This Estate has the most material of all time.........and has done the least with it.

Am I overstating that this is the WORST Estate of all time?

[Edited 5/20/25 4:35am]

I don't have much knowledge about the estates of various deceased artists, but this one has to be up there. Thanks for nothing, Lonnie & Chuckie.

That would be Michael Jackson, hands down. A voice impersonator for Michael? Bruh. They killed Mike's legacy. I'm pretty sure the "highest paid" stuff comes from Vegas. They can't do another album. Not that he had the material to do so.

TraSoul82 said:

That would be Michael Jackson, hands down. A voice impersonator for Michael? Bruh. They killed Mike's legacy. I'm pretty sure the "highest paid" stuff comes from Vegas. They can't do another album. Not that he had the material to do so.

What choice did they have. Mjs catalog is weak as hell.

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

Most other artists don't have a massive vault filled with material, so it's not a fair comparison.

And while the Estate has released a lot of tracks, those represent only a tiny fraction of the universe of vault tracks. So relatively speaking, they've released next to nothing.

A more regular and robust release schedule would not only benefit the fans but the Estate as well. They're shooting themselves in the foot by not monetizing the vault.

Fans should not apologize for wanting to hear what's in the vault. Are they entitled to the music? Of course not. But having a desire to hear it isn't the same as demanding it. Saying, "I'd love to hear this," is NOT the same as saying, "The Estate owes me!" Wanting to hear the music is normal and natural and healthy. Exploring unheard songs from favorite artist who brings us pleasure. And mucis is created to bring pleasure. That's the point.

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

We're talking about the post-2022 estate. The previous team did a decent job, even if they weren't quite as prolific as we would have liked. Everything from 2023 onward has been a drought and a trainwreck, just completely unacceptable both from a fan standpoint AND a business standpoint.

It's sad because you look at the estates of some other deceased artists and you see such quality releases. Hendrix, Bowie, even Elvis is still getting solid releases.

ghostof82 said:

To be fair, and I'm by no means excusing the Estate, these are strange times for music. It's not as important, culturally, as it used to be to the general public. People don't buy CDs anymore, even digital sales have diminished, their 'convenience' (ugh) usurped by streaming. The rock/pop charts don't matter anymore. The music world Prince worked and thrived in is gone. It's just us old fools lingering on. As an aside, the maestro Vangelis passed three years ago. Like Prince, he recorded music all the time, amassed a huge of amount of unreleased music, cancelled albums, unreleased soundtracks. His Estate have voiced intentions of releasing some of it to continue his legacy, but in three years the only release has been a remaster that Vangelis himself worked on before he died. Nothing else, not even rumours of anything. So it's not just Prince's work that isn't forthcoming. I have faith that there will be releases of 'new' music of Prince and Vangelis someday, but maybe we have to rein in expectations in this strange world we are living in. The majority of people just don't seem to care about music. [Edited 5/21/25 8:54am]

You have a point there, the music industry is not what it used to be even just a decade ago. But see the recent box sets from Bob Dylan with 27 CDs or The Grateful Dead with 60 CDs.

ghostof82 said:

To be fair, and I'm by no means excusing the Estate, these are strange times for music. It's not as important, culturally, as it used to be to the general public. People don't buy CDs anymore, even digital sales have diminished, their 'convenience' (ugh) usurped by streaming. The rock/pop charts don't matter anymore. The music world Prince worked and thrived in is gone. It's just us old fools lingering on. As an aside, the maestro Vangelis passed three years ago. Like Prince, he recorded music all the time, amassed a huge of amount of unreleased music, cancelled albums, unreleased soundtracks. His Estate have voiced intentions of releasing some of it to continue his legacy, but in three years the only release has been a remaster that Vangelis himself worked on before he died. Nothing else, not even rumours of anything. So it's not just Prince's work that isn't forthcoming. I have faith that there will be releases of 'new' music of Prince and Vangelis someday, but maybe we have to rein in expectations in this strange world we are living in. The majority of people just don't seem to care about music. [Edited 5/21/25 8:54am]

.

Explain to me how Cherry Red records can release TWO 5CD sets of The Rah Band, a literal one hit wonder, and make money. Note that they license the music from another label (i.e. pay them for it), pay for remasters, pay to get previously unreleased recordings from the archives, pay people to write liner notes, pay photographers, pay a designer, etc.

