RODSERLING said:

The physical market is dying

.

I`m am trying to keep it alive.

Are you?

rdhull said:

I can agree with this. As much of a mess Prince's so-called estate is, MJ's estate could stand to learn on how to make proper posthumous (re-)releases.

MJ has a far more limited catalog than P does and continues to take in racks despite that but there is still a good amount of untapped riches they for some reason, won't put out.

udo said:

Of course I am. I m young, but never dl anything or streamed anything on the likes of Spotify. That's not my thing.
I prefer listening to a physical format.

MotownSubdivision said:

When MJ died, I said to myself " at least, he would have a rich posthumous career". 10 years later, I was terribly wrong.
I went to the Brad Sundberg and Brad Buxer conferences, there are so much unreleased tracks, demos and incredible multitracks...
.
That's really a shame, MJ deserved better than what was released.

RODSERLING said:

Well he's definitely enjoyed a rich posthumous career but not from a musical perspective. Bad 25 was the best thing we got since his death and while many praise Xscape, I think that was simply due to it being better than Michael, which is faint praise at best.

As far as this topic is concerned though, figuring out how Prince (or Michael or any other dead artist whose commercial prime was decades ago) can be scoring hits shouldn't be something to try and figure out. They had their day and are/can still be omnipresent forces in the modern landscape without charting alongside the hitmakers of today. It's just unreasonable to expect that and a waste of time to attempt figuring out how to make that happen. As great as that would be if it were to occur, it should in no way be expected.

In a way, these past stars ultimately win since the names of today are succeeding in their shadows. Idk how many more Chris Brown/MJ comparisons can be made before people get how futile the argument is.

Remember, I estimated Prince pure album sales in 2019 at 350.000. Forbes then confirmed he sells 320.000 copies from the 1st of November 2018 to October, 31th of 2019.
.
But what this numbers mean compares to others acts in the US?
Here are some best selling acts of 2019 in pure sales :
.
#1 Taylor Swift : 1.3 million (3.81 M with streaming)
#2 Queen : 1.21 million (2.716.500 w/streaming)
#3 The Beatles : 0.88 M (2.262.400 w/streaming)
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The last from this top ten list, Like Combs sold "only" 410.000 copies last year.
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Note that MJ is not even in that top ten.
So with 350.000 copies sold Prince is not that far from the top 10 best selling act.
I m sure he is in the top twenty, just behind MJ lol

What about worldwide sales?

The US is but one country.

udo said:

For Prince, US sales are half of his global sales. So you can estimate worldwide sales by multiplying US sales by 2.
.
The problem is that it s very difficult to estimate sales from others, even big, markets like France, UK, Japan... Because when numbers are published, they are only for the big sellers. And big sellers nowadays don't make big numbers.
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Prince only succeed in charting one week an album in the top 100 in countries other than the US. So no organisms outside the US report his numbers and sales anymore.
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There was 4EVER that sold in one year equally in US and UK (130.000 in each countries).
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The year Prince died, in France TVBO sold only 30.000 copies et Purple Rain 20.000.
So, a year when he is not dying you can imagine his sales are abyssal.
[Edited 1/26/20 9:05am]