lustmealways said:

We'll find out "Freaks On This Side" dates back to 1982 and the original demo will be released.

Im 57 now and was hardcore also for many years. I have just been through a not listening to Prince for a couple of years. Except Welcome To America which i quite liked. And I agree the lack of live material is depressing. like here in the uk they have some nights on mainstream tele that are devoted to an artist like Blondie or something. Prince never gets that. Its like ffs make a deal and show the lovesexy show or something. So at least some people might tune in that wouldnt normally. Even by accident

databank said:

SoulAlive said:

Musicology doesn’t deserve an SDE it is not one of Prince’s best,or most essential,albums.

It's a strange thing to read Prince fans write that such or such album don't deserve an SDE. Are we to wish for SDEs from 1980 to 1992,then for the Estate to throw the rest of the vault's content in a garbage bin and burn it?

I don't think Musicology deserves a stand-alone SDE. Maybe it could be part of a release of songs from the 2000's.

whodknee said:

madison said:

databank said:

I find it somewhat disturbing to see Prince fans, of all people, imploring the Estate NOT to release material. This doesn't exactly send the right message At least the Bowie Estate appears to consider every era equal in value and every album deserving extensive collections. The chronological approach they chose for the boxsets means we won't see extensive boxsets for later albums anytime soon, but it seems to be the long term plan and they already released the "eras" boxsets for nearly every period and regularly balance the early era boxsets with live shows and odd releases from later periods. . [Edited 6/5/24 18:28pm]

You kind of reference the reason the fans are like "this deserves an SDE," "this does not deserve an SDE."

Releasing them in the random order they have so far has undermined the albums themselves. Fans are aware certain albums were considered "worthy" of an SDE, and even highly anticipated SDE's like 'Parade' have been shelved indefinitely, so it essentially created hostility among the albums themselves for the fans, as in "this deserves an SDE" or does not, because the Estate has clearly implied some will get SDEs and some will not.

[Edited 6/5/24 18:51pm]

bozojones said:

databank said:

I may be completely wrong, but I don't see much logic in releasing a new PR SDE so soon after the first one from a business standpoint, not to mention that the Syracuse show was already rereleased twice recently. And apparently, anniversaries have little to no impact on sales. Way I see it, a Musicology SDE may be hinted at by the singles we just got (though, ironically, it would be another anniversary release, but those singles would be a smart strategy to revive interest in the album ahead of something bigger), but who knows...

The first Purple Rain deluxe set wasn't a proper SDE and wasn't really marketed as such, it was just a quick cash grab Warner threw together with whatever they had laying around in their company archives. As for logic, Purple Rain is still the most popular and widely known Prince album and probably always will be. If they want to try and cater to as wide of an audience as possible with one of these SDE sets, Purple Rain would be the album to do it with.

Personally, I don't have any issues with getting a Purple Rain SDE in the near future. I just have zero faith in the current estate's ability to do it right, given that they couldn't even put out the Celebration singles last year without fucking it up.

Spamming Purple Rain does nothing to build an audience. People are aware of it, and actually with the generational divide and playlist culture spamming 'Purple Rain' only boosts awareness of "Purple Rain", which already has gen-Z one-hit-wonder status and is literally the one Prince song they all already know.

You speak of catering to a wide audience, for that audience he already has an SDE, this "wasn't a proper" blah blah blah is for the uber nerds, who probably would generally like a break from the endless spamming of 'Purple Rain' stuff.

WhisperingDandelions said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

LILpoundCAKE said:

2024 being a year where they allow the market to digest all the other mega releases
they've put out thus far

You say that ironically (I hope!), but I just realized that "the market" has digested the previous SDE releases in less than a month. I mean, people will get excited for months before the releases and, once they are released, there will be more excitement for a few weeks. And then nothing anymore.

Resolution said:

What baffles me is the lack of live in concert audio/DVD's. PRINCE was hands down the greatest live act in the world with tons of footage shot of every tour/concert.

Yeah, that's really baffling. PV lists 37 main tours. If we only select 30 concerts from those tours and about 20 of the "best" one-off/aftershow concerts, that's 50 "best of the best" concerts that they could release to document Prince's live career. At the current rate (about 1 concert a year), they will have released those 50 concerts by the time I'm in my 90s.

(And, yes, I'll keep on rambling about that as long as the Estate is as slow as they currently are, and as long as some fans keep saying that the Estate shouldn't release way more stuff, which, as databank says, is really baffling as well.)

[Edited 6/6/24 1:09am]

Off topic comment deleted - l'ange bleu, moderator

antonb said:

Im 57 now and was hardcore also for many years. I have just been through a not listening to Prince for a couple of years. Except Welcome To America which i quite liked. And I agree the lack of live material is depressing. like here in the uk they have some nights on mainstream tele that are devoted to an artist like Blondie or something. Prince never gets that. Its like ffs make a deal and show the lovesexy show or something. So at least some people might tune in that wouldnt normally. Even by accident

I can understand. I’m 53 and fan since 84’. 2 B honest I never got bored of Prince’s music. Catalogue is so huge that you can switch from an era to another (favorite one is “Parade’ : hoping I’ll live enough to witness a SDE release). I’m always excited when there’s a new release.

I don’t think that I’ll get rid of my collection (Japanese CD’s, Jeff Katz’s pic, tour programs, box sets….).

On top of that I listen to other music (TTDA, Madonna, George Michael, Queen, FGTH…).

I'll never tired of listening to prince, it's been a part of my life for so long now I don't think
there will ever be a point where I won't be interested in 'new' releases at all.

All the vault tracks we got on the various SDE releases, I cherish and I regularly listen to
most of them. It's so nice to get to hear more of his music.

It also deepens the catalogue that he put out during his lifetime. It just adds more shades
to the pallet.

I guess there's so little talk of the newly released vault tracks of the last 10 years since
there really is only a handfull of people left on the org anyway.

But I'm sure that a lot of us, like myself, are loving a lot of those tracks just as much as
the stuff that was released in the glory days.

No matter how much the estate continues to drop the ball, his music is the soundtrack to my life and I will never abandon it because gosh darn it never fails to put me in a good mood. God bless him.

databank said:

whodknee said:

I don't think Musicology deserves a stand-alone SDE. Maybe it could be part of a release of songs from the 2000's.

I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning. What would you have the Estate release once they're done with the handful of albums "worthy" of an SDE, then? There's most likely enough 2003-2004 unreleased material in the vault to justify at least two CDs of Musicology era outtakes, and there's a 2004 Tour of which we know soundboard/pro shot recordings exist. Is the Estate supposed to release a 2CD set of outtakes for the whole 2000s, then throw the rest of the studio and live 2000s' vault in a garbage bin? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily fond of the SDE format: even with 2 or 3 CDs of outtakes and one or two shows, the format has strong limitations. But from a commercial perspective, I guess it's a format that makes sense. I find it somewhat disturbing to see Prince fans, of all people, imploring the Estate NOT to release material. This doesn't exactly send the right message At least the Bowie Estate appears to consider every era equal in value and every album deserving extensive collections. The chronological approach they chose for the boxsets means we won't see extensive boxsets for later albums anytime soon, but it seems to be the long term plan and they already released the "eras" boxsets for nearly every period and regularly balance the early era boxsets with live shows and odd releases from later periods. . [Edited 6/5/24 18:28pm]

Just as I (and others) stated the Musicology project isn't worth a large production unto itself. Nobody said they don't want any of the material. Speaking for myself, I would just rather it be packaged with other projects to make it more appealing. Now if the estate would rather release it as an individual SDE then I'll just have to deal with it (or not).

lustmealways said:

No matter how much the estate continues to drop the ball, his music is the soundtrack to my life and I will never abandon it because gosh darn it never fails to put me in a good mood. God bless him.

The fact I'm still here too suggests that this goes for me as well. I go from era to era, switch to other artists and then come back to Prince. It was that way for me when he was alive and will likely continue until the end of my days. That doesn't mean I have to agree with what is prioritized for release. I don't care if every album ultimately gets the SDE treatment but given the slow rate of release another Purple Rain project or a Musicology SDE is low on my wish list.

whodknee said:

databank said:

whodknee said: I'm not quite sure I understand the reasoning. What would you have the Estate release once they're done with the handful of albums "worthy" of an SDE, then? There's most likely enough 2003-2004 unreleased material in the vault to justify at least two CDs of Musicology era outtakes, and there's a 2004 Tour of which we know soundboard/pro shot recordings exist. Is the Estate supposed to release a 2CD set of outtakes for the whole 2000s, then throw the rest of the studio and live 2000s' vault in a garbage bin? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily fond of the SDE format: even with 2 or 3 CDs of outtakes and one or two shows, the format has strong limitations. But from a commercial perspective, I guess it's a format that makes sense. I find it somewhat disturbing to see Prince fans, of all people, imploring the Estate NOT to release material. This doesn't exactly send the right message At least the Bowie Estate appears to consider every era equal in value and every album deserving extensive collections. The chronological approach they chose for the boxsets means we won't see extensive boxsets for later albums anytime soon, but it seems to be the long term plan and they already released the "eras" boxsets for nearly every period and regularly balance the early era boxsets with live shows and odd releases from later periods. . [Edited 6/5/24 18:28pm]

Just as I (and others) stated the Musicology project isn't worth a large production unto itself. Nobody said they don't want any of the material. Speaking for myself, I would just rather it be packaged with other projects to make it more appealing. Now if the estate would rather release it as an individual SDE then I'll just have to deal with it (or not).

Yeah but what I meant was if an album's SDE is an average of 6 CDs + 1 DVD (album + singles + outtakes + live shows) as we've seen so far (which I wouldn't exactly call a LARGE production), either you mean they should, for example, make a 2000-2009 package with 66 CDs and 11 DVDs, which I think is going to be a hard sell when it comes to pricing, or you mean they should just keep the individual albums on print and release a 2000s SDE with 6 CDs and one DVD for the whole decade, which means leaving a LOT of material in the vault.

Or did I misunderstand entirely and if so, what would you propose?

LILpoundCAKE said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

peedub said:

Robbajobba said:

Yup - same here. Everyone's getting older; interest is going to fade with each passing year, but the estate seems no less of a shitshow than it was 8 years ago.

Same. I'm 50 and couldn't really care less. 90% of Prince's appeal for me was 'what's next'?! And he always delivered, fueling my interest in ALL of his output. Now? I can't even remember the last time I actively sought to listen to any of his music. It's probably been a year, and I hardly look upon his discography as fondly as I once did. The estate has dropped the ball, entirely. There's so much material with which they could've kept me hooked, that I would pay for...sadly, I've overcome my addiction.

you took the words right out of my mouth

I can’t help but laugh with Tony when Prince ‘sings’ Igor!

Unbelievable...me too !!!!

Off topic comment deleted - l'ange bleu, moderator

Off topic comment deleted - l'ange bleu, moderator

you cant say the estate are only milking the sureshot albums again as they have released other projects as well. so i dont care if PR is getting another release, as long as other albums get a SDE release too. is it broadening the general view of princes music to re-release PR again? no. but will it draw attention to prince and therefore, his other non-PR music? hopefully. most artists have only one truly BIG album in their catalogue that everyone into music is aware of, and obv, this is prince's. most ppl prob know thriller more than other MJ albums. most ppl prob know pet sounds ahead of other beach boys albums. etc etc. all that aside, everyone knows prince was amassing tons of songs in this period, so im hoping we get a lot of songs we arent aware of, as well as his versions of songs he gave to other artists from this period too. thats what could make this a great release, really pulling everything that he was working on so its not just about PR the album and tour, but this whole period that he spent so much time on perfecting. lets face it, he did put a hell of a lot of work into this period, so it deserves to be properly documented and presented.

This is the best that the estate could muster up for Prince's birthday today:

"Today we honor what would have been Prince's 66th birthday. Thank you Prince for sharing your musical genius with the world. You’ve made it a better place.