With Prince's birthday coming up on Friday and Celebration a few weeks later, I'm thinking of all the possible ways in which the estate could drop the ball during this BIG YEAR:

• Hyping up big news at Celebration, only to announce another remaster/rerelease of Live In Syracuse
• Finally announcing a release of the 1983 First Avenue show, but that's the only release in 2024
• Announcing a proper Purple Rain SDE, but it's lacking major relevant tracks like "Wednesday" and "G-Spot"
• The same as above, but the main album is also the same shitty remaster from 2017 that Londell & co. insist on reusing because they "want to respect Prince's vision"
• No actual releases are announced this year, and instead the estate roll out a Purple Rain themed luxury cruise
• More bedsheets and rainboots added to the online Prin(c)e Store

Third Man Records release of the 'Camille' album on vinyl.

unless the 1st av 1983 show is part of a mega, 20 disc Purple Rain ultimate package,
containing everything e-ve-ry-thing to do with the album and it's sessions, i am NOT
interested.

i don't want them to release a concert i've been linstening to for 35 years, as the one
and only release for the year.

but let's not kid ourselves. 1st Av 83 will not be the only release for 2024.

it will be the only release for 2025,

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

I predict nothing special.

I am in my 50s and as the years go by I am slowly losing interest in any of it. Thank goodness we got 1999 and SOTTs SDE before the estate got a hold of it all...

If they don't get off their ass and release the classic 80 thru 88 SDEs and some concerts/after shows from this era, I truly don't give a crap

Poplife88 said:

SoulAlive said:

Poplife88 said:

I predict nothing special.

I am in my 50s and as the years go by I am slowly losing interest in any of it. Thank goodness we got 1999 and SOTTs SDE before the estate got a hold of it all...

If they don't get off their ass and release the classic 80 thru 88 SDEs and some concerts/after shows from this era, I truly don't give a crap

I feel the same way.I’m kinda losing interest in this stuff.They're being too slow with their releases and they keep ignoring some of the essential albums from the 80s.It’s a shame.

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.

Robbajobba said:

Robbajobba said:

SoulAlive said:

Poplife88 said: I feel the same way.I’m kinda losing interest in this stuff.They're being too slow with their releases and they keep ignoring some of the essential albums from the 80s.It’s a shame.

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.

More than OG fans, the estate needs to figure out a way to generate PUBLIC interest if they want to keep making money and keep PP open.

paisleyparkgirl said:

databank 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.

ShellyMcG said:

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

Zero expectations...

SoulAlive said:

ShellyMcG said:

Honestly, I'd rather a Musicology SDE than a Purple Rain one. All of the SDEs have been focused on older albums and that's fair enough. It makes sense to concentrate on his most critically and commercially successful period. But just to mix things up a bit I'd like something more modern. If you can call a 20 year old album "modern", that is.

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

bozojones said:

ShellyMcG said:

databank said:

Agreed. Welcome 2 America was a reassuring release in that regard: it showed they had faith in later era material. . [Edited 6/5/24 4:29am]

So much faith that they decided to put an etching on an entire side of the LP instead of any myriad outtakes they had access to...

lustmealways said:

databank said:

Precisely. They obviously thought the album stood out the way it was (or, more accurately, they way they compiled it).

I disagree. I really like the album and the material and definitely agree with the fact that his post 80s, even post 90s stuff needs to be focused on more, BUT i think W2A was a too little too late cash grab on all the 2020 civil rights and BLM discussion in an attempt to make P look like a prescient savior. didn't howe admit as much in an interview?

lustmealways said:

databank said:

ShellyMcG said:

Honestly, I'd rather a Musicology SDE than a Purple Rain one. All of the SDEs have been focused on older albums and that's fair enough. It makes sense to concentrate on his most critically and commercially successful period. But just to mix things up a bit I'd like something more modern. If you can call a 20 year old album "modern", that is.

Agreed. Welcome 2 America was a reassuring release in that regard: it showed they had faith in later era material. . [Edited 6/5/24 4:29am]

Just a shame about the audio glitches on that which neither the estate or the publisher ever commented on

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. As mentioned above, loosing hope we will get large volumes of this (and recognising the D&P and W2A DVD's etc). Likewise I am 52 and I think his hard core fan base is aging and we may never get to see this.

I would also love to hear his work just before his passing. HNR 2 is in my top 3 Prince albums and I loved the vibe, and would like to hear more of what he was working on at that time.... Rather sad that we have to go to social sites to get poor quality video material