing something (and I am looking) not much. A few outtakes, a few shows, that seems to be about it, and that's nothing unusual for those of us that collect bootlegs.

The only thing that I don't like about the youtube vids are the few that are protected and therefore cannot be saved to my hard drive..

Sure, I have almost all of it, but, I'm finding that many of my DVDRs made 15 years ago will no longer rip to my hard drive, so, I'm trying to back up everything I can find just in case.

Really, I couldn't be happier that more people finally get to see this stuff. Just sayin'...

jpav said:

What I wonder about, is that Prince clearly had people policing all this stuff and getting everything taken down. After he passed, did whoever he employed to do such things simply stop? Did they decide to allow it in tribute? Will someone eventually shut everything down as Prince did?

I suppose theres no one to pay them now . Nobody knows who owns his money .

To each his own.

TrevorAyer said:

Prince wanted all his money to go towards the right ideas and peoples ...

Then he should have made a will.

His estate is worth billions going forward from just the royalty checks alone. Bring into the equation any vault material, meuseum, etc, and that billions is arrived at even faster. Think of the payroll he had when he was alive to deal with, 95%+ of that payroll will be gone, now it is just money coming in. Since his passing the sales have already juiced up his estate value significantly.

I don't think online stuff will do anything other than boost potential profits, that is world we will live in. People flock to youtube to check out artists, if they dig it, well, most will go out an buy some real stuff, and if they don't, these aren't the folks that would have bought anything anyway, so, no loss....it's a win win for the Prince camp having as much material to access online as possible imo.

[Edited 5/7/16 9:10am]

I don't know which is more incredible. The amount of unauthorised material, or the amount of views everything is getting. Millions and millions in just two weeks. I've seen things I'd never seen before. ONA TRC tour in Japan for example and the full 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival.

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I always thought Prince was a genius but I think I underestimated him. His concert skills and talent just surpass anything I've ever seen from one person before. Jaw dropping.

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But it is sad that all of sudden his absence has opened a floodgate and that the amount of views is earning money for someone other than him. But maybe this is what he knew would happen. If he hadn't made up a will at this time, I wonder if he ever would have.

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Hopefully in a month it will have quietened down, but I don't see how the Web sheriff could keep up. Impossible. It's an ocean out there and it's all Prince.