It feels like there's an over-simplification here of how things work for the more dedicated or "elite" traders of Prince rarities. I'm not one of those people, honestly there's so much Prince music out there already, more than I could ever listen to in my lifetime, but I do have friends in that world who have been super generous over the years.

One thing that seems obvious is that these rare recordings etc often circulate based on trust. If someone with privileged access gives you something for your own enjoyment but doesn't want it circulating more widely for whatever reason (and often those reasons are legitimate, in the sense that a leak could potentially "out" the leaker etc), that's an act of trust that needs to be respected.

Also, of course these bootlegs have a kind of microeconomy of their own, they are a commodity based on rarity (often completely disconnected from the artistic value of the work) and so they are held back in order to be traded and gain access to other rare things. The utopian "give it all away to fans now" approach only works if everyone involved in that ecosystem agrees, so it just isn't realistic. You see this with any rare collectable, I see in the retro gaming world all the time, some of the shittiest old cartridge based games end up fetching massive price tags because of their rarity.

Personally, I like both the officlal and unofficial paths to Prince's music,enjoying the best of both worlds. I'm not a trader myself so if an official release appears with better audio quality, and perhaps a more "curated" selection of music rather than terabytes of just random stuff to sift through, I'm into that and it doesn't impact me if the value of the original bootleg has been wiped out. And of course, the bootlegs are great especially for stuff which will definitely NEVER see an official release. For me personally, I particularly love sound checks, jams and very rough early demos - any little peek behind the curtain with Prince's creative brain as he's writing a song, or improvising a warm up jam. I totally love that stuff. I don't foresee the estate ever releasing things like that, because it has no commercial value but it holds interest for fans.

[Edited 7/27/23 5:44am]

MsNia said:

It feels like there's an over-simplification here of how things work 9...)

I know what you mean. It is a good point but sadly there is no over simplification here.

Oh, okay then!

Kares said:

WhenFansCry said:

I am not a member of the privileged fews, sorry.

Fans are the first problems. If sharing was genuine, then there would be no happy fews trying to control the rest of the community.

Again, I would like that sittings on recordings of genuine professional quality stand up and start sharing with the wider Prince world.

.
Apparently you have no idea how all this works. People are not going to betray promises, expose their sources, or simply just give up their collection of rare stuff that they spent decades accumulating. Serious collecting means investing thousands of hours into research, building and maintaining personal relationships etc. There's a lot of stuff in private hands that will never be shared, period.
Bombard the Estate with requests. They are the ones sitting on the vast majority of the good stuff.

100 % agree.

WhenFansCry said:

Some people seem to forget that often, professionals within the industry acquire unreleased material because they are working with it. Only a complete fool would think that professionals would risk their reputation (or even their entire career) by sharing confidential material they had access to. And this is just one of the several different ways of acquiring rare material. But almost all are based on trust, and believe it or not, there are many of us who still know the meaning of the word.

MsNia said:

It feels like there's an over-simplification here of how things work for the more dedicated or "elite" traders of Prince rarities. I'm not one of those people, honestly there's so much Prince music out there already, more than I could ever listen to in my lifetime, but I do have friends in that world who have been super generous over the years.

One thing that seems obvious is that these rare recordings etc often circulate based on trust. If someone with privileged access gives you something for your own enjoyment but doesn't want it circulating more widely for whatever reason (and often those reasons are legitimate, in the sense that a leak could potentially "out" the leaker etc), that's an act of trust that needs to be respected.

Also, of course these bootlegs have a kind of microeconomy of their own, they are a commodity based on rarity (often completely disconnected from the artistic value of the work) and so they are held back in order to be traded and gain access to other rare things. The utopian "give it all away to fans now" approach only works if everyone involved in that ecosystem agrees, so it just isn't realistic. You see this with any rare collectable, I see in the retro gaming world all the time, some of the shittiest old cartridge based games end up fetching massive price tags because of their rarity.

Personally, I like both the officlal and unofficial paths to Prince's music,enjoying the best of both worlds. I'm not a trader myself so if an official release appears with better audio quality, and perhaps a more "curated" selection of music rather than terabytes of just random stuff to sift through, I'm into that and it doesn't impact me if the value of the original bootleg has been wiped out. And of course, the bootlegs are great especially for stuff which will definitely NEVER see an official release. For me personally, I particularly love sound checks, jams and very rough early demos - any little peek behind the curtain with Prince's creative brain as he's writing a song, or improvising a warm up jam. I totally love that stuff. I don't foresee the estate ever releasing things like that, because it has no commercial value but it holds interest for fans.

[Edited 7/27/23 5:44am]

What I PERSONALLY want to know is :

Are the "RARE RECORDINGS" worth it ? Are the songs amazing ?

