Amazing what a well placed 60mins piece can do. How is it that WB didnt do this for the Sign of the Time reissue?

I mean seriously buckets of unreleased tracks from Prince's peak and only hard core fans got excited about it and meanwhile I have had scores of random people coming to me about W2A as if its some lost vault gem.

Imagine if WB would have released a Dream Factory as a single album release along with with the box set? (not unlike what they did for Beach Boys Smile).

Sometimes the obvious thing is the best thing.

Or they did try, but the bigger shows like 60 minutes were full at the time of marketing SOTT. "We're good"

emesem said:

Amazing what a well placed 60mins piece can do. How is it that WB didnt do this for the Sign of the Time reissue?

I mean seriously buckets of unreleased tracks from Prince's peak and only hard core fans got excited about it and meanwhile I have had scores of random people coming to me about W2A as if its some lost vault gem.

Imagine if WB would have released a Dream Factory as a single album release along with with the box set? (not unlike what they did for Beach Boys Smile).

Sometimes the obvious thing is the best thing.

Because the powers that be have understood, how tying Prince's struggle against the machine, to the context of race-relations post-George Floyd / 2020, can arouse a certain interest and TV airtime. To some extent, this was already attempted with Sign O The Times, but given the nature of it being a re-release, no amount of outtakes could've persuaded the masses to take a closer look. How much W2A sells in the end, remains to be seen. Remember, there's quite a few fans (who understand the reasons for his 80s material's superiority), who won't give this too much attention.

The 60 Minutes piece was a one-shot. You can't get that for every release; this was brilliant marketing to (1) select W2A as the next release and (2) tie it into today's events.

SOTT is timely if you translate the space shuttlem AIDS and Star Wars missile defense to the 2020s.
W2A is a bit more generic and everything specific is timely.

They will have to use another news magazine to publicize the next big event.

Chappers72 said:

Why wait till July to release ? Especially RIGHT NOW if they released it this Friday this new enthusiasm would increase sales. Unless there are multiple campaigns over the coming months. Who knows. Right now, July seems a long way off

I have a suspicion they might hold a trump card yet and there will be a full video that prince shot for one of the songs (we know he shots many vids for songs he never released as well) and they will put out another single and then go live with that video.

However, july IS a very long way away still. We are all so hyped up NOW.

Another good strategy would have been to release a b-side with every single they pull from this LP.
the dreamer/welcome 2 america live one is good but unreleased songs would be better. something from this era that didn't make the album or any other album THEY know of.

Those singles could then all be limited pressings or discs even selling for a premium like 12 dollars each or whatever so they could still make their money and we would have MORE music and MORE excitement and build up.

But what I constantly keep telling people with reissues they are far different than some new uncovered album never released songs etc....Sign o the times reissue was great to those who had it already not for a new legion of fans ho don't know prince, you don't pick up fans with reissues and you really don't have to market them just do a few spots because reissues in part are money losses because of the work put into them and they basically sell about a fraction of what the original did. A new album or whatever is someth8ng you can market more because maybe you get some new fans but probably not but maybe you get more locals than ever. I was buying the sign o the times reissue regardless of an ad, because I wanted the book and it was a great piece of work putting it together, another reason why people who say physical copies aren't needed are u kidding me.

LILpoundCAKE said:

I have a suspicion they might hold a trump card yet and there will be a full video that prince shot for one of the songs (we know he shots many vids for songs he never released as well) and they will put out another single and then go live with that video.

However, july IS a very long way away still. We are all so hyped up NOW.

Another good strategy would have been to release a b-side with every single they pull from this LP.
the dreamer/welcome 2 america live one is good but unreleased songs would be better. something from this era that didn't make the album or any other album THEY know of.

Those singles could then all be limited pressings or discs even selling for a premium like 12 dollars each or whatever so they could still make their money and we would have MORE music and MORE excitement and build up.

DAMN i like the way you think. slapping up a 10-15 dollar 7" every month until release with a b-side would've been brilliant. only using up like 3 vault tracks and probably many, many, many people who would buy all three. i'm no music industry guru, but sometimes i think these people aren't thinking outside the box in terms of fleecing the most money from the consumer, i think i could do a better job.

lastdecember said:

Prince(r.i.p.) Advance Album Sales Soar After “60 Minutes” Feature, “Welcome 2 America” Hits NUMBER 2 on Amazon 14 Weeks Before Release

This makes me SO HAPPY! Prince(r.i.p.) can possibly have another number#1 album with this one.

All The estate needs to do is release the live version lead single as a video.

emesem said:

Yes but what if they would have released Dream Factory and worked with the revolution on the art work, sequencing, single choices used photos from that era. lastdecember said:

But what I constantly keep telling people with reissues they are far different than some new uncovered album never released songs etc....Sign o the times reissue was great to those who had it already not for a new legion of fans ho don't know prince, you don't pick up fans with reissues and you really don't have to market them just do a few spots because reissues in part are money losses because of the work put into them and they basically sell about a fraction of what the original did. A new album or whatever is someth8ng you can market more because maybe you get some new fans but probably not but maybe you get more locals than ever. I was buying the sign o the times reissue regardless of an ad, because I wanted the book and it was a great piece of work putting it together, another reason why people who say physical copies aren't needed are u kidding me.

it still wouldn't be a new record, it's marketing would be about here is what he did then but didn't release and instead he released this and that. Now that could be the argument with W2A that it's old and he held it back etc... but it is fresher to the memory of Prince, it's not releasing stuff that has been sitting for over thirty years regardless if it got reworked by the revolution. The discussion in its promotion would be "this is Princes recordings from thirty something years ago etc..." it just doesn't carry the same weight as W2A. It's like the whole concert talk, would a recording of Piano and A Microphone be more appealing with the billing of his final shows, or would A never before released concert from say the Purple Rain era or something in that time period gain more attention, hands down it would Piano and Microphone.

ChocolateBox3121 said:

Chappers72 said:

Why wait till July to release ? Especially RIGHT NOW if they released it this Friday this new enthusiasm would increase sales. Unless there are multiple campaigns over the coming months. Who knows. Right now, July seems a long way off

Because a BIG part of their release is the vinyl - aimed at nostalgia factor... those who love Prince will tie in a lot with those who love vinyl..... and vinyl production is suffering months of backlog at the moment due to increased demand, COVID and other factors.... so they're waiting til the vinyl is manufactured.... otherwise they'd have a split release, CD/digital now and streaming later, which would dilute the release, so they're playing the long game, hoping they can keep interest bubbling until end of July.

RODSERLING said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

Prince(r.i.p.) Advance Album Sales Soar After “60 Minutes” Feature, “Welcome 2 America” Hits NUMBER 2 on Amazon 14 Weeks Before Release

This makes me SO HAPPY! Prince(r.i.p.) can possibly have another number#1 album with this one.

All The estate needs to do is release the live version lead single as a video.

Everytime a New Pf Rince album can be ordered, it s #1 on Amazon France. Then, in the true album charts, it s like #15. W2A deluxe was #1 too, I highly doubt it makes top 10 in France.

The U.S. Billboard charts it will hit Number#1. The subject matter is right on time. As usual Prince(r.i.p.) is ahead of his time.

Chappers72 said:

Why wait till July to release ? Especially RIGHT NOW if they released it this Friday this new enthusiasm would increase sales. Unless there are multiple campaigns over the coming months. Who knows. Right now, July seems a long way off

Yep. Sure there's lots of pre-orders from the hype but how many will stick by July 30th? I doubt there will be anything more than "singles" every 6 weeks.

ahead of his time?! wtf. people are nuts.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

ahead of his time?! wtf. people are nuts.

True. Prince was ahead of his time up until 1992 musically but mentally? Not a chance. His socio-political and spiritual opinions were embarrassingly shallow and/or simplistic and self-referential

[Edited 4/14/21 13:16pm]

ChocolateBox3121 said:

RODSERLING said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

The U.S. Billboard charts it will hit Number#1. The subject matter is right on time. As usual Prince(r.i.p.) is ahead of his time.

It will surely be #1 in sales, with about 30.000 copies. But overall, with streaming added, not a chance. He will need like 200.000 streaming converted in sales more.

U are very negative. U suppose to put positivity into the universe. If the fans got together we could reach that goal easily.

RODSERLING said:

ChocolateBox3121 said:

The U.S. Billboard charts it will hit Number#1. The subject matter is right on time. As usual Prince(r.i.p.) is ahead of his time.

It will surely be #1 in sales, with about 30.000 copies. But overall, with streaming added, not a chance. He will need like 200.000 streaming converted in sales more.

To me sales are more important. I get it Streaming is the way it is etc...BUT someone can play 60% of your record and thirty seconds of your songs and its a stream. Also the way things are factored is a little weird and shady with streaming, if you dont subscribe to their service it counts less, which is ODD and also shady because their service has nothing to do with the artist or the recording process. Streaming is the new radio basically but I think the accounting of it should be even more reduced. I discovered also how they talk about ROCK being a dead genre, and yet I watched the Album Sales chart for a month, and each week the number one selling album, vinyl, cd, even digital purchases, were all ROCK artists, the Foo Fighters for two weeks, The Pretty Reckless for one then Alice Cooper's latest.

lastdecember said:

RODSERLING said:

lastdecember said:

To me sales are more important. I get it Streaming is the way it is etc...BUT someone can play 60% of your record and thirty seconds of your songs and its a stream. Also the way things are factored is a little weird and shady with streaming, if you dont subscribe to their service it counts less, which is ODD and also shady because their service has nothing to do with the artist or the recording process. Streaming is the new radio basically but I think the accounting of it should be even more reduced. I discovered also how they talk about ROCK being a dead genre, and yet I watched the Album Sales chart for a month, and each week the number one selling album, vinyl, cd, even digital purchases, were all ROCK artists, the Foo Fighters for two weeks, The Pretty Reckless for one then Alice Cooper's latest.

I agree with you, sales are more relevant than streaming. But hey, that s how the Billboard 200 works since 2015, and we can't change anything about it. To be number one nowadays means dozens of millions of people listening to your album, not "just" 30.000 people actually buying it.

Yeah thats all well and good, but it shows that streaming does not lead to sales to put that myth to bed, but also streaming is a system that is easily manipulated, SALES its a bit tougher, because you would have to have people paying for the product, not saying back before this wasnt done, this is why the whole scandal of the 49 cent cd single started with Mariah Carey. BUT with streaming you need thirty seconds, and thats it, set it to repeat on your phone or whatever and go to sleep and that artist just got a few hundred "Sales" of a single, or album