Just reading this chronology of albums one magazine compiled, and they have 20TEN, Prince's 35th studio album never released in U.S - and then follow that with Plectrum-Electrum, released in 2014.

Does anyone know what was the cause of this uncharacteristic/surprising studio hiatus?

Is it possible that he had the surgery during this time? It's the only window of time that I can see long enough gap where it could have happened. If this is wide-spread knowledge, I'm sorry for the question. Just popped in my head when reading it last week and has nagged me ever since so thought if anyone knows, it would be you guys

no one knows except Prince I don't think. It could be he got tired of albums that he put all his heart and soul into and they didn't sell or make his own fans happy. the lotusflower thing was sort of a bust commercially wasn't it? And of course his "fans" never missed a chance to rip apart anything he did although I think the general consensus was that LOtus was pretty good. The internet might have had something to do with it too, the record business really is dead for all intents and purposes. I don't think a surgery would do that to prince unless it really went horribly wrong, Prince was the most steadfast of all rock stars, you could count on death,taxes and a new prince album once a year before that pretty much.

PeteSilas said:

no one knows except Prince I don't think. It could be he got tired of albums that he put all his heart and soul into and they didn't sell or make his own fans happy. the lotusflower thing was sort of a bust commercially wasn't it? And of course his "fans" never missed a chance to rip apart anything he did although I think the general consensus was that LOtus was pretty good. The internet might have had something to do with it too, the record business really is dead for all intents and purposes. I don't think a surgery would do that to prince unless it really went horribly wrong, Prince was the most steadfast of all rock stars, you could count on death,taxes and a new prince album once a year before that pretty much.

Very true, only he knows. And putting all that energy, heart and soul into projects that weren't well received/ripped apart could wear on a person. Just as you stated, we could count on a new Prince album practically annually prior to that which is why it stands out so much. I wasn't sure if there was a known reason out there. The report did state he had the scarring on hip and knee one would have from surgeries. Recovering from those kind of surgeries can take at least half a year each. Hopefully that's not what the case was. Hopefully he finally took a bit of a break, to recharge the spirit and the mind, and take some time to enjoy other things in life. But even as I type that I hear him saying 'I AM Music' and think nope, it wasn't for that either.

PeteSilas said:

all i remember it was yet another prince album in the cheap bins. not that that reflects on the quality, i remember seeing his albums in cutout bins even in his golden period.

http://prince.org/msg/7/426593

Two posts where no one knows the answer

suomynona said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/426593

Two posts where no one knows the answer

Thank you for posting that, I didn't see another one but maybe didn't go far back enough

ForeverPaisley said:

suomynona said:

http://prince.org/msg/7/426593

Two posts where no one knows the answer

Thank you for posting that, I didn't see another one but maybe didn't go far back enough

You bet. The Google custom search in the upper right hand corner is super helpful since so many threads are posted here on a daily basis that don't get any replies. They quickly bury the threads of substance.

I keep forgetting about that But has come in handy for those 'I could have sworn I just saw a thread about _____' moments

He stated that he didn't believe in the album format anymore, until he had a change of mind with AOA / PE. He was touring the world for a very long time with the "Welcome 2..." shows and, as far as we know, he was still recording music and it got released on his 3EG site and seemingly "leaked" via Youtube and other sites earlier.

Prince wasn't the only big name that got disillusioned with albums around that time. For example, Beck had a very long break in that sense. I think they just got tired of the low sales and only started putting out more music when everyone seemed to have accepted sales were going to be low in any case and not a real measure of popularity.

novabrkr said:

He stated that he didn't believe in the album format anymore, until he had a change of mind with AOA / PE. He was touring the world for a very long time with the "Welcome 2..." shows and, as far as we know, he was still recording music and it got released on his 3EG site and seemingly "leaked" via Youtube and other sites earlier.

Prince wasn't the only big name that got disillusioned with albums around that time. For example, Beck had a very long break in that sense. I think they just got tired of the low sales and only started putting out more music when everyone seemed to have accepted sales were going to be low in any case and not a real measure of popularity.

That is a really great perspective actually, maybe just hanging back to let the industry catch up with the fact that there's an overall decrease, not just one or two artists.

There was no recording nor touring hiatus. Prince rehearsed and toured all the time. Most of HitnRun Phase Two was recorded during those years, as well as at least one unreleased album titled Welcome 2 America and countless other songs, several of which were released as stand-alone singles or streamed. He also recorded a whole album with Andy Allo, released in 2012, and most of PlectrumElectrum is likely to have already been recorded by mid-2013.

There was only a hiatus in releasing albums, which Prince commented as stated above as him being in a stand alone singles phase, IIRC there was kind of a "the internet killed albums, one doesn't make dough with album anymore" statement when he mentioned that, I think it was in 2011 or 2012. Then as always he changed his mind and we got 4 albums in a little more than a year (5 if you count his work on Judith' album).

If u look at my discography site, u realize that a LOT of music was made available in 2011, 2012 and particularly 2013, though most of it was streamed or stand alone digital singles.

I can say as an artist myself, and having worked with major labels, that a LOT of what we heard from industry people in those years was that we were in "a singles market". I can't tell you the amount of conversations we had with labels, management, etc etc where that phrase was used.

And we all believed it. But it was all based on figures and data. It wasn't based on ART. If you look at it from a short term play, it was true. Keep releasing singles, keep releasing singles. Keep making a small splash every month or two.

But it negates the album as a complete artist statement, a cohesive experience, something with long term impact. That's the problem with that play.

As novabrkr says - Prince wasn't the only one not releasing albums during this time. But it doesn't mean he recorded any less.