1999 Deluxe is the third release from the estate. I can understand that some weren't thrilled with the first two but this one of his biggest albums and had four discs worth of unreleased material...and it couln't sell 15k in the first week?

A lot of people are probably content with just streaming the album, or maybe some can't afford the whole set at the moment?

mbdtyler said:

A lot of people are probably content with just streaming the album, or maybe some can't afford the whole set at the moment?

Yeah streaming is king but the set had a DVD too and nice packaging...this set is UNBELIEVABLY great. And the price is a steal. How many of you downloaded this for free? 'Fess up!

AND, looking at this from a practical angle, it is time to pay your year-end taxes, & get your loved ones a gift. I am going to order it, as I am a vinyl freak but this month I just can't yet. But as soon as I recoop a little, I am. I want it soooo bad.....

LoveGalore said:

As usual a Prince fan struggles to deal with the fact Prince is not an epic seller and nobody buys physical but the truly diehard. You should be so lucky to get a huge physical package. Relax! As seen by the set's elusiveness in brick and mortar stores, the estate predicted tiny sales.

Dude I've been following Pince's career for nearly 40 years. I've witnessed his peaks and valleys saleswise. Never mattered much to me but I'm just conderned about the estate's incentive to keep the same pace of releases. Of course witht he market shirnking they should be full speed ahead anyway regardless.

homesquid said:

LoveGalore said:

As usual a Prince fan struggles to deal with the fact Prince is not an epic seller and nobody buys physical but the truly diehard. You should be so lucky to get a huge physical package. Relax! As seen by the set's elusiveness in brick and mortar stores, the estate predicted tiny sales.

Dude I've been following Pince's career for nearly 40 years. I've witnessed his peaks and valleys saleswise. Never mattered much to me but I'm just conderned about the estate's incentive to keep the same pace of releases. Of course witht he market shirnking they should be full speed ahead anyway regardless.

Perspective is important - this is only week 1. They are going to continue with the releases as these releases are historic. And they really sell themselves - 1999 has had nearly 40 years of promo done.

I was gifted the Super Deluxe set and it just arrived and was ordered from the Prince website. First of all, they need to get this stuff out a hell of a lot faster than it is coming out. We were notified it shipped the 28th and it took too long to get here. I'd have expected an order right from the site to be here within 2 or 3 days at the most. Secondly, both the estate as well as the myriad of other people out there selling Prince materials need to be a lot smarter in their timing. Releasing such a massive set of music, along with several books by other artists in the month prior to/running into the Christmas season is just plain stupid. People are shopping for gifts and the timing is just terrible to be releasing this stuff. Unless one is well off, it's tough to come up with several hundred dollars extra to make personal purchases now.

[Edited 12/7/19 23:49pm]

homesquid said:

They did a fine job, but there's some hangover by the last two releases, combined with a lack of new material for hardcore fans. Let's face it, 1999 wasn't screaming out for a remaster the way Purple Rain was (especially for people who bought it on CD), and the idea of owning 7" edits isn't as interesting as the 12" versions. Then there's just the limitation of inerest in 1999 and how saturated those classics are at this point. I think ATWID and Parade are going to lend themselves more to remastering. Maybe SOTT. I'd rather they did 1999 over something like Controversy, but still. 15,000 copies is low, but we live in an age where big artists with huge marketing budgets are selling 100,000 units tops.

Some people might be waiting for Cristmas to receive it as a gift. I got my copy last week.

lavendardrummachine said:

I ordered the 1999 set but since it didnt arrive on release date i went ahead and downloaded it. I'm considering returning it as there isnt a whole lot on there i dont already have.

[Edited 12/8/19 4:57am]

RODSERLING said:

homesquid said:

EmmaMcG said:

EmmaMcG said:

RODSERLING said:

1) The price is way too high for what it is : A)66 euros for the 5cd+dvd edition, when the PR deluxe had 3CD+1 dvd for 25 euros, and it had hard time to sell already. 35 euros would have been an honest price. B) 190 euros for the 10 Vinyl version, common, that makes 19 euros per vinyl ! 90 euros would have been honest. Some material is clearly useless on vinyl in term of sound quality : the edit versions, the live... C) 64 euros for just the vinyl album + the edit versions ! That s pure thievery. 2) I know some fans who won't buy it because they already listened to this on YouTube on the official channel. 3) As I said before, 1999 is a minor album outside the USA. No wonder this week it is only at #58 in the UK. Personally, my girlfriend bought it for me for Christmas yesterday, so it's sale will count for the second week.

€66 where you are? It's €80 here in Ireland. Which is twice what I'd be willing to pay for it. Especially seeing as I'm only interested in the two Vault discs. So yeah, as much as I'd love to support a release such as this, they've priced it far too high for me to consider.

YMMV but this set is a deal compared to similar sets. The Freddie Mercury "Never Boring" set is three CDs, a DVD and Blu Ray (same content) with ZERO UNRELEASED MATERIAL. Just some remixing. For $100

[Edited 12/8/19 6:53am]

no worries... this album IS available everywhere. You have access to the Internet, you can buy it. Die hards will buy the physical album and casual fans will stream it. No worries, the Estate is getting PAID more than before Prince owned his masters. Relax, enjoy and get ready for the next super deluxe release... I am hoping for Parade or SOTT.

I think the price is reasonable in the US (ranging from $55 to $70). What was frustrating for me was that I preordered it from Amazon in September as soon as it was announced from Amazon. Then the delivery day was pushed back to Dec 4. I was hoping to have it on Thanksgiving weekend to listen to it because otherwise I would have to wait at least another week to go through it all. When Amazon said it would be delayed, I went out on Black Friday, against my better judgement. Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble & Best Buy didn't have it. In the end I did down load it. But I also bought 2 copies of the super deluxe (one to keep sealed), 1 copy of the deluxe (2cd), and 1 copy of the remaster (1cd). I really want the Estate to do well because I want future releases like this but I think they could do better!!!!

homesquid said:

EmmaMcG said:

homesquid said:

YMMV but this set is a deal compared to similar sets. The Freddie Mercury "Never Boring" set is three CDs, a DVD and Blu Ray (same content) with ZERO UNRELEASED MATERIAL. Just some remixing. For $100

[Edited 12/8/19 6:53am]

I see what you're saying but just because it's not as much of a rip off as other box sets doesn't mean it's not a rip off. A lower, more reasonable price point may have enticed "casual fans" to give it a go which would lead to more sales, more potential interest in future releases. But by pricing it so high they're clearly only targeting die hard fans, of which there are fewer and fewer as the years go by, and even die hard fans are reluctant to spend that kind of money. It's a short-sighted business plan that I hope doesn't come back to haunt them by further diminishing his audience.

Ok but let's be real here. IF not for being able to get digital files for FREE illegally or cherry picking digital files legally almost any of us would buy this set for north of 100 bucks if it were a bootleg. Just imagine you had visited your local record store and found this set in the racks....I miss the old days on this front. I paid $30 for The Black Album on vinyl in 1988. I would've paid twice that.

Maybe the price is higher for the 1999 deluxe versus the deluxe of PR because all of the songs had to be remastered whereas Prince had already remastered the songs for the PR album itself? Remastering music costs money and this came directly from the Estates pocket this time. Plus we received more music with the 1999 deluxe.

[Edited 12/8/19 9:10am]

Best to release these masterpieces in the future around his birthday or the anniversary celebrations. So easy to get lost in holiday busyness. Especially with minimal promotion and publicity. Cmon estate and WB, get it right. Prince future fan base is worth it. 💜