haleno1 said:

Tell them they are way too late.

RODSERLING said:

Vannormal said:

There ya go Rodserling

no need for drama

There wasn't Covid restrictions in Hollywood between August of 2019 and march of 2020. That was largely the time needed to shoot and edit that documentary. Moreover, there are still numerous Hollywood movies amd tv shows that are shot since September of 2020. There are no restrictions at all since then. Of course, many movies were delayed- because they were physically released in theaters. On a digital platform such as Netflix, what could be the cause of a 3 years delay? 😃 And what about the live/documentary at 1st avenue that was supposed to be released on PR deluxe in 2017 ? That's because of the Covid too they don't do anything with it? Common, that has absolutely nothing to do with it. [Edited 11/25/21 0:49am]

Restrictions mean shit.

A pandemic (and certainly not a virus) is subject to imposed restrictions.

-

But I am grateful for all your effort in providing us with the sales figures.

It can provide us insight into the possible financial situation for further planning and ideas.

[Edited 11/26/21 2:18am]

Vannormal said:

You're welcome!
Numbers amd sales are interesting for many aspects, one of the most is to predict the future of the releases.

To be honest if it comes out I’ll be surprised despite them still working on it.

haleno1 said:

The project surely has evolved into something else.
It won't be the original project of 6*52 minutes.

I pictured this like that at the time :
Episode 1 : the childhood until his first contract
Episode 2 : For You until 1999
Episode 3 : Purple Rain
4 : ATWIAD until Graffiti Bridge
5 : The WB war
6 : Musicology until his death


That was way too short anyway.
We need an episode by album, under several seasons.

RODSERLING said:

It’s scheduled for 8 episodes. Unless they’ve changed that format since I last spoke to them.

haleno1 said:

That's better, so then I'd say :

Episode 1 : the childhood until his first contract
Episode 2 : For You until 1999
Episode 3 : Purple Rain
4 : ATWIAD until Lovesexy
5 : Batman until Lovesymbol
6 : the WB war
7 : Prince commercial again, 2001-2010
8 : the last years

Best selling albums in the US in 2021 so far, as of week 46

Rank Estimated 2021 Sales TITLE Artist Estimated Total Sales
1 460,000 EVERMORE Taylor Swift 743,000
2 443,000 FEARLESS (TAYLOR'S VERSION) Taylor Swift 443,000
4 369,000 RED (TAYLOR'S VERSION) Taylor Swift 369,000
8 251,000 FOLKLORE Taylor Swift 1,527,000
18 169,000 PURPLE RAIN Prince & the Revolution 4,214,000
19 169,000 THRILLER Michael Jackson 7,404,000
69 86,000 WELCOME 2 AMERICA Prince 86,000
43 108,000 LOVER Taylor Swift 1,367,000
167 42,000 1989 Taylor Swift 6,292,000

A few feats achieved here :

- Purple Rain reaches the 4.2 millions soundscan sales mark, that is to say the copies sold in stores since 1991.
- It also outsells a little bit his "rival"Thriller.
- Purple Rain and W2A alone sold 255,000 copies. That's already more than what the total catalog of Prince albums combined sold in 2019 (250k)!
- W2A is the #21 best selling album released in 2021, but got no Grammy Nominations at all. Shame, shame.

Taylor Swift is selling loads of albums like it's 1999...And I still never heard a song from her!

I'm not a fan, but check out her video for Shake It Off. It's fun. Blank Space is good too.

RODSERLING said:

Vannormal said:

It's a wrong assumption.

Covid slowed down so much in general, worldwide. And we did not even see the end of that.

Ssince there's no official word on the cancelation... we just don't know (shit).

How could the covid slow down things? The archivals material ( audio and video) is already existing in the vault. They just have to conduct some interviews. It doesn't take 3 years to do that and to edit it, for a supposed 6 parts documentary.

Many doc films can take a long time to make. That includes filming and editing. If you factor in Prince's licensing, that could slow things down. Yes I understand a lot has been streamlined in the last couple of years but that still doesn't take away from the fact that it can take several years for a film to be made. But there are a myriad of reasons why any film can take a long to make.

RODSERLING said:

laytonian said:

Do you have a cite on that "gave up their Netflix documentary" claim?

Last time that was stated here, I checked withs omeone "in the know" who confirmed that people were still being interiewed...

Wasn't it supposed to be out in 2019? Well, we're almost in 2022. Why would it take that long? Too long, too late.

Make up your mind. They either "gave up on it" (your previous reply) or "they're too slow".
IOW, you don't know.

