Landonfunkmonkey said:

JorisE73 said:

I really hope they won't do a series with 10 songs on it wfrom different era's, hopefully they'll present the songs on these series in chronological order with extensive information in liner no tes.
Otherwise we'll get another Crystal Ball 98 mess.
Proper archival releases is the least what Prince deserves.
of course I would also love to see unreleased albums that are in the vault or unfinished projects with extensive information.

Or properly mixed Live boxsets (like a complete First Avenue audio/video set or Montruex Jazz festival complete set)

[Edited 8/9/23 4:46am]

I would most like to get proper unreleased albums if they are in the vault. Things like High or Madrid 2 Chicago. I wouldn't be totally opposed to well put together collections presented as albums. Like Jimi Hendrix's Cry Of Love and Rainbow Bridge. For instance if the released all the songs left off Sign o The Times that were intended at one point for Dream Factory or put together the songs that were included on the unreleased Rave 89 configuration.

Couldn't agree more. I've wanted W2A since 2015, and now we have it I'm hungry for more like that. High would be a great shout because it'd be like half the NPGMC tracks with a few extras, plus he had the album all done and ready to go. Rave '89 is another I'd love to see released too

bozojones said:

I'm sure they'll put off any announcement until the last week of August, and the announcement will be for something not coming out until October or later. Whether it's an SDE or another two song single, who fucking knows at this point. I expect to be disappointed at every turn and maybe someday they'll pleasantly surprise me instead

This sounds right. The highly anticipated "announcement" at best will be announcement for an upcoming announcement, to be announced later.

From what we've seen so far, whatever it is, i'm sure we'll be disappointed.

They don't aim at pleasing us & even if the announcement is about D&P SDE, the content will be very different (quantity & quality-wise) from what M.Howe considered for release.

If the sales of the SOTT SDE box were not as high as expected for the Estate, they need to get prepared to even lower sales for the next box set. Many fans won't even bother to buy a physical release because of the way we have been treated since the new estate took over last year.

fredmagnus said:

From what we've seen so far, whatever it is, i'm sure we'll be disappointed.

They don't aim at pleasing us & even if the announcement is about D&P SDE, the content will be very different (quantity & quality-wise) from what M.Howe considered for release.

If the sales of the SOTT SDE box were not as high as expected for the Estate, they need to get prepared to even lower sales for the next box set. Many fans won't even bother to buy a physical release because of the way we have been treated since the new estate took over last year.

Not to mention SOTT and D&P aren't even in the same ballpark, league, or arena as far as great LPs go. One is an easy candidte for a Top 5 record of all time any artist, the other barely scrapes the bottom of a list of Prince's Top 40 records. No way the pop audience of 1991 is anxiously refreshing the org for more information where to beam their $150 for their long-anticipated double-dip. Maybe they would for some of the 80s classics, but once we get into the 90s and 00s territory it's obviously just for the Prince fanatics.

Plus not being allowed to include concert videos or whatever ludicruous deal was signed giving Netflix the rights to all Prince video footage in perpetuity or whatever it is.

Me personally am pre-emptively boycotting it for the inevitable, almost-guaranteed unforgiveable exclusion of "51 Hours" from the singles disc. #JusticeForDiamondAnd/OrPearl

[Edited 8/10/23 4:42am]

WhisperingDandelions said:

fredmagnus said:

From what we've seen so far, whatever it is, i'm sure we'll be disappointed.

They don't aim at pleasing us & even if the announcement is about D&P SDE, the content will be very different (quantity & quality-wise) from what M.Howe considered for release.

If the sales of the SOTT SDE box were not as high as expected for the Estate, they need to get prepared to even lower sales for the next box set. Many fans won't even bother to buy a physical release because of the way we have been treated since the new estate took over last year.

Not to mention SOTT and D&P aren't even in the same ballpark, league, or arena as far as great LPs go. One is an easy candidte for a Top 5 record of all time any artist, the other barely scrapes the bottom of a list of Prince's Top 40 records. No way the pop audience of 1991 is anxiously refreshing the org for more information where to beam their $150 for their long-anticipated double-dip. Maybe they would for some of the 80s classics, but once we get into the 90s and 00s territory it's obviously just for the Prince fanatics.

