It's not a world tour until it goes somewhere out of the states... I'm sure it will, but just to be pedantic... but then, the Americans do think they ARE the world... as shown by the World Baseball Series... Yeah, and what other countries play in your WORLD league?

Always thought that was funny... in the UK we brought out 'Feed the World' and then in America they brought out 'WE are the World'... America heard there was some free food going and obviously wanted some!

Anyway, on the one hand a tour of hits will mean it will be easier to drag some of my non-committed friends along to see how good he is (I'll make them fans EVENTUALLY goddammit!!) but it's a shame for hardcore fans who want to hear something different or new. Hopefully he will satisfy the hardcore fans with that at aftershows.

But I still think Prince is messing up the promotion of this new album - if he isn't going to play tracks from it live, it's a bit like saying, "well, it's okay, but it's not as good as my older stuff" and that's not a resounding endorcement. Is there a chance that this album will actually be one or 2 new tracks mixed in with a remastered greatest hits package? It would explain why he might not be bothered about giving it away for free at concerts, if he indeed does.

As for all this getting all the labels to release his album, that may be an interesting and noble concept, but it is surely a pipe-dream... does a record label choose having the whole pie to themselves or only a small piece and sharing it with it's rivals? Hmmm. I don't think so....

NME said:

If you sell 10 thousand copies of a song online, what have you spent, compared to one thousand CDs?

1 thousand CDs cost $999. Just for the pressing and print. Not counting production of the song - that's a huge variable.

10 thousand songs, online, will cost you maybe, MAYBE, $50 for the bandwidth.

So, on return on investment, you're fucking rich.

metalorange said:

I was there. He said that the new CD will consist "of primarily new material". Maybe a few re-recorded songs, but not a greatest hits CD.

As far as the labels co-distributing; this is not as far fetched as you might think. Prince is using the business model that movie studios have already set in place. Studios co-release films all the time now and feel it is a profitable enough venture for everyone involved. Not the same numbers as in the recording industry of course.

And we need to clarify for the uninformed - a promotional/distribution deal has NOTHING to do with publishing revenue. That will always be handled by Universal Music Publishing and is not shared as part of the promotional/distribution deal.

Jestyr said:

Uninformed? Yes, kind of.
Right, the difference between distribution/publishing. Right, right.

Well still, it might be common in the movie industry, but i think
it`s new to the music industry. But i am sure you could even
clarify on that one.
Take care, Jestyr

danielboon said:

that sounds very interesting, but could you please translate into English cause I'm not a 100% sure what you just said

TonyWilliams said:

Hey you!

Yes - there have already been co-distributed projects released on CD, but never all of the four majors joined together on one project. It's quite a revolutionary idea! I mean, in the industry we always joked that with all the mergers...one day there will only BE one label. Prince is just taking it to the future.