I do. It is still in work with future interviews scheduled.
It's not "too late" -- in fact, putting everything out at once would be a bad idea.

RODSERLING said:

haleno1 said:

Long story lots of things happened. Whether it will actually come out remains to be seen I guess.

There's no official activity on this since Duvernay get out of the project. And that in August of 2019. Since then, not even a director's name has leaked. Which will be the first time ever in the industry where a director's name is hidden. Did they really need like 5 years to interview people? I m not sure.

There is PLENTY of "official activity". There's just not a lot of schlock publicity.
The new producer-director's name leaked long ago; even Questlove leaked it (I can confirm he was correct).
The director is a VERY honored person with a background of excellent work.

Why NOT take time and do it right.

laytonian said:

It's been 5 years Prince is dead, and his streaming activity is close to zero.
His sales are decent thanks to the vinyl of Purple Rain, but even his greatest hits doesn't sell anymore.

If you gave the money, I m sure many. People here could write the plot of the documentary and chose the footage in a few weeks.

So like I said, when a project is pushed back for many years, then it's turning into something else.
But as with the W2A blu ray, the real problem must be TMBGITW, that is blocking many projects.

Again, you are stuck in that documentary, but can you explain me why the luve at first avenue that should have been included on the PR deluxe, then a separate streaming release, hasn't still be released?

They need 5 more years ( at least) for what exactly considering that very project?
From what I understand, it was not only a concert, but allso showcased on what happened in the wings between songs. In 4k, could be extremely popular and a great vehicle for Prince.

I m not even sure that project is waiting for the 40th anniversary. That makes no sense at all not releasing it on Netflix, for instance for the 35th anniversary in 2019.

Billboard, Week of December 4, 2021

Top Album Sales
TW LW WOC Title Artist ( Peak )
25 7 186 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) - Prince And The Revolution ( 2 )

Vinyl Albums :
TW LW WOC Title Artist ( Peak )
11 2 231 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) - Prince And The Revolution ( 1 )

Adele's new album 30 is the first album of the year to reach the 500k gold mark in pure sales, with 692,000 copies sold!
The vinyl format is selling like it's the 80's again.

Of 30’s total album sales (692,000), physical album sales account for 487,000 of that figure (378,000 in CDs; 108,000 in vinyl LPs; and just under 2,000 in cassette tapes) and digital album sales comprise 205,000. (30 has the second-largest sales week for a vinyl album since MRC Data began tracking sales in 1991.

2000 copies of audio cassette is nothing to brag about, since Prince sold 1981'opies of Do Me Baby in a few hours.
I still think Welcome 2 America would have sold at least that amount in the USA in audio cassette.
[Edited 11/30/21 19:34pm]

RODSERLING said:

December 04, 2021
The Billboard 200

TW LW WOC Title Artist ( Peak )
118 30 155 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) ‒ Prince And The Revolution ( 1 )
[Edited 12/1/21 5:38am]

Before anything being said, exactly how many people are working for/with Michael Howe?

How many are doing the (re)search, and how does the digitalisation ?

Anyone some insight info ?

Is ther a known co-worker somewhere on social media ?

Do we actually have any idea if they work on it at daily basis or what ?

Cause for some inexplicable reason we are not alowed to know zich shit.

Who actually works on what, why and when ?

Are these pople even familiar with Prince's huge body of work ?

And it certainly isn't Michael Howe alone...

And i'm not talking about the mastering, or artwork, promotion or whatever... just the music alone.

Or is it done at night by pixies or elves ?

-

We know some known outsiders that were called in now and then... Thats all we really know,

lik Duane, Lisa, Susan...

Vannormal said:

And it certainly isn't Michael Howe alone...

.

Why else is it going so slowly?

Did he mention his coworkers in his interviews?

udo said:

Vannormal said:

And it certainly isn't Michael Howe alone...

.

Why else is it going so slowly?

Did he mention his coworkers in his interviews?

I thought I heard either him or Susan or someone else mentioning a team.

Could be two, three, more people..

Like on the W2A project, they had besides Michael Howe, also Kirk Jonhson Trevor Guy on the archival production and A&R, (according to Princevault).

[Edited 12/2/21 7:54am]

Vannormal said:

udo said:

.

Why else is it going so slowly?

Did he mention his coworkers in his interviews?

I thought I heard either him or Susan or someone else mentioning a team.

Could be two, three, more people..

Like on the W2A project, they had besides Michael Howe, also Kirk Jonhson Trevor Guy on the archival production and A&R, (according to Princevault).

.

Do you see these people going through boxes, baking tapes, digitizing them, lsitening to them, etc 5x8?

udo said:

Vannormal said:

I thought I heard either him or Susan or someone else mentioning a team.

Could be two, three, more people..

Like on the W2A project, they had besides Michael Howe, also Kirk Jonhson Trevor Guy on the archival production and A&R, (according to Princevault).

.

Do you see these people going through boxes, baking tapes, digitizing them, lsitening to them, etc 5x8?

Why not - which i hardly can imagine though...

Still, there were never before seen rows and rows of shelves, a mountain of material altogether to assemble.

All very (un)organised in an unlogic way... as it was found all over Paisley Park, not alone in the vault room(s).

Details from the investigtion pictures are known.

Vannormal said:

udo said:

.

Do you see these people going through boxes, baking tapes, digitizing them, lsitening to them, etc 5x8?

Why not - which i hardly can imagine though...

Still, there were never before seen rows and rows of shelves, a mountain of material altogether to assemble.

All very (un)organised in an unlogic way... as it was found all over Paisley Park, not alone in the vault room(s).

Details from the investigtion pictures are known.

what i am wondering is the fact why there is so much secrecy concerning the work which is done at Iron Mountain. WHy not be open and give fans an update now and then....and why so slow....people lose interest this way...

rafael said:

Vannormal said:

Why not - which i hardly can imagine though...

Still, there were never before seen rows and rows of shelves, a mountain of material altogether to assemble.

All very (un)organised in an unlogic way... as it was found all over Paisley Park, not alone in the vault room(s).

Details from the investigtion pictures are known.

what i am wondering is the fact why there is so much secrecy concerning the work which is done at Iron Mountain. WHy not be open and give fans an update now and then....and why so slow....people lose interest this way...

That's what i've been saying since a couple of years.

I think even the general press would be interested in just some more information on what they find etc... they don't need to let us hear or see it rightaway.

Just keeping the fire burnin' indeed.

-

Michael howe ?

Do you read this ?!

Based on these comments, I don't think the Estate owes us anything. We all want to hear the Vault material and I know I do but I believe they've been good with giving us stuff to chew on. Far as I can tell, they are far more organized and giving than Prince ever was. It took them a second but when you consider there was no will, dealing with all the heirs, the three record companies, the bank, etc, they finally have dealt with a 40+ year career that was controlled by one person who wasn't exactly organized. I think we feel like we want this stuff simply because there is so much Vault material.

The only thing I wish they'd exploit would be the aftershows because that is such a huge part of Prince's legacy.

Milty2 said:

Based on these comments, I don't think the Estate owes us anything

.

Time is running out.

So it is criminal to go at this slow pace.

udo said:

I agree with you, time is running out.

From what I know, there is a bunch of people going through the tapes, collecting , referencing amd restoring it.
But as far as I know, Michael Howe is the only one paid to listen to/watch the tapes, unless it's too deteriorated and is impossible to listen to without restoring it.

He's the only one giving priority to restore this or that, or that thing doesn't need restoration at all, or we don't give a fuck.

M. Howe's job is not a 24hours a day job, of course, but he's not the person that slowing potential releases down.

Concerning physical releases, it's clearly, like I said many times here, the vinyl crisis that is fucking us all, not M. Howe.

This is what stopped Sony Legacy from releasing their reissues two years ago ( amd also weak sales and TMBGITW).
They will continue through the RSD though ( Slaughterhouse?), because limited editions are more profitable for them.

This is what prevented WB/Sony to release W2A on their scheduled calendar, amd then D&P for this year. Vinyl material is becoming too rare amd too expensive, so for a 15 vinyl box-set, not very appealing even for hard-core fams.

I really wish they focus only on the CD format, but that's not where the money is now in the music industry!
They could lower down the useless vinyls in boxset ( concerts, edits amd remixes on CD in the LP boxset), that would be a good compromise.

I don't expect D&P before this summer. And this would even conflict with the RSD release, which is in July?
End of September for D&P maybe?


But the estate has no excuses concerning videos projects, such as the long promised Live At 1st avenue.
Why isn't it released after all these years? Could they communicate on it, because that was officially announced for the Purple Rain deluxe on 2017 !

Purple Rain is selling 200k copies this year in the US only, without any kind of promotion.
I let you imagine what the sales would be for PR and 1999 if they released that documentary.
[Edited 12/3/21 22:45pm]

Best selling albums in the US in 2021 so far, as of week 47


Rank Estimated 2021 Sales TITLE Artist Estimated Total Sales
1 692,000 30 Adele 692,000
...
18 176,000 PURPLE RAIN Prince & the Revolution 4,221,000
72 86,000 WELCOME 2 AMERICA Prince 86,000
??? 18,000 THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE Prince 2,956,000
??? 13,000 THE TRUTH Prince 13,000

Only 5 weeks left : will Purple Rain reach the 200k mark?

RODSERLING said:

udo said:

.

Time is running out.

So it is criminal to go at this slow pace.

I agree with you, time is running out. From what I know, there is a bunch of people going through the tapes, collecting , referencing amd restoring it. But as far as I know, Michael Howe is the only one paid to listen to/watch the tapes, unless it's too deteriorated and is impossible to listen to without restoring it. He's the only one giving priority to restore this or that, or that thing doesn't need restoration at all, or we don't give a fuck. M. Howe's job is not a 24hours a day job, of course, but he's not the person that slowing potential releases down. Concerning physical releases, it's clearly, like I said many times here, the vinyl crisis that is fucking us all, not M. Howe. This is what stopped Sony Legacy from releasing their reissues two years ago ( amd also weak sales and TMBGITW). They will continue through the RSD though ( Slaughterhouse?), because limited editions are more profitable for them. This is what prevented WB/Sony to release W2A on their scheduled calendar, amd then D&P for this year. Vinyl material is becoming too rare amd too expensive, so for a 15 vinyl box-set, not very appealing even for hard-core fams. I really wish they focus only on the CD format, but that's not where the money is now in the music industry! They could lower down the useless vinyls in boxset ( concerts, edits amd remixes on CD in the LP boxset), that would be a good compromise. I don't expect D&P before this summer. And this would even conflict with the RSD release, which is in July? End of September for D&P maybe? But the estate has no excuses concerning videos projects, such as the long promised Live At 1st avenue. Why isn't it released after all these years? Could they communicate on it, because that was officially announced for the Purple Rain deluxe on 2017 ! Purple Rain is selling 200k copies this year in the US only, without any kind of promotion. I let you imagine what the sales would be for PR and 1999 if they released that documentary. [Edited 12/3/21 22:45pm]

Where do you know all this information from ?

-

''Vinyl crisis is fucking us all'' Not entirely true.

Though I'm not an expert in any of this...

How do you know so sure this is a reason why Sony stopped reissues ?

What is your source for that ? ...the weak sales ?

And how should limited editions be more profitable than a reissue...

Your asusmptions for a 'useless 15 vinyl box set' not being appealing for 'even a hard core fan' ?

I'm not even a hard core fan, and I would love to have it.

(and a few of my othere friends who aren't Pricne fans, still bought the '1999 SDE' & 'Purple Rain Deluxe' for instance, just sayin'... but this is rare, i know.)

Don't forget that besides what you like or not, there are vinyl collectors all around the world, and they're not just a few or a niche group when it comes to physical releases being bought.

Vannormal said:

I think you ve got your answers in this :
https://prince.org/msg/7/468211

With the insane prices practised on the vinyls. In case you didn't walk in a wreckastore for some months.

US Billboard Charts (11/12/2021)

Top Album Sales
TW LW WOC Title Artist
36 25 187 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) - Prince


The Billboard 200
TW LW WOC Title Artist
121 118 156 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) ‒ Prince And The Revolution

Soundtracks
TW LW WOC Title Artist
4 3 531 Purple Rain (Prince And The Revolution) - Soundtrack

With the over-hyped relase of the remake of West Side Story, the original soundtrack should appear again around next week.
If there's one album that could have spent more weeks in this soundtrack charts than Purple Rain, it's this one.
Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's album charts, giving it the longest run at No. 1 in the BB 200 of any album in history

Vinyl Albums
TW LW WOC Title Artist
19 11 232 Purple Rain (Soundtrack) - Prince And The Revolution

Do you know if the remaster vinyl is still available in stores in Target? Or is it already out of print?
[Edited 12/7/21 20:21pm]

Best selling albums in the US in 2021 so far, as of week 48


Rank Estimated 2021 Sales TITLE Artist Estimated Total Sales
18 184,000 PURPLE RAIN Prince & the Revolution 4,229,000
75 87,000 WELCOME 2 AMERICA Prince 87,000
??? 19,000 THE VERY BEST OF PRINCE Prince 2,957,000
??? 13,000 THE TRUTH Prince 13,000

So, Purple Rain sold another 8,000 this week, not bad.
4 weeks left to reach the 200k copies, that should be enough!