I just want more music. I'm not bothered how it's released or packaged, so long as I can buy it on something other than vinyl.

I guess I'm in the minority but UNRELEASED VIDEO remains at the top of my wish list. Concerts, promo video, rehearsals, whatever. This weekend was just another reminder that there is a bunch of pro-shot gold just sitting there.

Overall I think this is a bad thing, but there are some positives to it. First, like you said, instead of waiting literal years for a specific period's SDE we get a bunch of stuff sooner. I also think that, if these releases are FREQUENT, that would be an exciting thing to keep up with. But it's no replacement for a proper and comprehensive era-by-era/album-by-album set(s) that represent the vision for a specific period. Think 20 or even 10 sets down the line if they keep up with "The Vault Series", it's just gonna be a confusing mess.

If they're doing this I want them to be in addition to large scale sets, I want them to be every few months, and I want detailed info on every track present in the series so that the listener can contextualize them with the year they're from rather than just being part of a vault series hodgepodge.

I have OCD, so I certainly understand the people who prefer for the vault to released in an organized fashion.

But with that said, I do see the advantage of it being released with mixed eras. As other people have noted, it means you don't have to wait forever to hear songs from your favorite era. It also means you won't be disappointed if don't like one particular era they're releasing, but you have other stuff to listen to.

If those tracks played at Celebration are what's making up Vol. 1 then I think it's an interesting group of tracks. A 22 minute instrumental isn't exactly my first pick for what I'd want to hear from Controversy era, though! Still very excited about it. Everything Could Be So Fine sounds biblical.

[Edited 6/11/23 16:17pm]

Vault series = Prince's Crystal Ball project '98 = oh, yes, please, today

Looks like they are imitating Eye Records or any other mishmash bootlegs with whatever they find top of their shelves.

I'll take anything, but they could do much better than that.

At the rate the Estate in putting material out,

I would have comepletely lost all interest in Prince.

This output rate is an embarrassment.

lurker316 said:

I have OCD, so I certainly understand the people who prefer for the vault to released in an organized fashion.

But with that said, I do see the advantage of it being released with mixed eras. As other people have noted, it means you don't have to wait forever to hear songs from your favorite era. It also means you won't be disappointed if don't like one particular era they're releasing, but you have other stuff to listen to.

As another Prince fan w/ OCD the haphazard back-and-forth eras way they've been releasing the SDE's is already so completely disordered and random, like if a TV series released Season 7 boxsets, then went back to Season 5, then Season 10, and then getting met with fans lecturing how the likelihood of ever getting Seasons 1-4 is low-to-none, that it's not like a Vault series would sully some incredible ordered succession of releases thus far.

Mixed era sets you can extract individual tracks and re-group by eras chronologically like many have done with his one-off tracks and B-Sides back when he was here.

[Edited 6/12/23 0:04am]

I would love to get Vault series releases (online or box sets) in addition to proper SDE releases.

I think they can do both and i hope they don't forget the originals box sets too.

The more releases the happier i'll be.

ShellyMcG said:

I honestly think this is probably the best way to go. Some of us want unreleased songs from the 80s, some of us want something more modern. Releasing volumes of outtakes that mix eras is the best of both worlds because you're almost guaranteed to have something for everyone on each release. Not only that but it also means that every now and then the estate could still release things like Welcome To America so if there are any other "fully completed" Prince albums in the vault then they could still co-exist with the vault series. They could even put out more Prince "Originals" volumes too as part of it. The only potential problem I can see is with the frequency of releases. Like, do they do one per year? It would be an improvement over what we've had but there's no denying that Prince's main fanbase are getting older. Maybe they don't want to wait 10 years to get their hands on "3121 acoustic version" or whatever. I think two or three volumes per year would be a nice compromise.

if they are going forward with a Vault Series in different volumes, it would be in the fans' interest
to make those packages big, with each volume being at the very least 2 discs.

and those releases should be coming at a regular pace, like once every 4 months.

that's the only way to get a lot of this material out there and still be able to focus on SDE sets or
individual deluxe packages for specific prime albums in his catalogue.

is it what I want? not really. I'd rather they focus on just going through all the albums up until at
least 1995 and release SDE sets for them.

but I guess that's impossible somehow (at least right now) for the current people in charge.

