bizzie said:

skywalker said:

I know the wonderful box sets put out by Cherry Red. What I don't understand is their business model. You tell me: How does it work? How does the label make money?

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Who cares? They've been doing this for decades, it must be a beneficial arrangement for everyone involved.

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Considering that she is collaborating with them, she's getting paid.

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Is it NOT possible that Prince's estate/licensing/deal is more complex than Sheena's?

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Two of their Sheena releases contain previously unreleased versions of tracks Prince worked on.

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Also, Sheena has worked with plenty of producers, musicians, songwriters etc. throughout her career. How would that be less complex?

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(And sure, Prince likely left behind a contractual mess because he was a bad businessman, but still, why would the people involved in these recordings refuse to work with the estate when it means they would get paid?)

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Want another example? Paul from SuperDeluxeEdition.com has been releasing Blu-ray Audio discs for several years now, 50+ in fact. These often contain exclusive audio streams. His release of FGTH's Welcome To The Pleasuredome has seven different audio streams for the album, plus six bonus tracks in various formats, plus a 30 minute remix of the title track. Half of its contents are exclusive to his release. Now compare to the Purple Rain Blu-ray audio release.

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Explain to me how a guy who runs a blog can work with numerous record companies, manage to release 50+ Blu-ray Audio discs, often has exclusive audio on these releases, yet the Prince estate has only managed to release a handful of tracks digitally in the past two years. Oh yeah, and the perfunctory and underwhelming Blu-ray Audio disc of Purple Rain. The estate is so incompetent that they didn't manage to get a deal in place with Warners to get the Dolby Atmos version of the Purple Rain movie included on the 4K UHD.

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"We are really spoiled." LMAO.

You keep pointing to examples of what other people can do and asking "why not Prince?" but you're still missing the fundamental difference in scale and complexity.

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Yes, Sheena Easton worked with Prince on a couple of tracks. That doesn't make her entire catalog anywhere near as legally complex as Prince's estate. She owns or controls her recordings through standard industry arrangements. She can sign off on deals. There's no multi-year court battle over who even controls her legacy. The Cherry Red releases work because there's a clear chain of authority and relatively straightforward licensing.

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aul from SuperDeluxeEdition example actually proves my point rather than yours. He's a curator and distributor working with labels that already own and control the music. He's not managing an estate, navigating family disputes, or dealing with an artist who spent decades fighting with record labels and creating intentionally complex contractual situations. He makes deals with labels who hand him finished masters. That's completely different from what Prince's estate is dealing with.

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You yourself admit "Prince likely left behind a contractual mess because he was a bad businessman." Okay—so you acknowledge the mess exists, but then you're frustrated that cleaning up that mess takes time? You can't have it both ways. Either the situation is uniquely complicated (which you admit), or it's not (which your comparisons suggest).

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The Purple Rain 4K/Atmos situation is legitimately frustrating, I'll give you that. But again, that probably involves negotiations between the estate, Warner Bros., and whatever entities control the film rights. Multiple parties, multiple contracts, multiple competing interests.

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Look, I'm not saying the estate is perfect or that they couldn't move faster. But comparing Prince's situation to artists with standard industry deals and straightforward catalog ownership is fundamentally flawed.

You're comparing a (blogger?) who licenses finished products to an estate trying to untangle decades of intentional complexity while multiple parties fight over control.

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The question isn't "why can Cherry Red do it but not Prince's estate?" The question is "why do you expect Prince's estate to operate like a standard catalog reissue campaign when Prince himself spent his entire career making sure that would be impossible?"

I wear mostly unicolor t-shirts or simple shirts.

Sometimes, I like to wear something that's more fun. I currently don't have anything related to Prince, because I don't want my money to go to the Estate unless it's for previously unreleased material, for obvious reasons. But I do have a couple of Miles Davis t-shirts.

I'm still an adult. (I think. )

[Edited 10/4/25 14:22pm]

We might be over-estimating the demand and commercia feasiility of the Estate releasing more songs (in phyiscal format). I'd assume ATWIAD is guaranteed to shift enough volume to justify the cost. But would it actually be commercially viable to release a Vault album every year?

I don't know. I know I would buy them but I wonder how many units need to shift for it to make a profit?

I own the SDE of SOTT and D&P. They are great. I also own the almost super deluxe 1999 and the extra deluxe Purple Rain. In all cases I welcomed them and wanted more. As a fan I want SDE and additional Vault releases in physical format. It was great to get Piano and Mic 1983, Originals, Welcome 2 America. I want more. BUT do the numbers stack up?

jaypotton said: