How can one of the world's biggest and most influencial music labels, a label that launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Madonna, etc., COMPLETELY MISSHANDLE THE RELAUNCHING OF THE BIGGEST ALBUM OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENCIAL ARTISTS, THE SAME ARTIST WHO WAS 2016'S BIGGEST SELLING ARTIST WORLDWIDE???!!!!!!

They can't even do basic PR right anymore.

It boogles the mind...

Here ya go: http://prince.org/msg/7/441628

Apparently the Purple Rain deluxe has reduced Prince.org users to quivering idiocy.

When have we ever cared about WB??

Wlcm2thdwn3 said:

When have we ever cared about WB??

When they started remastering vinyl, and have rights to the vault.

soladeo1 said:

How can one of the world's biggest and most influencial music labels, a label that launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Madonna, etc., COMPLETELY MISSHANDLE THE RELAUNCHING OF THE BIGGEST ALBUM OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENCIAL ARTISTS, THE SAME ARTIST WHO WAS 2016'S BIGGEST SELLING ARTIST WORLDWIDE???!!!!!!

They can't even do basic PR right anymore.

It boogles the mind...

Agreed.

It's because music lovers don't make the decisions and it just gets worse with time.

How is the internet to blame? It's just mishandled, period.

Warners in 2017 isn't comparable to WB in it's heyday, sad to say.

Doozer said:

How is the internet to blame? It's just mishandled, period.

And honestly, where's the mishandling? 2017 is a different market than 1984, or even 1994. Twice they've advertised a post-mortem release. Twice they've previewed, streamed, or touted a much-loved circulating bootleg track to be included. We got "Moonbeam Levels" right out the gate on Prince4Ever. Now a song, "Electric Intercourse", that apparently (in another thread) people didn't even think there was an existing studio version of, is out there for streaming. (Jesus, the play count shot up on my end along a dozen times. LOL)

Prince fans (anyone reading, not the person I'm responding to - and we all know who they are) are the worst at sabotaging a Prince release before it even comes out. And let me tell y'all - if this were solely on NPG records, and WB wasn't in the picture, and people were having trouble finding the album somewhere, or their order on NPGonline.com.net.helpme didn't get filled, they'd still praise everything about it.

But since WB is putting it out (forgetting that Prince oversaw the whole thing in 2014/2015), they feel they have an obligation to say "it's crap, it's about the money, they don't care...slave...CONtract...MASTERS..." blah blah blah.


There won't be huge ads on TV, but there might be some posters that could suffice some fans. It's not out for two-months yet. Let's just hang tight and see what comes of it. Buy your copy, support the project and the estate, tell a friend, and enjoy the damn music. It's what we wanted in 2009, and 2014. It's not 2017 and we're getting it. Be grateful.

TrivialPursuit said:

Doozer said:

How is the internet to blame? It's just mishandled, period.

And honestly, where's the mishandling? 2017 is a different market than 1984, or even 1994. Twice they've advertised a post-mortem release. Twice they've previewed, streamed, or touted a much-loved circulating bootleg track to be included. We got "Moonbeam Levels" right out the gate on Prince4Ever. Now a song, "Electric Intercourse", that apparently (in another thread) people didn't even think there was an existing studio version of, is out there for streaming. (Jesus, the play count shot up on my end along a dozen times. LOL)

Prince fans (anyone reading, not the person I'm responding to - and we all know who they are) are the worst at sabotaging a Prince release before it even comes out. And let me tell y'all - if this were solely on NPG records, and WB wasn't in the picture, and people were having trouble finding the album somewhere, or their order on NPGonline.com.net.helpme didn't get filled, they'd still praise everything about it.

But since WB is putting it out (forgetting that Prince oversaw the whole thing in 2014/2015), they feel they have an obligation to say "it's crap, it's about the money, they don't care...slave...CONtract...MASTERS..." blah blah blah.


There won't be huge ads on TV, but there might be some posters that could suffice some fans. It's not out for two-months yet. Let's just hang tight and see what comes of it. Buy your copy, support the project and the estate, tell a friend, and enjoy the damn music. It's what we wanted in 2009, and 2014. It's not 2017 and we're getting it. Be grateful.

To me, the mishandling is really just about missed opportunities. This set that they announced months ago suddenly appears for pre-order with no announcement at all, and one of the most sought-after outtakes of one of the most prolific musicians in history can be purchased and download, and the only sound is crickets?

I'm not saying it deserves billboards all across America, but if RMA can get the kind of attention they did with the Deliverance EP, surely a major label can do the same with a reissue of one of the best selling and iconic pop albums ever made.

Well, it was quite telling that the press release specifially stated "never before heard even on bootleg" version statement. As if the new WB were cognizant of Prince.Org etc populace and to entice "us/them" because the average Joe-fan woldn't even care or know about some of the tunes they dangled.

And if that is so, why no 17 Days ext or Aug 1983 show? They do know we got all the other shit and what we do want. And thats even how S Rogers made it sound as well.

But lets be honest to. Quivering idiocy? mayhab..but no matter what they release (within the realm of possibility mind you). There would still be disgruntled fans.

I guess they feel that EI would be enough to get our dick hard. But for how long is something I wonder if they thought about.

Thats just how dynamic an artist Prince was.

TrivialPursuit said:

soladeo1 said:

How can one of the world's biggest and most influencial music labels, a label that launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Madonna, etc., COMPLETELY MISSHANDLE THE RELAUNCHING OF THE BIGGEST ALBUM OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENCIAL ARTISTS, THE SAME ARTIST WHO WAS 2016'S BIGGEST SELLING ARTIST WORLDWIDE???!!!!!!

They can't even do basic PR right anymore.

It boogles the mind...

WB music was sold to a private equity group. It is not the influencial company it once was.

TrivialPursuit said:

Doozer said:

How is the internet to blame? It's just mishandled, period.

And honestly, where's the mishandling? 2017 is a different market than 1984, or even 1994. Twice they've advertised a post-mortem release. Twice they've previewed, streamed, or touted a much-loved circulating bootleg track to be included. We got "Moonbeam Levels" right out the gate on Prince4Ever. Now a song, "Electric Intercourse", that apparently (in another thread) people didn't even think there was an existing studio version of, is out there for streaming. (Jesus, the play count shot up on my end along a dozen times. LOL)

Prince fans (anyone reading, not the person I'm responding to - and we all know who they are) are the worst at sabotaging a Prince release before it even comes out. And let me tell y'all - if this were solely on NPG records, and WB wasn't in the picture, and people were having trouble finding the album somewhere, or their order on NPGonline.com.net.helpme didn't get filled, they'd still praise everything about it.

But since WB is putting it out (forgetting that Prince oversaw the whole thing in 2014/2015), they feel they have an obligation to say "it's crap, it's about the money, they don't care...slave...CONtract...MASTERS..." blah blah blah.


There won't be huge ads on TV, but there might be some posters that could suffice some fans. It's not out for two-months yet. Let's just hang tight and see what comes of it. Buy your copy, support the project and the estate, tell a friend, and enjoy the damn music. It's what we wanted in 2009, and 2014. It's not 2017 and we're getting it. Be grateful.

A simple marketing campaign is not that much to ask. They did no marketing for AOA and none for Forver. I do not expect them to speand the money at all because they know their is a fan base waiting to gobble up the music.

Doozer said:

To me, the mishandling is really just about missed opportunities. This set that they announced months ago suddenly appears for pre-order with no announcement at all, and one of the most sought-after outtakes of one of the most prolific musicians in history can be purchased and download, and the only sound is crickets?

I'm not defending WB, but the single has been out only 14 hours. What they have coming is yet to be seen. It does beg the question - is there an audience for this beyond the fanbase. It would surely include casual "OMG I LOVE WHEN DOVES CRY" listeners, but beyond that, is there an audience?

It is 2017, and it is a world of things going viral quickly. However, that never totally sells something. Viral is random and rare, and short-lived. Purple Rain is anything but that, we agree. rdhull sort of aligned with what I was thinking, in that the average-joe listener doesn't know or possibly care about "Electric Intercourse". It's the fanbase.

If they market to a general audience, it'll be the "most iconic rock album/movie in history, remastered!". To us, it's "look, it's Electric Intercourse!"

I do hope they do more in the next two months.

TrivialPursuit said:

Doozer said:

To me, the mishandling is really just about missed opportunities. This set that they announced months ago suddenly appears for pre-order with no announcement at all, and one of the most sought-after outtakes of one of the most prolific musicians in history can be purchased and download, and the only sound is crickets?

I'm not defending WB, but the single has been out only 14 hours. What they have coming is yet to be seen. It does beg the question - is there an audience for this beyond the fanbase. It would surely include casual "OMG I LOVE WHEN DOVES CRY" listeners, but beyond that, is there an audience?

It is 2017, and it is a world of things going viral quickly. However, that never totally sells something. Viral is random and rare, and short-lived. Purple Rain is anything but that, we agree. rdhull sort of aligned with what I was thinking, in that the average-joe listener doesn't know or possibly care about "Electric Intercourse". It's the fanbase.

If they market to a general audience, it'll be the "most iconic rock album/movie in history, remastered!". To us, it's "look, it's Electric Intercourse!"

I do hope they do more in the next two months.

Prince moved 7.7 million units last year.

TrivialPursuit said:

Doozer said:

To me, the mishandling is really just about missed opportunities. This set that they announced months ago suddenly appears for pre-order with no announcement at all, and one of the most sought-after outtakes of one of the most prolific musicians in history can be purchased and download, and the only sound is crickets?

I'm not defending WB, but the single has been out only 14 hours. What they have coming is yet to be seen. It does beg the question - is there an audience for this beyond the fanbase. It would surely include casual "OMG I LOVE WHEN DOVES CRY" listeners, but beyond that, is there an audience?

It is 2017, and it is a world of things going viral quickly. However, that never totally sells something. Viral is random and rare, and short-lived. Purple Rain is anything but that, we agree. rdhull sort of aligned with what I was thinking, in that the average-joe listener doesn't know or possibly care about "Electric Intercourse". It's the fanbase.

If they market to a general audience, it'll be the "most iconic rock album/movie in history, remastered!". To us, it's "look, it's Electric Intercourse!"

I do hope they do more in the next two months.

Money quote. I feel pretty fortunate that they're playing to us with this stuff, at all. I mean - for all that people around here bitch about what was selected for inclusion, this is a pretty sweet set by any objective measure.

laurarichardson said:

A simple marketing campaign is not that much to ask. They did no marketing for AOA and none for Forver. I do not expect them to speand the money at all because they know their is a fan base waiting to gobble up the music.

Again, you're incorrect. If you check threads for the Prince4ever release, people posted left and right when they saw billboards around their town. Not just some side of the road billboard, but huge Times Square-worthy billboards. iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify all had banners across the front of their apps/sites (I saved a couple of them). Every retail outlet that had it pushed it to the front of their sales that week. Best Buy here ran out (I literally got the last one listed for that location), and Target had signs in-store for it. I remember one person on here even questioned what why the billboard had a pound sign next to the title of the album. It was a "DUH, it's a hashtag" moment.

That's marketing.

If you're expecting to see advertisements on TV 24/7 or radio ads, you might be disappointed. I mean, I never see an ad for an album on TV. It's all big pharma and lawyers. AOA & PE were in the news because "Prince returns to WB!" was all over media outlets (print, online, social media).

PS http://www.officialprincemusic.com/

TrivialPursuit said:

PS http://www.officialprincemusic.com/

FINALLY!

Strive said:

Warner has done a horrible job with this.

- Sent a press release with misleading information.

- Missed the Celebration event.

- Missed the anniversary of Prince's death.

- Staying completely quiet while information flooded out from their leaky ship.

- Insanely poor roll out of preorder options. When you compare that to what an indie record company was able to kick up with 15 minute EP that Prince either completely forgot about recording or didn't deem it important enough to try to get back the masters, it's absoluetly disgraceful.

They don't need to do anything for April 21. It's morbid to keep harping on that date and, frankly, it was ill-timed for Paisley Park to plan a celebration on that date. Absolutely tragic. June was the time to do it. Warner Bros has nothing to do with the Paisley Park museum in that, or most any, regard.

As far as the information - hey, we live for those leaks. It's happened for decades with every record company. Someone somewhere is gonna talk. And the fact that the tracklist stayed a secret this long - not too shabby. It was Militant who leaked it, so kudos for Orgers! hehe

The pre-order - meh. I don't always dig the idea of pre-order. It's a way to generate early income and lock someone into something. I'd rather shop local and spend my money in my community, even if it's to my local Target, opposed to a corporate website that is probably a higher price anyway. (Not that I don't support NPG Records.)

I think Prince fans have their expectations, then there's how a record company runs these days. It's such a different, quick-absorb type market anymore. And since records don't sell more than 40 or 50K, maybe 120K depending on the artist, where are the funds coming from to promote on a 1984 scale anyway? There's not exactly going to be a tour for the album.

Strive said:

Warner has done a horrible job with this. - Sent a press release with misleading information. - Missed the Celebration event. - Missed the anniversary of Prince's death. - Staying completely quiet while information flooded out from their leaky ship. - Insanely poor roll out of preorder options. When you compare that to what an indie record company was able to kick up with 15 minute EP that Prince either completely forgot about recording or didn't deem it important enough to try to get back the masters, it's absoluetly disgraceful.

Indeed.

A flurry of missed opportunities and confusion that could have easily been avoided with a proper plan.

The website that is up now should have been up a month ago - with an accompanying Twitter page for updates. The graphic I made with the tracklist should have been made by them before the tracks were registered anywhere, and posted out on Twitter - it would have gone viral amongst the fanbase in a matter of minutes, just as my leaked graphic did.

It's not a lot of work - most of the work happens organically by fans sharing it.

This is all aside from the fact that the package itself leaves a lot to be desired.

They should have taken a cue from Michael Jackson's "Bad 25" deluxe edition that came in suitcase packaging. Whilst that package wasn't perfect either, it did contain:

The remastered CD and DVD package (similar to this : remastered album, disc of outtakes, and live DVD)

A separate CD of the live audio from the DVD
A replica ticket stub from the Bad Tour
A limited edition individually numbered 7" vinyl

A replica tour programme from the Bad Tour
Branded Bad 25 earphones (A bit of a crap idea, but I'm sure something similar and cooler could be done for the same price)

soladeo1 said:

Militant said:

They should have taken a cue from Michael Jackson's "Bad 25" deluxe edition that came in suitcase packaging. Whilst that package wasn't perfect either, it did contain:

The remastered CD and DVD package (similar to this : remastered album, disc of outtakes, and live DVD)

A separate CD of the live audio from the DVD
A replica ticket stub from the Bad Tour
A limited edition individually numbered 7" vinyl

A replica tour programme from the Bad Tour
Branded Bad 25 earphones (A bit of a crap idea, but I'm sure something similar and cooler could be done for the same price)

You talkin' about that "I Just Can't Stop Loving You"? FUCK YES. For years, I missed the spoken intro on that song. It was removed shortly after the album's release, and so many of the tracks were replaced with 7" remix edits. Last year, I found an original pressing of the album, with all the original versions of the songs, including IJCSLY. But to buy that 45" a few years ago was so great. I mean, who issues a 45" anymore on a regular basis? It was such a great throwback issue.

tmcjb said:

Apparently the Purple Rain deluxe has reduced Prince.org users to quivering idiocy.

^^^^Correct answer.....lol

NorthC said:

soladeo1 said:

How can one of the world's biggest and most influencial music labels, a label that launched the careers of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Madonna, etc., COMPLETELY MISSHANDLE THE RELAUNCHING OF THE BIGGEST ALBUM OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENCIAL ARTISTS, THE SAME ARTIST WHO WAS 2016'S BIGGEST SELLING ARTIST WORLDWIDE???!!!!!!

They can't even do basic PR right anymore.

It boogles the mind...

First... WB did not launch the carreer of Bob Dylan. He records (and always has) for Columbia Records. Second... Prince was not the best selling artist worldwide in 2016. Here in Holland, as I read in newspaper NRC, he reached # 9. Third... Yes, WB broke their promise of 2 albums of unreleased music and 2 concert films, but to say they mishandled the whole thing is a bit too much...

I do think that whatever was released would have some disappointed folks here at the org. However, this is not just on the orgers. It was beyond stupid for a major corporation to make a major announcement before they had the goods to deliver. The fact that it came out that way and no one caught the risk of this means at least a few people at WB were just sleepwalking in their job. It only served to needlessly raise the excitement and expectations of the fans, and now their disappointment. I guess they really are Master !

NorthC said:

TrivialPursuit said:

laurarichardson said:

A simple marketing campaign is not that much to ask. They did no marketing for AOA and none for Forver. I do not expect them to speand the money at all because they know their is a fan base waiting to gobble up the music.

Again, you're incorrect. If you check threads for the Prince4ever release, people posted left and right when they saw billboards around their town. Not just some side of the road billboard, but huge Times Square-worthy billboards. iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify all had banners across the front of their apps/sites (I saved a couple of them). Every retail outlet that had it pushed it to the front of their sales that week. Best Buy here ran out (I literally got the last one listed for that location), and Target had signs in-store for it. I remember one person on here even questioned what why the billboard had a pound sign next to the title of the album. It was a "DUH, it's a hashtag" moment.

That's marketing.

If you're expecting to see advertisements on TV 24/7 or radio ads, you might be disappointed. I mean, I never see an ad for an album on TV. It's all big pharma and lawyers. AOA & PE were in the news because "Prince returns to WB!" was all over media outlets (print, online, social media).

If a big billboard is enough marketing for you then that is your opinion. It evidently was not enough since Forever did not do well. I do not expect this company to spend money marketing Prince's music. The believe they have a built in fan base and vast trove of music to pull from there is no reason for them to spend big dollars marketing these projects. Things have also not been going well for the company.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7445935/cameron-strang-warner-bros-records-profile