Plus not being allowed to include concert videos or whatever ludicruous deal was signed giving Netflix the rights to all Prince video footage in perpetuity or whatever it is.

Me personally am pre-emptively boycotting it for the inevitable, almost-guaranteed unforgiveable exclusion of "51 Hours" from the singles disc. #JusticeForDiamondAnd/OrPearl

[Edited 8/10/23 4:42am]

And maybe Exploding all over Europe versions from that in-house 12 inch.

JorisE73 said:

And maybe Exploding all over Europe versions from that in-house 12 inch.

Yes.

Mackopolis44 said:

Prince was ahead of his time. He really could have had a musical conversation with his listeners because he was constantly writing and recording. He could have released new material a lot quicker than he did but his record company couldn't. You could look at this 2 ways; 1. His music would have lost its appeal due to the sheer volume of material and each release may have lacked quality control. 2. The music listeners would struggle to keep up with an artist whose collection was building fast and we're not all millionaires! However, in the new digital age, Prince may have thrived by releasing digital copies of stuff he had worked on but didn't feel like it belonged on a particular album. I think he had already started to do this in his latter career (Free Urself). With this in mind, it would be great if the estate decided to do that with material from the vault. I love the SDEs but, let's face it, they're not cheap! I truly believe that Prince would like to keep his music accessible for any who wanted to listen. Not just the older generation with a few more quid in their pockets. A 'Prince Vault' digital download centre or App would be a fantastic idea to get the stuff out there. I mean, I would still buy the SDEs too 🤣😂🤣😎✌️🎸

1000% agreed

fredmagnus said:

Mackopolis44 said:

Prince was ahead of his time. He really could have had a musical conversation with his listeners because he was constantly writing and recording. He could have released new material a lot quicker than he did but his record company couldn't. You could look at this 2 ways; 1. His music would have lost its appeal due to the sheer volume of material and each release may have lacked quality control. 2. The music listeners would struggle to keep up with an artist whose collection was building fast and we're not all millionaires! However, in the new digital age, Prince may have thrived by releasing digital copies of stuff he had worked on but didn't feel like it belonged on a particular album. I think he had already started to do this in his latter career (Free Urself). With this in mind, it would be great if the estate decided to do that with material from the vault. I love the SDEs but, let's face it, they're not cheap! I truly believe that Prince would like to keep his music accessible for any who wanted to listen. Not just the older generation with a few more quid in their pockets. A 'Prince Vault' digital download centre or App would be a fantastic idea to get the stuff out there. I mean, I would still buy the SDEs too 🤣😂🤣😎✌️🎸

1000% agreed

Well said. I would much rather digital Prince Vault than anything...he has so much stuff we all want to hear, its simply the best, cheapest and easiest way to do it. Of course, I will buy all the SDEs that come out too...but it would be nice to have something that fills in the gaps, especially for us hardcores.

Mackopolis44 said:

Prince was ahead of his time. He really could have had a musical conversation with his listeners because he was constantly writing and recording. He could have released new material a lot quicker than he did but his record company couldn't. You could look at this 2 ways; 1. His music would have lost its appeal due to the sheer volume of material and each release may have lacked quality control. 2. The music listeners would struggle to keep up with an artist whose collection was building fast and we're not all millionaires! However, in the new digital age, Prince may have thrived by releasing digital copies of stuff he had worked on but didn't feel like it belonged on a particular album. I think he had already started to do this in his latter career (Free Urself). With this in mind, it would be great if the estate decided to do that with material from the vault. I love the SDEs but, let's face it, they're not cheap! I truly believe that Prince would like to keep his music accessible for any who wanted to listen. Not just the older generation with a few more quid in their pockets. A 'Prince Vault' digital download centre or App would be a fantastic idea to get the stuff out there. I mean, I would still buy the SDEs too 🤣😂🤣😎✌️🎸

.

When someone already has a dedicated fanbase, they can get away with a constant flow of releases – just look at John Zorn, for example, he has released some 400 albums (physical releases!), and fans are collecting them all.
Or Buckethead, for example, is releasing 2 albums a week – in his case, they are mostly online only, and about half an hour each, but still, that's a whooping 110-120 albums in one year, PLUS almost as many live ones
So don't underestimate the sales potential in Prince's vault either.

Kares said:

Wow, thanks for the fascinating update Charles, eloquent as always

bozojones said:

Wow, thanks for the fascinating update Charles, eloquent as always

i thought it was a crackpipe at first

so I guess they're gonna announce a new cane for sale This is so exciting!!!

I know they said an announcement was coming but I'm honestly not expecting one

bozojones said:

Wow, thanks for the fascinating update Charles, eloquent as always

Do they actually think they're being all mysterious and stirring up excitement with shit like this

...is it a sex toy? The Prince Estate's long-awaited collaboration with Doc Johnson?

Mackopolis44 said:

Kares said:

.

When someone already has a dedicated fanbase, they can get away with a constant flow of releases – just look at John Zorn, for example, he has released some 400 albums (physical releases!), and fans are collecting them all.
Or Buckethead, for example, is releasing 2 albums a week – in his case, they are mostly online only, and about half an hour each, but still, that's a whooping 110-120 albums in one year, PLUS almost as many live ones
So don't underestimate the sales potential in Prince's vault either.

You missed my point. It's not about sales, it's about access!

The Estate only cares about sales. It would be genuinely shocking if Charles "true fan" Spicer actually has a single Prince record besides Purple Rain in his collection.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Mackopolis44 said:

Kares said: You missed my point. It's not about sales, it's about access!

The Estate only cares about sales. It would be genuinely shocking if Charles "true fan" Spicer actually has a single Prince record besides Purple Rain in his collection.

.
Don't be cruel. He must have a copy of The Very Best Of Prince too, bought for $1 from the bargain bin at his local supermarket.

Kares said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Ive a hope or feeling that michael howe did all the work and these new guys are just going to use that work Otherwise if its based on their own bright ideas, we might end up with crystal ball, the series

.

This is just speculation on my part but I find it really hard to believe that Howe & Co. had unlimited budget to systematically digitise and archive everything (multitracks, different mixes, demos, rehearsals, live tapes etc) – and even if they did, a mere couple of years would not have been enough for the entire vault – so I'm pretty sure they worked along pre-approved guidelines, meaning they had certain SDE projects in mind and only touched tapes that potentially fitted one of these projects.

.

I recall him telling in an interview that is basically what he did: go to Iron Mountain and check things that were digitized. But I agree, it's unlikely they've done the whole vault contents. So I suppose they prioritized the oldest recordings (hence the surprise release of the Do Me, Baby demo), in part because they'd likely focus on those with the first couple of SDEs.

.

There was also an entry in Bob Lefsetz's newsletter years ago where he reported on how he was treated to a listening/viewing session at Iron Mountain of unreleased Prince music: https://lefsetz.com/wordp...ces-vault/ .

.

Intriguing bit in that newsletter:

.

Some famous tracks were written years before, there are multiple iterations, you can hear them develop.

.

Can *we* get to hear that too, please? Give me an actual super deluxe with multiple versions of a song, if necessary puleld from cassettes. And not a fucking single version of Crystal Ball, while the full-length track is only available on a brickwalled monstrosity (which IMHO should never be re-released).

.

Note the wide array of material he got to hear:

.

Now I listened to finished versions of songs made famous by other people.

.

Demos of household name songs.

.

Soundcheck workouts of songs long before they were finalized on wax.

.

And this was in *2018*.

.

I can imagine that they spent a fuckton of money simply to catalog everything that was there. Perhaps they had been able to access that ancient PC that was in the PP vault, but that wouldn't have contained the contents of the hundreds of cassette tapes they found. And we know they touched those, since they've used some of them when for instance the Prince vocal on a song he gave away wasn't available for Originals.

.

Anyway, I'd be amazed if the announcement is anything other than a D&P/Symbol not-so-super deluxe. In the meantine we're almost halfway August. Curious when that "BIG YEAR" is going to kick in.

dodger07 said:

bozojones said:

Wow, thanks for the fascinating update Charles, eloquent as always

Do they actually think they're being all mysterious and stirring up excitement with shit like this

.

Of for fuck's sake, there's nothing mysterious. Just look at the Paisley Park social media.

Raevene said:

biug....yearrr

MIRvmn1 said:

They will probably wait until the end of the month to drag it out as much as possible.

absolutely, and as I said before, the announcement will almost definitely be for something 2-3 months away at that point It's all about kicking the can further down the road with these assholes