feeluupp said:

Bishop31 said:

Other than Purple Rain and the Batman album, Prince has never been a top seller as far as album sales. So, this shouldn't come as a surprise to us Prince fans. Most non-hardcore fans have no awareness of Prince outside of his 1999/Purple Rain era. So, an album titled "The Originals" sparks zero interest from the general public. I don't know what the goals are from the Estate, when it comes to album releases. But, we need to be realistic with our expectations with these chart positions.

He has never been a "TOP" seller, yes he hasn't had Madonna or MJ numbers except for Purple Rain, but he had been a consistant seller from 1983 - 1993 all his albums sold in the millions and in the span he sold almost over 50 million albums world wide, which is a great commercial success.

Nobody did expect Originals to sell well, but tbh I did not excpect Originals to sell this low, way low than Piano & A Microphone.

I really think the estate should be releasing box set deluxe editions of his most popular albums first and a bonus cd that includes vault tracks from that era, but just coming up with these obscure releases doesn't benefit the fans nor the commercial potential.

I absolutely agree with the Deluxe Box Set idea. It's a no-brainer.

Let's be real here, the only songs the general public would know even if they didn't know for sure Prince wrote them, wold be NC2U and Manic Monday.

Jungle Love they know is that song from Purple Rain but lets be honest, how much of the general public know who The Time are? Not to sound selfish but tbh Originals should've just been a bonus disc of vault material to a deluxe box set, seriously...

feeluupp said:

I really think the estate should be releasing box set deluxe editions of his most popular albums first and a bonus cd that includes vault tracks from that era, but just coming up with these obscure releases doesn't benefit the fans nor the commercial potential.

I have no objections here.

A lot of Prince's key albums deserve a proper re-mastering, especially those from the 80s that were transferred to CD en masse. Yet re-mastered albums alongside sets of unreleased material will over saturate the market.

A lot of good points have already been raised so far (ie. Tidal, Prince never being a huge seller aside from key albums, the appeal of posthumous album as a whole, etc).

Despite these factors, haven't 'Piano & A Mic' and 'Originals' felt deliberately limp? We're talking about an artist with a metric ton of unreleased gems in his vault, and what comes out first? A private recording of Prince rolling off some demos and a disk of previously released songs with Prince's vocal track.

My theory is that these albums are just to appease the fans while the Estate decides the best method of dealing with the good stuff.

A look at the upcoming deluxe edition of Originals, 20 page of liner notes:

https://www.facebook.com/...?__tn__=-R

antonb said:

So were fucked

"We"?

feeluupp said:

TwiliteKid said:

Again, you're looking at this through the wrong lens. The label's and sales projections/expecations are much lower than you think they are.

I don't know what label would project lower than 50,000 sales world wide...

What about the cost for the deluxe edition, multiple vinyl colors, etc...

You'd be surprised! Also - remember that these numbers DON'T include vinyl, as they won't be reported until they ship.

In the UK HMV they have it at number 11 on their charts - all other CD's at £9.99 ...Originals in at £14.99 FFS! with really shitty packaging too!!

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

In the UK HMV they have it at number 11 on their charts - all other CD's at £9.99 ...Originals in at £14.99 FFS! with really shitty packaging too!!

Check the packaging for the deluxe set:

The streaming/piece by piece rollout of this skewed the numbers on this one. Either way, lotta untrained numberheads in here pontificating for no reason. I think it is a great release, and frankly, have been very surprised by the amount of reviews and pub it has received. Color me pleasantly surprised and satisfied with the finished product.

feeluupp said:

Piano & A Microphone debuted at #11 with 34k sales, I'm surprised that Originals is projected to sell a lot less...

I'm not. The estate messed up big time by releasing Piano & A Microphone 83 as the first posthumous release. It's probably going to take years to reverse the consumer perception that the only thing in Prince's vault is old cassettes of him fucking around by himself.

FrankieCoco1 said:

EmmaMcG said:

Then there's also the fact that it hasn't been advertised all that well.

I think a lot of people would argue that this is the best promoted Prince release for years, e.g. the amount of coverage in the press (see all the links Bart and a few others have highlighted) and various associate artist interviews. There’s even been some attempt at social media. However, I haven’t even seen it yet in any UK supermarkets, where most product is bought these days.

there were signs all over NYC and stores have all sold out

antonb said:

Trying to make every release into an event ain't working. Set up a website and start emptying the vault. Directly to the hardcore fans. Rehearsals.shows, the lot!

Yep.

If the general public isn't buying releases, and the estate has to monetize the vault, the only thing left to do is sell the vault inventory to the fans who'll buy it.

Us.

RodeoSchro said:

antonb said:

Trying to make every release into an event ain't working. Set up a website and start emptying the vault. Directly to the hardcore fans. Rehearsals.shows, the lot!

Yep.

If the general public isn't buying releases, and the estate has to monetize the vault, the only thing left to do is sell the vault inventory to the fans who'll buy it.

Us.

also need someone who knows what to release

TwiliteKid said:

Genesia said:

TwiliteKid said:

RODSERLING said:

TwiliteKid said:

Again, you're looking at this through the wrong lens. The label's and sales projections/expecations are much lower than you think they are.

Bullshit. With all the coverage in the press, and the contracts and deals signed, the searching of the tapes (3000$ a tape) that cost a lot of money...All of that to be happy with less than 50.000 albums ! Manic Monday reached the 200.000 views on YouTube. That means they made like 200 dollars from this operation lol. It s a little compensation. How many copies of the album have to be sold for them to earn 200 bucks... [Edited 6/26/19 14:31pm]

You don't understand what you're talking about. You never have.

TwiliteKid said:

RODSERLING said:

Let s say the next release next year is 1999 deluxe. . To avoid such a flop, they absolutely have to : . - including a live from this era remasterized in HD - to make a one hour documentary for tv didcuting the making of the album, the outtakes, it's cultural and historical impact, etc. - recertify the album 5*Platinum if necessary - make a one hour take of the live to broadcast it on international tv. - Use the unreleased Xtralovable music video shot by Prince in 2011, with the original 1982 outtake to make a music video on YouTube - remasterized the music video on YouTube. [Edited 6/26/19 7:25am]

Tyka, Sharon, Omarr, anyone, you reading this??

ThatWhiteDude said:

RODSERLING said:

Let s say the next release next year is 1999 deluxe. . To avoid such a flop, they absolutely have to : . - including a live from this era remasterized in HD - to make a one hour documentary for tv didcuting the making of the album, the outtakes, it's cultural and historical impact, etc. - recertify the album 5*Platinum if necessary - make a one hour take of the live to broadcast it on international tv. - Use the unreleased Xtralovable music video shot by Prince in 2011, with the original 1982 outtake to make a music video on YouTube - remasterized the music video on YouTube. [Edited 6/26/19 7:25am]

Tyka, Sharon, Omarr, anyone, you reading this??

If they are and they can decipher it, they're better people than I am.

RODSERLING said:

antonb said:

***harsh truth warning***

Folks, the harsh truth is this Prince albums since 2006 didn't sell all that well, infact, the declinced until 2016. He was alive and touring and couldn't boost sales. So what's the incentive now? His die hards are the only ones who want vault/new music....not the general public.

At some point, the peeps at WB or Sony are to going to pull the plug on any music being released because their won't be an ROI for them. They are going to suck the 1983 to 1986 era dry. we will get 1999 and ATWID and Parade remasters'deluxe and that will be it. Sadly for us.

The estate is going to have to come up with a way to keep that revnue stream flowing, as mentioned by many (and even myself) STREAM EVERY MOTHER F!@#$% thing from the vault...video, concerts, rehearsals, music. EVERYTHING. There will be a slow but constant stream of cash for the estate.

But by the time that will happen, I will be able to ask Prince myself, "Dude..WTF were you thinking? You left things all f!@#$ up down there"

macaylasdad said:

But by the time that will happen, I will be able to ask Prince myself, "Dude..WTF were you thinking? You left things all f!@#$ up down there"

rdhull said:

macaylasdad said:

But by the time that will happen, I will be able to ask Prince myself, "Dude..WTF were you thinking? You left things all f!@#$ up down there"

#facts

macaylasdad said:

***harsh truth warning***

Folks, the harsh truth is this Prince albums since 2006 didn't sell all that well, infact, the declinced until 2016. He was alive and touring and couldn't boost sales. So what's the incentive now? His die hards are the only ones who want vault/new music....not the general public.

At some point, the peeps at WB or Sony are to going to pull the plug on any music being released because their won't be an ROI for them. They are going to suck the 1983 to 1986 era dry. we will get 1999 and ATWID and Parade remasters'deluxe and that will be it. Sadly for us.

The estate is going to have to come up with a way to keep that revnue stream flowing, as mentioned by many (and even myself) STREAM EVERY MOTHER F!@#$% thing from the vault...video, concerts, rehearsals, music. EVERYTHING. There will be a slow but constant stream of cash for the estate.

But by the time that will happen, I will be able to ask Prince myself, "Dude..WTF were you thinking? You left things all f!@#$ up down there"

I agree.

[Edited 6/26/19 20:16pm]

This isn't about record sales or where Prince is charting it's about companies demonstrating the depth and value of his vault while determining the direction of his legacy. These releases aren't designed to be the tools to feed his estate or demonstrate the commercial viability of Prince. These releases are essentially commercials for the real money which is no longer in record sales nor streaming. I am going to make this very clear, record companies are not making money off of album sales and streams. They make money off of rights fees from the streaming companies. The value of Prince is that he is a must have catalog for ANY platform. Warner Bros made their money back and then some for this release already regardless of what it streamed or sold. So all this 'Sales' talk is moot, Prince's value to Warner/Sony is so much more than you think. In fact, it's way more than anyone outside of a very small group. They aren't planning yearly releases for the next 5 years to lose money. BTW, Tidal is extremely happy with the new subscriber numbers.

macaylasdad said:

***harsh truth warning***

Prince was the top selling artist of 2016 and it's stupid to think that Warner or the Estate are just going to be like 'meh' and stop releasing material.

It's also stupid to think that some how emptying the vault online (if that was even technically possible) will some how be a long term money maker over people going "that's cool or whatever but I made a copy of what I wanted so I can't be bothered to pay the $7.77 a month when I can get [name your service] for a few dollars more"

You guys sound like a bunch of Murry Wilsons "I got you a bargain by selling your publishing for $700,000. Surf music is old news. Nobody cares about the Beach Boys anymore and they never will again."

What is with all the junk over "first week" sales?

Today is Wednesday 6/26 and the CD hasn't even yet been out a full week?????