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Explain to me how that makes money, yet RELEASING PRINCE MUSIC does not.

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

.

We don't even have complete remasters of his 1980s oeuvre. There are a bunch of 12" mixes etc. that are still unavailable on CD. Most of the protege artists are unavailable on CD.

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There is a fuckton of live recordings and outtakes that remain unreleased.

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Nine+ years after Prince's death and merely looking at his 1980s body of work: there is so much unreleased material, it's insane.

bizzie said:

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

there is so much unreleased material, it's insane.

And in the meantime time, so LITTLE is done by the ones who are in charge of his legacy.

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

???

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First of all, basically no other artist (maybe Zappa?) produced such a intense body of work, both released and unreleased, and, recorded basically all his live performances.

To my knowledge, more or less we have 150 (or so) 'new' unreleased songs, of which a lot was already known.

Live concert releases; we have like, 4 (or 5?) official live concerts included in SDE sets. (i could be wrong though in counting)

And as fas as I know we have 1 unreleased album "Welcome 2 America".

And, you think there's no anual fan gatherings of other passed artists?

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I think it's irrelevant to compare Prince with any other artist who poassed away in the frist place.

It's the volume of his life work we talk about here, and what is made available to us so far.

And most important the lack of communication, with the fan base.

By the way, the last couple of Celebrations were an embarresment.

Let's be honest about that.

Any Estate, the previous or current, could've done so much better/more even.

The lack of competence and new ideas, to share more in any new creative way, is already a public secret.

Next year "4ever", the compilation, will be 10 years old, with only one new song we got, right after his passing.

Not to give them any ideas, but they could re-release the damn shit and remaster it with another 'one' (or two) new song(s), and maybe if we're all nice and polite, we get an extra blu-ray with the videos. FFS, Just imagine how much worse it still can get.

(Why do I even bother explaing all this...)

bozojones said:

billymeade said:

We've gotten literally 100s of unreleased tracks, live concert releases, blu-rays, multiple unreleased albums, podcasts, annual fan gatherings... what other artist had this sort of attention in less than a decade after their passing?

We're talking about the post-2022 estate. The previous team did a decent job, even if they weren't quite as prolific as we would have liked. Everything from 2023 onward has been a drought and a trainwreck, just completely unacceptable both from a fan standpoint AND a business standpoint.

Bingo.

MIRvmn1 said:

It’s been almost four months since the Estate told us the vault had been freed, but there’s still nothing. Just the same frustrating silence as always. They don't even bother to release a few unreleased songs just to keep us a little happy for the moment. [Edited 5/21/25 17:16pm]

They simply don't give a rats ass.

Prove me wrong..........

MIRvmn1 said:

It’s been almost four months since the Estate told us the vault had been freed, but there’s still nothing. Just the same frustrating silence as always. They don't even bother to release a few unreleased songs just to keep us a little happy for the moment. [Edited 5/21/25 17:16pm]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but technically there is something: that Vault & Future Plans Panel on June 7 at the Celebration. It's not nothing.

So in 17 days (I couldn't resist...), we'll know if they really have plans, if those plans are actually interesting, or if we can definitely give up.

olb99 said:

MIRvmn1 said:

It’s been almost four months since the Estate told us the vault had been freed, but there’s still nothing. Just the same frustrating silence as always. They don't even bother to release a few unreleased songs just to keep us a little happy for the moment. [Edited 5/21/25 17:16pm]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but technically there is something: that Vault & Future Plans Panel on June 7 at the Celebration. It's not nothing.

So in 17 days (I couldn't resist...), we'll know if they really have plans, if those plans are actually interesting, or if we can definitely give up.

Agreed. Fingers crossed.

"We have much time".... I'm 54 & fan since 84'.

olb99 said:

MIRvmn1 said:

It’s been almost four months since the Estate told us the vault had been freed, but there’s still nothing. Just the same frustrating silence as always. They don't even bother to release a few unreleased songs just to keep us a little happy for the moment. [Edited 5/21/25 17:16pm]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but technically there is something: that Vault & Future Plans Panel on June 7 at the Celebration. It's not nothing.

So in 17 days (I couldn't resist...), we'll know if they really have plans, if those plans are actually interesting, or if we can definitely give up.

.

Why do you continue to pretend these incompetent boobs are capable of anything? They couldn't even manage to re-release Come 2 My House. This is what they told Classic Pop magazine at the end of 2023:

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Having assembled the exhaustive Diamonds And Pearls boxset, will Prince's estate celebrate next year's 40th anniversary of Purple Rain? The album was expanded in 2015, but hasn't had the full deluxe treatment.

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"Of course," agrees Charles F Spicer Jr. "We'd be remiss if we didn't do something around Purple Rain next year, for both the film and the album. It's the work that elevated Prince to greatness, so we won't leave 2024 without doing justice to Purple Rain. That's a signature project."

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Spicer is also determined that Prince's later albums will start to see similar deluxe treatment, explaining: "There's most certainly going to be super deluxe sets of Prince's later music. He was always creating, and there's so much music that we've got a lot of happy work on our hands to figure out how to release it all."

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For the first time, some of the other artists who released albums on Prince's Paisley Park label will also see their albums reissued, some of which have been long out of print, such as Jill Jones.

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Spicer reveals: "There's a great possibility that music will get released. There's so much to plan, and we need fans' patience to help make it happen. But this is the 25th anniversary of Chaka Khan's album which she made with Prince, Come 2 My House. That's being re-released this year, for example."

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Look at all the promises! We're 18+ months later and guess what? NOTHING has happened.

bizzie said:

Why do you continue to pretend these incompetent boobs are capable of anything?

Because I'm an optimist?

Even if they're 95% incompetent, there's still a chance that something good could happen down the line.

Ramzoo said:

olb99 said:

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but technically there is something: that Vault & Future Plans Panel on June 7 at the Celebration. It's not nothing.

So in 17 days (I couldn't resist...), we'll know if they really have plans, if those plans are actually interesting, or if we can definitely give up.

Agreed. Fingers crossed.

"We have much time".... I'm 54 & fan since 84'.

I am still optimistic, and I will get excited if there is something promising happening. This optimism is tempered by the fact that it is 2025 and the material that was released during his lifetime is still not yet completely available from the estate in an official capacity.

Exactly. When it comes to criticizing the Estate, I agree with 99% of what Bert is saying. In terms of quantity (and quality, in many cases), what has been released so far is pathetic, etc. Nothing new here. We've discussed this ad nauseam. I'm sick of that incompetence. Let's move on.

I'm just saying that they're going to actually talk about what they're planning to do with the content of the vault for 2 hours in less than 3 weeks. That's something. And as previously said, if they don't present anything concrete or if they f**k up that panel in any way, I'm ready to give up any hope about previously unreleased music being released.

[Edited 5/22/25 13:47pm]

At the very least, what they need to do at this panel is give us a date for an officiel announcement.

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Otherwise, whatever they will say is just empty promises like on that Classic Pop magazine 18 months ago

fredmagnus said:

At the very least, what they need to do at this panel is give us a date for an officiel announcement.

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Otherwise, whatever they will say is just empty promises like on that Classic Pop magazine 18 months ago

Bingo. They've already promised shit that they didn't deliver on, I don't know why anyone is naive to think that this panel will be different.

WhiteSandsHideaway11 said:

The releases from the estate so far, although not perfect, have been pretty good.the issue for me is the snail like pace in which they come out.. I get that it wouldn’t be practical to release multiple $300 sets a year.. but one big release like that coulpled with a few smaller releases would be great.. In a perfect world every year we would get: 1 SDE 1 stand alone concert footage release 2 live sets (aftershows etc) A few digital releases thrown in the mix would keep things exciting too..

The "pretty good" releases all came before Londell and Charles took over around 2023. They're the reason things have moved at a snails pace in the last 2-3 years.

bozojones said:

WhiteSandsHideaway11 said:

The releases from the estate so far, although not perfect, have been pretty good.the issue for me is the snail like pace in which they come out.. I get that it wouldn’t be practical to release multiple $300 sets a year.. but one big release like that coulpled with a few smaller releases would be great.. In a perfect world every year we would get: 1 SDE 1 stand alone concert footage release 2 live sets (aftershows etc) A few digital releases thrown in the mix would keep things exciting too..

The "pretty good" releases all came before Londell and Charles took over around 2023. They're the reason things have moved at a snails pace in the last 2-3 years.

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Even the D&P SDE is mostly the work of the previous regime. All Lonnie & Charlie have managed to do is a handful of digital releases, which were handled so incompetently that it wasn't funny anymore.

olb99 said: