MickyDolenz said:

peedub said:

Somebody should tell the zappa estate. They're totally doing it wrong. All those happy fans are idiots. Jfc, you are obtuse.

The post O replied too said maximum eposure & money. Frank Zappa has never had any maximun exposure. I bet KISS make more from selling merchandising in than Frank Zappa has made his entire life. Also here you go, this doesn't look like a CD set to me.

Whatever. Their are several Zappa physical releases every year, all of which have previously unreleased material, and they have no problem profitting from them.

[Edited 1/10/26 0:59am]

djThunderfunk said:

Whatever. Their are several Zappa physical releases every year, all of which have previously unreleased material, and they have no problem profitting from them.

Prince made 11 million last year without doing that. The Notorious B.I.G. made 80 million and he only released 1 album while alive. Did Zappa's estate make 11 million? So you expect Prince's estate to care about what a few people on a mostly dead fansite wants? Prince was a mainstream celebrity, no different from Madonna. A lot of people know who Marilyn Monroe is, even if thev've never seen her movies. Frank Zappa is more like some free jazz artist like Sun Ra. Sun Ra has an audience, but the average person is unlikely to have heard of him. Prince celebrity is more like Marilyn's than Sun Ra. So Prince's estate is going to try to reach the mainstream audience. They didn't commission a stage play on Under The Cherry Moon, that was not a box office hit.

paisleyparkgirl said:

MickyDolenz said:

Here's the Forbes list of highest earning deceased stars of 2025. Looks like the Prince estate is doing pretty good with whatever it is they're doing now

.

1. Michael Jackson - 105 Million
2. Dr. Seuss - 85 Million
3. Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) - 81 Million
4. Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd) - 81 Million
5. The Notorious B.I.G. - 80 Million
6. Miles Davis - 21 Million
7. Elvis Presley - 17 Million
8. Jimmy Buffett - 14 Million
9. Bob Marley - 13 Million
10. John Lennon - 12 Million
11. Prince - 11 Million
12. Arnold Palmer - 11 Million
13. Kobe Bryant - 10 Million

Pretty impressive at 11 million and that's PRE-Stranger things.

Is it? Prince has been dead 10 years, his estate was monetized the same year. $11M about $1.1M average per year.

MJ has been dead for 15 years this summer. His estate averages $7M a year.

B.I.G.'s been dead for 19 years. Making $80M in that time, it's roughly $4M a year.

I don't know why Bowie isn't on that list, but his average is probably higher than Prince's estate.

So, "impressive" is relative. (And my bigger question is how much of that $11M has Chuck Spicer and Lonny McM pocketed.)

TrivialPursuit said:

Is it? Prince has been dead 10 years, his estate was monetized the same year. $11M about $1.1M average per year.

MJ has been dead for 15 years this summer. His estate averages $7M a year.

B.I.G.'s been dead for 19 years. Making $80M in that time, it's roughly $4M a year.

I don't know why Bowie isn't on that list, but his average is probably higher than Prince's estate.

So, "impressive" is relative. (And my bigger question is how much of that $11M has Chuck Spicer and Lonny McM pocketed.)

The Forbes list is made every year, It's what they made in 2025, it's not the total they've made since they've passed. A few years ago, Michael Jackson made some huge amount (way more than 105 million) because his estate sold the ATV publishing catalog to Sony. They did keep a few of the songs, but I don't remember which ones. Usually Charles Shultz (Charlie Brown/Peanuts) is in the top 10, but I guess he didn't make enough.

FrankieCoco1 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

Awesome news !

Well Purple Rain re-entered this week’s UK singles chart at number 12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/new...3vne2832wo

That's mighty impressive. But is no one listening to When Doves Cry?? It's not inside the top 100.

MickyDolenz said:

djThunderfunk said:

Whatever. Their are several Zappa physical releases every year, all of which have previously unreleased material, and they have no problem profitting from them.

Prince made 11 million last year without doing that. The Notorious B.I.G. made 80 million and he only released 1 album while alive. Did Zappa's estate make 11 million? So you expect Prince's estate to care about what a few people on a mostly dead fansite wants? Prince was a mainstream celebrity, no different from Madonna. A lot of people know who Marilyn Monroe is, even if thev've never seen her movies. Frank Zappa is more like some free jazz artist like Sun Ra. Sun Ra has an audience, but the average person is unlikely to have heard of him. Prince celebrity is more like Marilyn's than Sun Ra. So Prince's estate is going to try to reach the mainstream audience. They didn't commission a stage play on Under The Cherry Moon, that was not a box office hit.

If you're trying to convince me, or anyone else that disagrees with you, that the estate should not release physical media, you're wasting your time and ours. Same if you're trying to convince us that they should not release vault material. Nobody who disagrees with you is ever going to say, "hey, you're right" on this. So, it's becoming "blah, blah, blah" nonsense.

Go to Record Store Day in April. Go on youtube and search the words "physical media" or look up people that are sick of streaming. If the bigger record companies stopped pressing vinyl & CDs there would be boutique labels licensing material for physical release just like the MANY that do so for movies and TV shows. Why? There's an audience out here just waiting to throw our money at them. You may think it's a good idea to leave our money on the table and slowly lose us as a customer base, they do not.

At this point one must wonder whether you're trolling or you work for Spotify or some other streaming service because you're arguing too much to not release stuff that others want to buy but you don't. Here's an idea, you should not buy physical media. You should stick with streaming and leave the records & CDs for those that want them. Just don't complain to us if some of what you want to hear doesn't stream and you have to go to pirates to hear it. That's not our problem. Our copies can never be deleted or censored. Yours are subject to the whims & license agreements of those that own them and rent them to you.

Have fun with that.

djThunderfunk said:

If you're trying to convince me, or anyone else that disagrees with you, that the estate should not release physical media, you're wasting your time and ours. Same if you're trying to convince us that they should not release vault material. Nobody who disagrees with you is ever going to say, "hey, you're right" on this. So, it's becoming "blah, blah, blah" nonsense.

The estate put out unreleased tracks (Sign O' The Times, Originals, Diamonds & Pearls) on physical media. I've heard that they were disappointed with the sales. Maybe that's why they're not focusing on that now. All of those tracks were uploaded on Youtube too, so people can listen to them for free. Maybe that hurt the box set sales. Also Sign O'The Times deluxe came out around the pandemic year, so that didn't help either.

.

I've never used Spotify, Apple, Tidal, or whatever. I watch videos on Youtube, that's about it. All I'm saying is that an estate's job is to make money, and they probably can't do that with physical media that most people are not interested in. Michael jackson's estate make a lot every year without any physical releases other that a few expensive MoFi One Step records. That is the original albums and no extra tracks. Funko Pops & t-shirts make money. Conventions make money, look at Comic Con. Zappa is not even the same thing as Prince as far as being known by peole. John Lennon is and he made a little bit more than Prince.

paisleyparkgirl said:

At the end of the day, it's a business. I'm glad that Gen-z is discovering Prince. Y'all can moan and bitch about new music but the estate will do what's profitable to them and Prince's mainstream appeal. I truly feel they do not care about a few orgers, that's not where the big money is at. Period. Once again, enjoy what Prince left you, you should be lucky they still do Celebration every year (maybe attend that) and stop the negativity. No one cares how many times you saw Prince in the 80's, you're no longer the target audience.

The entire thing is called the "music business". It's their job to make as money as possible, for the CEO at least, not so much the artist who almost always get ripped off in some way. Like TLC didn't make much even though they sold multiplatinum. That's why these big companies are buying up everything, like this Netflix buying Warner Brothers movie studio thing going on now. Or Disney buying Fox, Marvel, Pixar, etc. It's the same with the record companies.

MickyDolenz said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

At the end of the day, it's a business. I'm glad that Gen-z is discovering Prince. Y'all can moan and bitch about new music but the estate will do what's profitable to them and Prince's mainstream appeal. I truly feel they do not care about a few orgers, that's not where the big money is at. Period. Once again, enjoy what Prince left you, you should be lucky they still do Celebration every year (maybe attend that) and stop the negativity. No one cares how many times you saw Prince in the 80's, you're no longer the target audience.

The entire thing is called the "music business". It's their job to make as money as possible, for the CEO at least, not so much the artist who almost always get ripped off in some way. Like TLC didn't make much even though they sold multiplatinum. That's why these big companies are buying up everything, like this Netflix buying Warner Brothers movie studio thing going on now. Or Disney buying Fox, Marvel, Pixar, etc. It's the same with the record companies.

MickyDolenz said:

djThunderfunk said:

If you're trying to convince me, or anyone else that disagrees with you, that the estate should not release physical media, you're wasting your time and ours. Same if you're trying to convince us that they should not release vault material. Nobody who disagrees with you is ever going to say, "hey, you're right" on this. So, it's becoming "blah, blah, blah" nonsense.

The estate put out unreleased tracks (Sign O' The Times, Originals, Diamonds & Pearls) on physical media. I've heard that they were disappointed with the sales. Maybe that's why they're not focusing on that now. All of those tracks were uploaded on Youtube too, so people can listen to them for free. Maybe that hurt the box set sales. Also Sign O'The Times deluxe came out around the pandemic year, so that didn't help either.

.

I've never used Spotify, Apple, Tidal, or whatever. I watch videos on Youtube, that's about it. All I'm saying is that an estate's job is to make money, and they probably can't do that with physical media that most people are not interested in. Michael jackson's estate make a lot every year without any physical releases other that a few expensive MoFi One Step records. That is the original albums and no extra tracks. Funko Pops & t-shirts make money. Conventions make money, look at Comic Con. Zappa is not even the same thing as Prince as far as being known by peole. John Lennon is and he made a little bit more than Prince.

The fact that you get your music from youtube explains everything. Some of us have good audio systems and ears that can tell the difference between the "quality" you get on youtube and our physical media.

It's simple, if the estate can't make enough money off Prince's music then they need to sell or license to someone who can. Plenty can and do.

You keep listening to youtube and playing with your funkos, leave the MUSIC business to those who know what they're doing.

djThunderfunk said:

The fact that you get your music from youtube explains everything.

I didn't say anything about music. I said I watch videos on Youtube. Youtube has videos of all kinds of things: movies, obscure TV shows, reactions, music videos, history, cooking, trailers, city tours, etc. Even videos of people cutting grass. As far as music goes, there is a lot of music on Youtube that is nowhere else. Stuff that has never been on CD and is not on streaming. People upload their albums or remix singles of long out of print stuff. Some you can't buy, maybe for some high price on Discogs or Ebay.

.

I mentioned that the Prince stuff is on Youtube, because it is. People in general are always going to get a free thing over something that costs a lot of money. Spotify has a fee, Youtube is free, unless you don't want ads. I actually have the Sign O'The Times duluxe on CD. If you think I'm not interested in physical media, how would I know about the Michael Jackson MoFi? MoFi is not advertised on TV, they're not sold in Walmart. I even used to make entire threads about reissues here. I'm pretty sure you can go to the non-Prince music section and look them up

djThunderfunk said:

djThunderfunk said:

It's simple, if the estate can't make enough money off Prince's music then they need to sell or license to someone who can. Plenty can and do.

Well, where did they make 11 million from? A lot of it would have to be from his music. This is a thread about Prince's music in a TV show. The show has to pay to use that music. That's making money. I doubt Biggie Smalls made that 80 million from CD & record sales, same for the Pink Floyd guys.

paisleyparkgirl said:

Once again, enjoy what Prince left you, you should be lucky they still do Celebration every year (maybe attend that) and stop the negativity.

Yeah, we're sooo lucky that these dipshits still slap together an overpriced and underwhelming grift-fest every summer for the people naive enough to pay. That's definitely a suitable alternative to sharing Prince's unreleased music with the fans who have patiently waited decades to hear it!

bozojones said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

Once again, enjoy what Prince left you, you should be lucky they still do Celebration every year (maybe attend that) and stop the negativity.

Yeah, we're sooo lucky that these dipshits still slap together an overpriced and underwhelming grift-fest every summer for the people naive enough to pay. That's definitely a suitable alternative to sharing Prince's unreleased music with the fans who have patiently waited decades to hear it!

Y'all still go every year though, that's why they still do it. This is not for the new fans or younger fans, it's for the Gen-X/Boomer seasoned fans.

paisleyparkgirl said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

bozojones said:

Yeah, we're sooo lucky that these dipshits still slap together an overpriced and underwhelming grift-fest every summer for the people naive enough to pay. That's definitely a suitable alternative to sharing Prince's unreleased music with the fans who have patiently waited decades to hear it!

Y'all still go every year though, that's why they still do it. This is not for the new fans or younger fans, it's for the Gen-X/Boomer seasoned fans.

Not sure who you're referring to as "y'all" because I sure as hell haven't gone to any of these.

bozojones said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

Y'all still go every year though, that's why they still do it. This is not for the new fans or younger fans, it's for the Gen-X/Boomer seasoned fans.

Not sure who you're referring to as "y'all" because I sure as hell haven't gone to any of these.

Lord, the world doesn't revolve around you. My point is that Celebration always SELLS and it's for a certain demographic. Geez.

Moonbeam said:

“Purple Rain” re-entered the Hot 100 at #27, and the album landed at #41 this week!

Great ! Let's hope they keep climbing.

Purple Rain being at #27 in the Billbord Hot 100 chart is really impresive. Its at #12 in the UK too!

On Spotify, Prince has doubled his unique monthly listeners in to weeks. Now the number is 21.4 millions!

Following Prince's "Purple Rain" re-entering the Billboard Hot 100, Prince joins Michael Jackson and Cher as the only artists to chart in six different decades. 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s.

Cher and MJ going back to they 60s.

[Edited 1/16/26 18:31pm]

MIRvmn1 said:

Now would be the perfect time to release a Purple Rain SDE or at least the First Avenue 83 show. [Edited 1/15/26 22:10pm]

They could easily capitalize on the frist avenuie show, but that would mean the Estate must hire competent people who know the basics regarding running a bussiness, they dont have anyone capable enough to do that or are we expecteing Sharon or anyone of his other family members left to be able to do such a thing competently??
Lonny and Spicy can't even produce a good Deluxe Edition without speed issues and whatever so let;s keep them away from Prince's unrleleaswed material before tehy have it destroyed.

It annoys me that it's always The Very Best of Prince that charts - it's by far the worst official compilation of his music.

For those that scoff at physical releases, especially vinyl, read the article above closely.

JorisE73 said: