At some point, they will have to open the flood gates.

The Vault is for us, the fams that were there during his lifetime.

Whatever it is, 80's, 90's or later stuff, things need to come out at a much faster pace.

I'm all for big box sets.

Besides a Vault Serie release is long overdue now...

fredmagnus said:

The Vault is for us, the fams that were there during his lifetime.

Not sure about that .
I always imagined Prince burning down the house as last will thing.

Ofcourse I get that we have the curiosity and the ones it will get sold to.

fredmagnus said:

At some point, they will have to open the flood gates.

The Vault is for us, the fams that were there during his lifetime.

Whatever it is, 80's, 90's or later stuff, things need to come out at a much faster pace.

I'm all for big box sets.

Besides a Vault Serie release is long overdue now...

Generations to come will discover his music.

My worry is they'll put out D&P SDE, it'll sell 'okay' because it's just D&P, and then they'll say, "See? These boxed sets don't make money. Let's stop doing them."

ghostof82 said:

At this point, I'd even take a Batman SDE, with all the remixes the singles had, maybe whatever alternates are in the vault. In some ways that would even make more sense than D&P, some of the Batman fans and film buffs might buy it. I'm not really sure who's going to rush to buy an SDE of D&P. Prince is mostly known as an 80s artist- his fans know he did much more but who outside the fan base even cares? Who else is even buying physical media anymore? Mind, we'll be waiting until 2029 for a Batman SDE. Marketing peeps love a 40th anniversary. Maybe the Estate will have it's shit together by then.

Lots of people actually...

eyewishuheaven said:

My worry is they'll put out D&P SDE, it'll sell 'okay' because it's just D&P, and then they'll say, "See? These boxed sets don't make money. Let's stop doing them."

Ultimately there needs to be a layered approach - There is not going to be 40+ SDEs.

There could be:

SDEs for the big albums

DEs for the other popular albums

Remastered releases for the rest

Collections of Vault releases like Orginals. These could be by theme, year, style, album etc.

Similarly the Live recordings/Videos could have a layered approach where the effort favours the super tours.

And finally for those who want their crackles. pops and intermodulation distortions with different coloured plastic - re-releases on coloured vinyl.

here's how it would be done if the people in charge actually gave a shit about the historical importance and context of the music:

ditch the concept of an SDE. instead, pick years to cover and throw (nearly) everything in. no not every single note but damn close to it. for instance, you could do a massive 87-90 box that covers everything everything from those years, a 1980-1981, 1982, 1983-85-ish, 86-87, etc.

these would include everything. no more originals, the originals written during that era will be on the set, it will include every studio track intended for any album recorded during that time period, it will be ordered chronologically with extensive liner notes to navigate the listener through the more complicated eras like gb/lovesexy/rave/gb again, etc. it will include either a blu ray or some sort of digital access to ALL album sequences compiled during this time period, alternate mixes that are of unique interest, etc.

there is no perfect way but if they wanted to put the thought into assembling something gargantuan in a natural way, it would serve the music best.

Anyone here remember Laura Richardson?

ghostof82 said:

lustmealways said:

muleFunk said:

ghostof82 said:

At this point, I'd even take a Batman SDE, with all the remixes the singles had, maybe whatever alternates are in the vault. In some ways that would even make more sense than D&P, some of the Batman fans and film buffs might buy it. I'm not really sure who's going to rush to buy an SDE of D&P. Prince is mostly known as an 80s artist- his fans know he did much more but who outside the fan base even cares? Who else is even buying physical media anymore? Mind, we'll be waiting until 2029 for a Batman SDE. Marketing peeps love a 40th anniversary. Maybe the Estate will have it's shit together by then.

You do realize that the last Prince SDEs were some of the biggest in volume sales in their respective years?

But this will not continue all the way through to the more obscure and less well known albums. To get these properly remastered, including singles and related vault live and unreleased tracks will require a different package more aimed at the fan than the special releases collectors.

I think we also have to realize and remember that at this point they have covered his biggest works, 1999, Sign O the times, and Purple Rain (though I see a 40th anniversary of this for sure). D&P is his biggest commercial album not to be done, Love Symbol rode a lot of that popularity and then faded, but since there was so much video material on that and also versions of that album, segues, no segues etc.. there is a lot to work with in terms of LEGALLY unreleased stuff, yes a lot of that stuff is out there on boots but the estate does not care how many boots we own when they make these decisions. Personally I feel D&P and LS much like COME and GOLD could be good package releases combining the two albums together because they have many ideas and demos that were in many of the same sessions.

eyewishuheaven said:

My worry is they'll put out D&P SDE, it'll sell 'okay' because it's just D&P, and then they'll say, "See? These boxed sets don't make money. Let's stop doing them."

The fact is when you get past PR and 1999 you start to hit on albums that started to sell less for him back then, even prior to 1999 Prince was selling tons of records, he was hitting gold and then 1999 and PR pushed alot of these sales up because newbies went back to the other stuff. I think the reason mainly for Sign O the times SDE was regardless of how it sold, or hit singles, it was regarded for him as his masterpiece critically so it gets put into that PR 1999 box, so I feel that is why Parade and ATWIAD gets skipped over or bypassed. As we see them looking at D&P and love symbol somewhat they are looking at his commercial resurgence, and D%P was that whether we like the album overall or not or liked his moving into a more Hip Hop feel. As for sales now, these things they put out they HOPE they can still catch with the loyals, no new prince fan is going to put down big $$ on a box of outtakes regardless if they know Cream or Gett off, they will maybe buy a hits set and be done with it. So these sets a label is hoping to maybe get 10% of the audience it originally had buy it, now that sounds small, but almost no reissue even comes close to that.

SolaceAHA said:

eyewishuheaven said:

My worry is they'll put out D&P SDE, it'll sell 'okay' because it's just D&P, and then they'll say, "See? These boxed sets don't make money. Let's stop doing them."

The fact is when you get past PR and 1999 you start to hit on albums that started to sell less for him back then, even prior to 1999 Prince was selling tons of records, he was hitting gold and then 1999 and PR pushed alot of these sales up because newbies went back to the other stuff. I think the reason mainly for Sign O the times SDE was regardless of how it sold, or hit singles, it was regarded for him as his masterpiece critically so it gets put into that PR 1999 box, so I feel that is why Parade and ATWIAD gets skipped over or bypassed. As we see them looking at D&P and love symbol somewhat they are looking at his commercial resurgence, and D%P was that whether we like the album overall or not or liked his moving into a more Hip Hop feel. As for sales now, these things they put out they HOPE they can still catch with the loyals, no new prince fan is going to put down big $$ on a box of outtakes regardless if they know Cream or Gett off, they will maybe buy a hits set and be done with it. So these sets a label is hoping to maybe get 10% of the audience it originally had buy it, now that sounds small, but almost no reissue even comes close to that.

meanwhile streaming numbers on spotify:


parade songs combined: 400,000,000 +

d & p songs combined: 100,000,000 +/-

rap said:

Anyone here remember Laura Richardson?

The Org's virtual landmine? Yeah, I remember Laura.

blacknote said:

rap said:

Anyone here remember Laura Richardson?

The Org's virtual landmine? Yeah, I remember Laura.

She was definitely no fan of Londell.

Surely the SDE details must be imminent now, with the Celebration just around the corner?

[Edited 5/24/23 11:10am]

BIGJAYRAFFAS said:

Surely the SDE details must be imminent now, with the Celebration just around the corner?

[Edited 5/24/23 11:10am]

well they certainly keep their cards close to their chest with this one

SolaceAHA said:

I think we also have to realize and remember that at this point they have covered his biggest works, 1999, Sign O the times, and Purple Rain (though I see a 40th anniversary of this for sure). D&P is his biggest commercial album not to be done, Love Symbol rode a lot of that popularity and then faded, but since there was so much video material on that and also versions of that album, segues, no segues etc.. there is a lot to work with in terms of LEGALLY unreleased stuff, yes a lot of that stuff is out there on boots but the estate does not care how many boots we own when they make these decisions. Personally I feel D&P and LS much like COME and GOLD could be good package releases combining the two albums together because they have many ideas and demos that were in many of the same sessions.

Bah. Sales don't matter that much. There are numerous musical acts that are much more niche than Prince (and sold way less) that have really well done special edition/remastered box sets of their albums. There is (and always will be) a market for Prince's music. They just have to market it correctly.

[Edited 5/24/23 12:20pm]

skywalker said:.

There are numerous musical acts that are much more niche than Prince (and sold way less) that have really well done special edition/remastered box sets of their albums.

Very good point.I have seen large,expanded box sets for artists who were never as popular or important as Prince.

[Edited 5/24/23 16:41pm]

Does anyone think there may be an annoucement tomorrow? or will it be during the Celebration?

BIGJAYRAFFAS said:

BIGJAYRAFFAS said:

Does anyone think there may be an annoucement tomorrow? or will it be during the Celebration?

Doubtful. Londell really seemed to be pushing the "come to Celebration if you want info about what's on the horizon" thing a month or two ago.