I guess I viewed the note from @EVOLVIST about not hearing it all in his lifetime. I thought that implied a belief all this material would see the light of day eventually over the next 200 years! My off the top of my head guess? We get maybe 200 songs worth of unique songs from the vault - ie, not demos or alternatives, etc. I'm also gonna guess a lot of these unheard songs probably aren't all that good!
If someone is peeing in the pool, of course you can't go in there, but does staying out of the pool solve the problem?
I don't ever put anyone on my ignore list. Because you never know when someone is going to add something valuable to the conversation, as you have upon occasion. But seriously with the price thing - mention it once, then drop it. We get it. Some stuff is overpriced. I remember when I was in my teens and twenties. Many UK releases (particularly singles) were import-only. I had to pay through the nose to get some of those. So, now the shoe is on the other foot. Only with one specific artist, rather than everything coming out of that territory. So, I feel some small degree of sympathy, but it only goes so far.
I do wonder if it may be a mistake to charge a premium to get the blu ray. There may be some fans who are turned off by how heavy the show is on covers and spotlights on the backing singers.
I am an adamant critic of colored vinyl. BUT... The colored vinyl that was used for the Prince reissues sounded better than any other colored vinyl I've ever heard. At least on the first batch (Musicology, 3121, Planet Earth). There is an additive often used in black vinyl called Carbon Black that many experts claim gives it a higher sound quality and a greater resistence to degradation. And if you look at the purple Prince vinyl under a light, you can see black swirls. Could account for it. But those first three releases sound as good as 99% of the black vinyl that I own. And I never thought I'd say that.
No, there's way more than 200 unique songs that we haven't heard, excluding alternates, demos, etc. And I'm just going by the documented stuff. There's a lot of undocumented stuff, but I don't think you can rule out unique demos from this list, though, as we've already discussed the nature of Prince's "demos." But I should say that I'm basing my thoughts on Jimi Hendrix releases. There's little doubt that the various conservators of Hendrix's estate have been screwing up since at least 1975, yet we're still getting releases 51 years after his death. Some of those are top notch studio material, while others are Frankensteined head-scratchers. As that relates to Prince's release timeline, I'm thinking if you were a big Hendrix fan in 1970, and you were 20-years old, you're still waiting on some things to be released when you're 71-years old. So, the older we get the chances of death are greater, and will these Hendrix fans get to hear their holy grails before they shuffle off? With the amount in Prince's vault, I'm not sure it will be exhausted by the time I reach 71, if I reach 71. I'm just saying that there is a long timeline here, even if we get several Prince releases a year. But right now, even if Prince's estate is going at a good clip, there's still a lot of uncertainty that only time will tell.
Given that each of the reissues seems to be coming with up to 50 unreleased songs from the era, they could get through that number very quickly indeed.
There are a ton of song that fall into the gray area, though, that aren't attached to specific albums or projects. Also, let's remember that Prince's estate has to maintain a steady revenue stream for the lifetime of the conservators and beyond, so smart business dictates a sustainable roadmap for many years to come. They're not going to blow their load in the next 10 years, just to find themselves in the breadline for the next 30.
My biggest fear is that releasing it will just be unprofitable and then it will stay unreleased. Some of these outtakes are lesser works but dozen or so “lost classics”have already come out and I’m sure there are many more.
I don't understand the problem. This has been what they've done with Purple Rain deluxe, SOTT deluxe and 1999 deluxe (not to mention Up All Nite with Prince: The One Nite Alone Collection CD set). All had video discs that were not sold separately. Why are people expecting them to change now?
6 mins of Pro-shot "Let's Work" from Charlotte March 24 2011. About a month before the video in this release. It should be the same arena set up and similar camera angles - just a major upgrade to HD. I only really want the blu, but will probably buy the set and try to split the cost with another fan who wants everything else. The Japan thing might be similar cost/hassle as buying the whole thing for me. I don't expect TV airing, but they did air the SOTT DVD on youtube for a few days last year. I think it slips OOP and that's it for the video disc. Music video physical releases are poor sellers at the moment, so they simply get forced bundled or stay in the vault. I say the 1st show of the LA Forum run because it lined up with my Coachella trip that started the next day. it was supposed to be 21 LA shows but some shows stalled at 7k. It wasn't lack of interest, it was the short lead time announcing shows and fans travelling a bit to see him - easier in NYC or London. He was good about setlist variety. One very funny story I've heard about this run of dates was after the N&S Carolina shows his crew packed up and truck drivers were only told "drive west" by Prince's management. Obviously the Forum was booked far in advance. I saw this tour 5 times. It was funny to see him discreetly ride a bicycle next to a running bodyguard from the zamboni tunnel to the center stage seconds before the platform goes up for the crowd reveal.
The difference though is that those WB deluxe sets had significant other additional material aside from the DVD, while on the Sony sets the dvds were re releases that had originally been sold separately. It’s not that the set has additional exclusive content it’s that the cost of the additional content is so steep compared to what was offered in those other sets - largely because of the addition of nonsense trinkets and ‘collectibles’. The additional premium here is more than the entirety of the deluxe 1999 set cost me on cd, and is a lot compared to the bounty contained in the SOTT set. Given this is the first non-reissue release form Sony, the price hike sets a worrying precedent
Those releases were much better value for money. With Welcome 2 America you get one album (on two different formats) and a live video for (around) a hundred bucks. The 1999 and Sign 'O' the Times reissues offered a lot more music and were much better values per disc. The Purple Rain reissue, which I believe went for around twenty-five dollars when it was initially released, was extremely good value for money. Up All Nite with Prince and the Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic "box" were also much better value. I just think the estate may be leaving some money on the table by not offering stand alone video releases. Do casual fans buy physical product? I don't know, maybe not, but I think they are much more likely to spend twenty-thirty dollars on a high quality video than they would be to buy a "super deluxe" release for over a hundred dollars. I say this as someone who wants Prince exposed to as many people as possible. He has a reputation as a phenomenal live performer, the estate should make it easy, and affordable, for potential new fans to see that.
No, this Welcome 2 America release is different than what the Estate has been doing up to now as it's now mixing up CD and vinyl as the only way to get the Blu-Ray. As I have no interest in vinyl it would cost me €90 for just a CD and a Blu-Ray. That's way too expensive in my eyes, not worth it. I thought the same when they released the Up All Night package when I was only interested in One Nite Alone... as I already had the live set. €40 or €50 for just that one album (as I already had the live set and did not really have any interest in the DVD) was not worth it. So I held out and managed to get it for €20 or €25 some months later, a much better value for 1 CD. For this release I'm now eyeing the Japanese edition as that has the CD and the Blu-Ray for €55. That is still steep, but already €35 less.
I honestly don’t see a difference in their marketing and selling of the video discs in these collections. I’m not happy about it, but I don’t find it unexpected.
This is turning into the CSNY Déjà Vu deluxe set thread. For those that don’t know what that’s means...it’s not a good thing.
I thought the Prince Store said the deluxe edition also comes with a hi-res download. So you’re actually getting the album in three formats plus a Blu-ray. (IMO the Blu-ray is worth about $5 given how much Shelby J. will be featured. Put your hands up!)
I see it as the release is for Welcome To America...which price wise at least in Canada is reasonable. For the die hards they are putting out an expensive deluxe edition and including a concert film. Record sales are not very good so they need to put out expensive options to make money and to get people to buy it they need to include something (or the film).
I just hope this album's good....Lotusflow3r and MPLSound had maybe a solid LP's worth of good music between them, but 20Ten only had two tracks that I liked. I don't know, I can't be too optimistic about this given what he did put out at the time.
Amazon UK links x2 disc vinyl : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091F77...olid=1MUDS78JTB60S&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it £34.99 ($48 USD) CD : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091F5R...lcome+2+america&qid=1617990487&s=music&sr=1-2 £11.99 ($16 USD) Deluxe : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B091DYS...olid=1MUDS78JTB60S&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it No price yet It's hard to support the Prince releases from Sony Legacy when you are in territories outside the US. Luckily the x2 disc vinyl and CD aren't limited, so will do the normal waiting game to return to a sensible level.
Those all had lots of discs and material in. £99 for the multi CD+DVD of SOTT isn't so much of a problem, because there's something like 5 CD's of unissued audio and a live show totalling about 10 hours of music overall. This has 1 album of new stuff and a live show for the same price, which is probably 3 and half hours of material.
