Forgot that this was happening until last night. REALLY unfortunate to read the comments hear about Chaka- I was hoping she'd have some Gladys Knight or Patti Patti type energy but Chaka's been going through it for decades and I pray for her as well.

*

Nevertheless, disappointed to read that this didn't seem to live up to it's potential...

Wishing Chaka the best... lets not count her out... comes ALIVE when she performs A Night In Tunisia... STILL in great voice. Hills and valleys -- such is life.

eduJ said:

Hamad said:

Why not use those masters to ensure a comfortable living for herself? Not only she could live off them till she’s no longer here, but can also use them as investments for her children later.

I don't think there is much money to be made in streaming, at least not for the artists. The money is in licensing songs to movies, commercials, TV shows, video games, etc. Other than a few songs like I'm Every Woman (and the Whitney Houston version is more popular with the mainstream audience) & Ain't Nobody, is there that much of a demand for Chaka songs in modern mainstream entertainment? I hear certain Marvin Gaye songs in a lot of commercials, but not Chaka or Rufus.

Hamad said:

You’d be surprised Maybe not in US no attention span media, but Chaka is still very much a household name in all of Europe, especially UK & Germany. The options & opportunities are infinite, not just limited to the states.

For the most part, Chaka was never a household name with mainstream audiences in the US. She (& Rufus) was primarily popular on R&B radio. She had a few crossover hits, but she didn't crossover herself like a Lionel Richie or Michael Jackson. That's likely the reason that Whitney Houston got into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame on her 1st nomination, yet Rufus still hasn't after being nominated several times.

eduJ said:

kitbradley said:

You see how quickly Anita Baker moved once she got her masters.

That's all well and good. But unless it's like The Beatles, box sets don't sell much today. Box sets mainly sell to people who already know about the artists and want to collect stuff. A lot of people don't even own a CD player, and they don't put them in new cars. The average new PC/laptop don't have a disc drive either. Very few current popular acts sell a lot of physical product. It's even less for oldies. That's what happened to Prince. He would take his stuff off of Youtube & other streaming sites, which is how most of the younger audience listens to music. Anita isn't going to reach a new audience by releasing a CD box set. The people who are most interested in Anita Baker likely have her albums already. That is what is different with The Beatles sets, they put a lot of unreleased stuff in their box sets, even flubbed takes and studio chatter.

Rick Astley is known today by younger audiences, not because he put out a box set or reissued remastered albums on CD. It's because he became a meme with Rickrolling. Fleetwood Mac re-entered the chart because Dreams was in a popular TikTok video. Boogie Wonderland was in the movie Happy Feet. Elvis Presley has a Funko Pop. Queen, N.W.A. & Elton John had popular biopics. That's how legacy performers reach new audiences. Their music is liscened out to companies or they beome popular by accident from being in viral videos. You see all of those Youtube reaction videos to songs. They aren't buying the CDs, they are watching the music video on Youtube or just the audio video. If they like the song, some will say they are going to put it in their Spotify/iTunes playlist or download it.

but why is that a problem? Is it really necessary for Anita to "reach a new audience"? she has her fans and they will purchase (and enjoy) her box set.No,it probably won't sell a trillion copies but that's alright

MickyDolenz said:

kitbradley said:

You see how quickly Anita Baker moved once she got her masters.

That's all well and good. But unless it's like The Beatles, box sets don't sell much today. Box sets mainly sell to people who already know about the artists and want to collect stuff. A lot of people don't even own a CD player, and they don't put them in new cars. The average new PC/laptop don't have a disc drive either. Very few current popular acts sell a lot of physical product. It's even less for oldies. That's what happened to Prince. He would take his stuff off of Youtube & other streaming sites, which is how most of the younger audience listens to music. Anita isn't going to reach a new audience by releasing a CD box set. The people who are most interested in Anita Baker likely have her albums already.

SoulAlive said:

but why is that a problem? Is it really necessary for Anita to "reach a new audience"? she has her fans and they will purchase (and enjoy) her box set.No,it probably won't sell a trillion copies but that's alright

People who already own an album are not as likely going to buy it again, especially if they're identical to the one they already have. I don't think the average person is aware of reissues anyway. They aren't advertised on TV or the radio. I listen to radio stations that play old music. They never mention remastered albums or anything like that. At most I see infomercials on TV for Time-Life compilations of things like Light Rock Hits Of The 70s or Midnight Special DVDs. In the case of Anita Baker, it's not like her stuff is out of print & hard to find. I see used copies in Half Price Books all the time. Maybe Vainandy returned them.

SoulAlive said:

but why is that a problem? Is it really necessary for Anita to "reach a new audience"? she has her fans and they will purchase (and enjoy) her box set.No,it probably won't sell a trillion copies but that's alright

MickyDolenz said:

That's all well and good. But unless it's like The Beatles, box sets don't sell much today. Box sets mainly sell to people who already know about the artists and want to collect stuff. A lot of people don't even own a CD player, and they don't put them in new cars. The average new PC/laptop don't have a disc drive either. Very few current popular acts sell a lot of physical product. It's even less for oldies. That's what happened to Prince. He would take his stuff off of Youtube & other streaming sites, which is how most of the younger audience listens to music. Anita isn't going to reach a new audience by releasing a CD box set. The people who are most interested in Anita Baker likely have her albums already.

There are rumors Anita's boxset will include her shelved Bluenote album along with additional vault material. It will definately be attractive to her core audience. I remember her Best Of CD being certified gold by the RIAA within a few weeks of being released, despite the fact all of her albums were still in-print and readily available at that time for cheap.

Chaka has a treasure trove of vault material from Warner Brothers, in addition to her shelved 1995 album. Again, a box set that included all of this stuff would be a huge gift to her core audience.

Neither artist is necessarily looking to attract new fans. That ship has sailed. At this point in their careers, it's all about appeasing the ones they have and giving them what they have been asking for years. Who makes a significant amount of money off of record sales anymore? Boxsets are mostly a labor of love for the fans.

Chaka Khan said on the Verzuz "I don't sing for Grammys, I sing for y'all" and that's sort of the sentiment for offering fans a box set. But if the box set is designed nice, it might still win a Grammy