so on the one hand I do want new music and would welcome a Vault Series but on the other hand,
those will likely eat into SDE packages.

say for instance that what people are guessing, that the songs previewed at celebration 2023 are
what makes up Vault Series 1 (only 11 songs, so only one disc? meh) - a lot of those tracks are
prime candidates for SDE releases for their respective album era.

it's also hard to enjoy something like Crystal Ball 98 where you go wildly from one era to the next
with little to no context. it wasn't all that when prince himself compiled that one and i'm sure it'll
be a lot worse when someone else cobbles stuff like that together.

so, i'm very much split on what to think of this.

but is there even a 'this' to begin with? information is frustratingly sparse yet again.

LILpoundCAKE said:

MIRvmn1 said:

ShellyMcG said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

if they are going forward with a Vault Series in different volumes, it would be in the fans' interest
to make those packages big, with each volume being at the very least 2 discs.

and those releases should be coming at a regular pace, like once every 4 months.

that's the only way to get a lot of this material out there and still be able to focus on SDE sets or
individual deluxe packages for specific prime albums in his catalogue.

is it what I want? not really. I'd rather they focus on just going through all the albums up until at
least 1995 and release SDE sets for them.

but I guess that's impossible somehow (at least right now) for the current people in charge.

so on the one hand I do want new music and would welcome a Vault Series but on the other hand,
those will likely eat into SDE packages.

say for instance that what people are guessing, that the songs previewed at celebration 2023 are
what makes up Vault Series 1 (only 11 songs, so only one disc? meh) - a lot of those tracks are
prime candidates for SDE releases for their respective album era.

it's also hard to enjoy something like Crystal Ball 98 where you go wildly from one era to the next
with little to no context. it wasn't all that when prince himself compiled that one and i'm sure it'll
be a lot worse when someone else cobbles stuff like that together.

so, i'm very much split on what to think of this.

but is there even a 'this' to begin with? information is frustratingly sparse yet again.

The 11 songs they played doesn't necessarily represent the full tracklist (if such a project exists). Maybe it will be two discs with one disc being unreleased songs and the second disc being alternate versions like Life O The Party? I could live with that if they plan on releasing more than just one volume per year.

the life of the party demo comes from candy dulfer's radioshow and it's not something
that the estate has endorsed or probably even knows about. i guess she had the demo
since she ended up singing on the released version.

but i hope you are right though and the songs played at celebration only represent a
little bit of what they have planned for release

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

If you do huge compilations of vault songs without order i just worry it would be really messy in all senses.

messy in all senses does fit nicely with the approach of the estate these last few years

"Vault releases" would likely include some of the various recordings, alternate mixes and unedited versions of previously released songs. If it's from the 80s, I will buy - even if padded with PRINCE's dismal post-80s output.

It's certainly how Prince did it with Crystal Ball.

.

And for me, it makes releases of more recent vault tracks more likely, which I am as interested in as the 80s stuff.

SDE's for all the albums are of course a dream world ideal but if the estate clearly DGAF about anything comprehensive post-1991 some random haphazard Vault sets are a necessary compromise.

This would also be a way to jettison some "Prince originals" for some already-covered SDE eras that didn't include Prince original vocals because it seemed like they were holding out for an Originals 2 but that project is clearly over.

[Edited 6/12/23 5:03am]

WhisperingDandelions said:

SDE's for all the albums are of course a dream world ideal but if the estate clearly DGAF about anything comprehensive post-1991 some random haphazard Vault sets are a necessary compromise.

the old guard didn't give a fuck about anything comprehensive pre 91 either

lustmealways said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

SDE's for all the albums are of course a dream world ideal but if the estate clearly DGAF about anything comprehensive post-1991 some random haphazard Vault sets are a necessary compromise.

the old guard didn't give a fuck about anything comprehensive pre 91 either

I group all guards together honestly, kind of zoned out on all the nuances of all that mumbo jumbo.

WhisperingDandelions said:

This would also be a way to jettison some "Prince originals" for some already-covered SDE eras that didn't include Prince original vocals because it seemed like they were holding out for an Originals 2 but that project is clearly over.

Wasn't Originals just done for the last release of the Tidal contract that he had before he died? I never really expected it to be a series. Would have liked it to have been though.