I'm not interested in listening to anything that's unfinished or poor quality.

If the answer is yes, then I support everything the original poster has said.

[Edited 7/27/23 11:59am]

paisleyparkgirl said:

What I PERSONALLY want to do is :

Are the "RARE RECORDINGS" worth it ? Are the songs amazing ?

I'm not interested in listening to anything that's unfinished or poor quality.

If the answer is yes, then I support everything the original poster has said.

They keep those recordings to themselves because they are valuable and of very good quality.

Soundboard releases by eye records (live shows and rehearsals) after Prince's death were part of those recordings. Those folks feel cheated because the label 'leaked' the material to the wider Prince world. They wanted to keep them for themselves.

WhenFansCry said:

JorisE73 said:

Everythig you said here is not true. Eye Records didn't 'leak' anything, they just sold what was already passed around for free.

All fans who were collecting bootlegs at the time Eye Records releases came out know that those soundboards were not circulating, not among the wider Prince community. Your message implies you already had them, which reveals you may be a member of a private circle who does not share and it makes it clearer why you don't want people to listen to what I say. Don't worry, folks know releases are coming from somewhere.

[Edited 7/27/23 11:09am]

WhenFansCry said:

Joris, you did a coming out in a nice way and I thank you for that.

Eye Records releases leaked as free releases no more than two weeks before the Eye Records release date. Not all leaks were complete. The leaks were obviously a last minute response to the paid release by the label. Pressing CD's takes more than two weeks so Eye Records did schedule those release at the time those recordings were kept private and uncirculating.

https://prince.org/msg/7/449528

About Purple Underground voli 1 and 2, djthunderfunk did say in "Reply #2 posted 11/27/17 9:59pm":

The Pittsburgh show that leaked last week is complete here, including the track The Second Coming that was missing on the link.

https://prince.org/msg/7/453647

Purple Underground Vol3 & 6

The new Purple Underground bootlegs are making the rounds. Of course, most of the material was leaked to us over the last couple of weeks, so, not much to talk about...

lustmealways said:

Landonfunkmonkey said:

I don't think that is Prince on vocals.

How can we be sure?

lustmealways said:

Alright guys. You win. I give up. Here's "Fun Love" in pristine quality:


https://we.tl/t-WIpXQJPbMK

you are doing so much more for us than the estate is

Landonfunkmonkey said:

lustmealways said:

Alright guys. You win. I give up. Here's "Fun Love" in pristine quality:


https://we.tl/t-WIpXQJPbMK

I don't think that is Prince on vocals.

It sounds like him but there are some sound effects added as well.

But this is what I was talking about earlier.

Ok we've heard it, now what ? It's only 1 minute long.

Should people be crying and begging for 1 minute long "songs" just because they're unreleased and from the vault ?

[Edited 7/28/23 8:35am]

paisleyparkgirl said:

JorisE73 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

It sounds like him but there are some sound effects added as well.

But this is what I was talking about earlier.

Ok we've heard it, now what ? It's only 1 minute long.

Should people be crying and begging for 1 minute long "songs" just because they're unreleased and from the vault ?

[Edited 7/28/23 8:35am]

I really can't tell if this is a serious post or not

50-50

You decide what's serious and what isn't.

paisleyparkgirl said:

JorisE73 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

50-50

You decide what's serious and what isn't.

If you're serious about it sounding like Prince and the cobclusion you make because of that then I'm shaking my damn head and the end of Prince.org is finally here. If new fans can't even hear the difference between Prince and someone having a laugh then.. Damn.

I'm not a new fan, although being a fan for 10 years could be considered new considering how some of you have been around since 78.

[Edited 7/28/23 14:44pm]

paisleyparkgirl said:

JorisE73 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

I'm not a new fan, although being a fan for 10 years could be considered new considering how some of you have been around since 78.

[Edited 7/28/23 14:44pm]

that make it even worse that you can't distignuish Prince's voice from a random voice that doesn't even sound like his in any way (not to mention the horrible music, no offense to the person who made it but I think that was on purpose)

Eh...maybe it was wishful thinking on my end. I take the L.

[Edited 7/29/23 10:08am]

-

Nothing wrong with crusts

WTF is this a circus

paisleyparkgirl said:

Landonfunkmonkey said:

lustmealways said: I don't think that is Prince on vocals.

It sounds like him but there are some sound effects added as well.

But this is what I was talking about earlier.

Ok we've heard it, now what ? It's only 1 minute long.

Should people be crying and begging for 1 minute long "songs" just because they're unreleased and from the vault ?

[Edited 7/28/23 8:35am]

.

I hope you're not serious. This is nothing like P, neither the vocals nor the primitive MIDI tracks.

Kares said: