16 Aug Questlove Frustrated Over Prince’s Youtube Stance, His Remasters, & Legacy
Questlove took to Instagram, taking a photo of a DJ program where if you look to the top left is Prince’s name and we can only assume that Quest was adjusting level’s of Prince’s early material which has not been remastered and several top not DJ’s such as Quest have made their own type of remaster’s when it comes to the purple one’s work.
For more of what Questlove had to say about Prince, click the continue reading button….
Quest was not done there. He made this comment;
2 of his biggest crimes: 1) taking his music off YouTube–when this is clearly how an unaware generation can discover his genius. He will pay dearly for that when people shrug like “when doves what”? & not remastering his first 10 years of music. This ish is getting hard tryna match it to today’s sound systems. #frustrated
Now, we joked yesterday how we could not find a Prince video on youtube yesterday to go with a story but it is not a joke. Prince has NO official Youtube account and his video’s are disappearing again. 2 weeks ago, a video I posted of Prince and Whitney Houston together was taken down although in the past, his people were made aware of the video. It was used after Whitney’s passing as a tribute to her.
Quest brings up a point that many fans of Prince’s early work are frustrated with; no remaster’s. It would be frustrating without fan-made mastered versions such as “Controversy” “If Was Your Girlfriend” and “When Doves Cry” to name a few. Quest is right though as the younger generation is more and more finding out about music through Youtube.
YouTube right now is the *NUMBER ONE* place kids listen to music now.
When WE had a chance to talk to Prince about Youtube and his masters, it was something that he has put thought into.
We are not going to share that just yet but will say we agree with Questlove on this. It is something that Prince is set on.
We wish we could talk to Quest about this but sometime around the New York “Welcome 2 America” shows, we were blocked. Not sure why but because of it, anytime he has something to say about Prince or anything cool, unless someone retweets it, we NEVER see it, which TOTALLY sucks!
It would be great to have a Blu-Ray release of all his videos and an official Youtube channel.
What do you think of what Questlove said?-DocFB
Idak4u
Posted at 08:55h, 20 AugustPrince is a Music Icon who stands alone when it comes to music production and live shows. I agree with the young man who gave out the school lessons to Brother Quest. People must understand when it comes to the music business, they only want numbers, and money. If you only produce at your own terms they become mean and spiteful. I believe Prince will once again prove He’s the top artist out there and “No One Can Compare To Him!”
Peace and B-Wild!
Markus Bonten
Posted at 08:01h, 20 AugustWe need a new Prince Album…..like air 2 breath……
So come on Prince….show us what the future got on da menue….!
A clue a hint ….?
2 years without your beautful strange music….i know that U working and mixing something….
Show us the love sign….
Peace and all greetz 2 real fams….
MB
Gbear
Posted at 07:35h, 20 AugustGo back to the battle with WB, so many years, so much pain. I think Prince will wait until he gets full ownership of his music until we see tons of special remasters.
As for youtube. I have a feeling some partnership will be created in the future. People are actually making money through streaming of music/video on such sites. Time will tell.
But away from “remasters” many of us core would still love some new releases. Vault music or new music, cd, blurays or whatever it may be like is always a joy with new Prince music!
God Bless,
G-Bear
Nero
Posted at 02:12h, 20 AugustMoogie got it right-top to bottom.
But real talk: who gives a fuck what Questlove thinks. He’s the hip hop version of Lars Ulrich. Music 101-don’t listen to the drummer talk. He for real has a complex. Dude, just shut up and play drums. He’s as bad ass Wynton Marsalis; always talk talk talk talking. And always about people he is a fan of. Dude, who cares. How is this news?
Moogie
Posted at 12:17h, 19 AugustI have a lot to say about this – Questlove is naive and not really taking a close look at WHY Prince does what he does. In other words… school’s in:
To answer Questloves’ “2 Big Prince Crimes” – Lesson One:
1) Prince hasn’t taken ANYTHING off of YouTube, you can still find stuff. Prince at one point was GETTING PAID for every video regardless if it was official, part of a baby home video or even bootleg unreleased stuff, live footage, etc. etc. He was getting paid for UNRELEASED stuff!
If he can’t get paid, he’ll remove it THUS the W2A video of Prince and Whitney was an audience video and Prince won’t get PAID on it so he has it removed.
I don’t know why Prince fans/fams are all in a pantie knot over Prince videos on YouTube. Most hardcores have like every friggin’ video Prince has made including that ultra rare one of Let’s Pretend We’re Married…
When Doves Cry is all radio plays, and radio is still a valid place to hear all the key songs from any artists, which they replay over and over again. Add to that corporate playlist songs like Kiss and RB and it will be fine for years to come.
I don’t know where 2) went, but in keeping with the ?heart grammar I figure the second “Purple Crime” is the topic of remasters…
Lesson Two:
Firstly, todays sound systems are made for a mass consumer who are a new generation of portable music users. Such products make up for their actual lack of fidelity in the products themselves because they know that that mass consumer, middle of the road music lover isn’t one who’ll actually spend valuable time and effort and a good amount of dollar to create an at least, modest audiophile setup. Most won’t pay anywhere near $400 dollars for head or earphones to begin with.
When it comes to Prince fans/fams specifically, most will laugh and scoff at audiophiles accusing them of having special “golden ears”, etc. and WORSE, most Prince fans/fams have never, never cared for audio quality from the purple beginning. Most Prince fans/fams are more enamored by Prince’s mystique and style over sound quality.
If you put in the time, effort school yourself and money to buy and setup a proper sound system, ie, HiFi or audiophile level audio system or anything reaching it, which isn’t that expensive but will cost upwards of around what a laptop costs., the you can pop in SOTT and Lovesexy rebooks (look it up Prince fans/fams) CDs and have glorious sound quality. Its all about the playback systems and not just how a CD was remastered. In fact, there are many that are going BACK to the old Redbook CDs because they weren’t ruined by remasters!
I roll my eyes when I hear or read Prince fans/fams complain about remasters. I’ll go further to say that many Prince fans/fam touched WB era albums have been crappy “remasters” and they label them as such when ANY and ALL remasters require the original master tapes, either first copies or perhaps record company dubs.
I remember at the (horrendous) Org… when they interviewed that one-time Prince producer/engineer… I forget his name, Mr. Freeze or something like that, excuse my level of Prince fame knowledge… they removed his posts/interview answers, anyway, he was asked about remasters and as an audio professional you know what his answer was?
Well, Freeze pointed out that you’ve got the best recordings because in order to create proper remasters you need a level of audio play, I’m paraphrasing… in other words, on each track, as you remaster and carefully tweak each track on that multi-track tape, you need some audio level headroom in order to get proper and decent remastering, etc. BUT Prince ALWAYS RECORDING IN THE RED, meaning… fam, that there is no way to really properly remaster most of Prince’s work.
So, really, much like you heard on the (also horrendous) Ultimate Prince collection, was WB vault tapes just made LOUDER. EVEN WB CAN’T REMASTER PRINCE’S WORK!
Prince recently stated that HE remastered all his albums, what a laugh, and suggested he’s just waiting on WB. Yah. I’m not too sure about that. Remastering requires real specialized remastering engineers/producers like say, and I hate to name drop, a Steve Hoffman. In fact, I think he said in a somewhat recent interview he’s like to remaster Controversy as it sounds like poo-poo and I agree. Plus, Prince wants to get paid the… uh… “lions share” of profits if he were to join up with WB to remaster his work. AND add to that the time and effort to actually remaster it all. Prince would have to stop touring, where the money is now, as a legacy artist, to work on them.
After say, Lovesexy or Batman, Prince rebook CDs in the WB Records era are really well mastered. You’d have to go to early work, but remember, Prince recorded 1999 on a 1982 home recording system, same with Dirty Mind. His debut album sounds stellar because he had a real engineer in there TYRING to make it sound great, Prince was and still is sort of his own worst engineer…!
Yes, kids of today and tomorrow will go to YouTube for music, thats IF YouTube will still be around in the future, maybe it will be replaced by something even more advanced, thats how modern-tech works, but most will also look the artist on the net and if they truly fall in love with music they will seek stuff.
WHY has Prince done this to himself? All this self-editing and self-censoring? RELIGION.
Being a Jehovah Witness, Prince views many of his old songs as works of the devil or evil or “nasty” etc. etc. Prince fans/fams are FANS of a Christian Rock Star today. No matter how much Prince fans/fams are in denial, it is what it is.
Also, another thing to consider and think about clearly, beyond all the fandom, is that Prince doesn’t have a presence anywhere really other than say, HERE at DRFB, because Prince doesn’t sell his music to Prince fans/fams directly anymore. He gets paid by venue and concert promoters or media outlets. His most recent album 2Oten or was that 2 Aten…? He sold that album to NEWSPAPERS, by the millions and got PAID not by FAN bought sales but by the media outlet. NOT U.
And one last word, Prince isn’t going to share profits with Warner Brothers Records either. He still don’t like them.
Many things to actually look beyond all the obsessive fandom and think about.
Lesson over.
vanstrass
Posted at 04:50h, 19 AugustI agree with chocbox 777 Never count Prince out. Whatever he is doing with his music you can guarantee that it is 4 the best. Those that feel that they have any semblance of insight about the man know this. Trust him the best is yet 2 come from this beautiful creature. xxxxxxx
Peace and B Wild.
Disapointed
Posted at 00:30h, 19 Augustsorry 4 mistakes … but it’s Sunday Morning and im really P_OF :-/
Disapointed
Posted at 00:23h, 19 August,,2 weeks ago, a video I posted of Prince and Whitney Houston together was taken down although in the past, his people were made aware of the video. It was used after Whitney’s passing as a tribute to her” … Im happy wih U , his choice our pain , anyway ‘cus his resolution not being in net anymore some Fans became celebrities on FB and are promoting not only love to Purple music on 24 hours a day (whatever they are doing it looks pretty bad : funny or scary depend on them … nothing interesting anyway …. nothing wrong in being focused on ,,the celebrities by accident” … but what 4 ? … Guess Prince Fans dont need Prince official Site … they need Purple whatever it means) Some Fans try to equalize the Purple Absence in the most stupid way they could do by giving credit to those people , by sharing footage taken on concerts via public way (all the time treated like criminals by Purple Police , like a NEW SOURCE by bootlegmakers …. anyway it works fine … ). Nothing has changed since years . If YT is the Badest way to share Prince Art Work with Young Generation so let Prince stop to use YT in private free time 4 free…:-) … (if he is doing it of course .. just saying)
I dont belive that We will be able to get all his recordings (realised and unrealised) in first wrecka stow -> in the neighborhood-> in the nearly future as we wish 🙂 (vinyl, Cd , B-R whatever)… (so maybe Prince isnt a big deal in the recent Show Business … and that is correct answer ? . Would He like to be treated like BD cus time is a trick (?)… HE IS RIGHT , HE IS Real Vault … 4 US cus only Fans know thats truth , Prince can be known in the Future as the Most Busy Artist in the Music Industry with the Bigest Unrealised Vault …).
Summer Festivals with Very Young audience is good way to promote the Music … depend on the weather of course :-/… YT is faster way and seems to be much comfortable , I can be wrong of course , cus i have slow connection yet ) Anyway if Prince has something interesting to share with wide recent world let he does it now … all i know that ,,time is passing by faster at a higher altitude” even if its a trick … @chocolatebox777 ….maybe , @SR …. 4 sure
chocolatebox777
Posted at 14:31h, 18 AugustDon’t count Prince out yet. He knows what he is doing.He is a brilliant business man & when it happens & the cards all fall in place. It will be worth the wait.
Gerald
Posted at 08:34h, 18 AugustI know most (all) of you are not now or have ever been into The Grateful Dead, but Dead.Net has been pumping out complete shows, significant tours (Europe 72 – 25 shows!) Spring 90 – 7 shows… Egypt 74… and TONS of others for their fans, while still touring as Furthur and other bands… The Music NEVER stops… that’s what it’s all about, the MUSIC… not the mystery… release pieces prince, at least! How about Butter NYC 2006?? How about Lovesexy 1988 ? how about JOTY !! Pick one! ANY one… and release it!
Fidget
Posted at 07:16h, 18 AugustThere are 2 ways to look at youtube:
1) They make money from ads. They place ads by my videos – I want more of that internets money!
2) Kids use youtube for music. If you’re not on there. Don’t expect your album to sell.
Given that any artist has to pay for promotion. Why not use YouTube to promote your music? They’ll even pay you a small amount to use their site to publish your videos.
Prince is out of touch with the music industry, and out of touch with the people who listen to his music.
As for the remasters – He’s spent the past 10 years alienating his own audience and fans. He won’t remaster the old albums because they won’t sell in the numbers needed to chart and thus draw attention to his latest release.
John
Posted at 03:31h, 18 AugustSometimes there’s more important things than revenue.
This is about Prince’s music. I’ve always had more respect for Prince than many of the other big name acts because of his artistry, his musicianship, not how much he earns or the business deals he makes. There’s many things that aren’t right about the way music is distributed through social media channels, but it’s the same for everybody and Prince is no exception. Just because an artist is not paid directly by these channels doesn’t mean that by using this medium you can’t generate revenue from it, if that’s the goal, you just have to be smart about it and use smart people to help you achieve it. It’s the biggest promotional tool for a musician in the world, period. YouTube is global stage, the biggest gig Prince would ever play… but he’s got to want to come to the party.
Sometimes there’s more important things than revenue. If I have kids one day and they’re having to take my word for it that Prince was one of the greatest acts of all time rather than hearing it for themselves then it will be a sad day for me, and for them. You wouldn’t want to hear about Michael Jordan’s last shot for the Bulls in 1998 would you? You’d want to see it for yourself.
Anthony Slate
Posted at 02:02h, 18 AugustSome years back, Prince was on the Tavis Smiley Show and mentioned that as the contracts were expiring for the old albums he was retaining full ownership of those works and the masters. One can only hope that the eventual next step will be remastering. Prince is the only popular artist who could remaster and re-release his material with similar results to those of Miles Davis’ material when it was remastered and re-released. What i mean by that is those albums of the past would turn into a virtual treasure trove of unreleased stuff, b-sides and extended versions. The fans would LOVE this. Hopefully Prince will capitalize off the momentum of his Welcome To… tour and move toward some remastering and re-releasing.
EyeNoReligion
Posted at 00:25h, 18 AugustI, like many others, would love to see remasters and see the music presented how it deserves to be, in the best possible way. With that being said, it’s a mystery wether there will be any remasters. They could be in the works as we speak. Many who read and post here are serious Prince fans/followers (I mean that in a positive way). Theres always a lot of speculation when it comes to what Prince is really up to- that titillating enigma is one of the qualities about Prince that keeps us all on edge wanting more. I think the entire subject is more complicated than just 1 simple answer regarding remasters. I wouldn’t count Prince out and assume they aren’t happening. We’ll just have to wait and see… I don’t believe Prince is unaware of his body of work and the importance of it culturally/artistically. <3 or $
Jason
Posted at 21:38h, 17 AugustPrince comes off as an astute businessman sometimes, but also comes off as a clueless moron. He’s the greatest musician who ever lived in my opinion. I think he’s better than The Beatles, U2, Jimi Hendrix, and James Brown….COMBINED. You Tube is the medium and forum for any artist. It is free promotion. I can’t tell you how many cds and dvds I have bought by seeing it on You Tube first. Prince has a serious imbalance in his brain, and you can see it in his music. “Anna Stesia,” is a brilliant piece of music. His original unreleased version of “Old Friends 4 Sale,” is stuck in his valut, but he released “Jughead,” with Tony M’s horrible rapping. Only someone with an incredible internal struggle could behave like this. I always just have to accept that Prince is not going to make sense 50% or more of the time. Meanwhile, I have to listen my Lo-Fi CD of “Sign O The Times.” It sounds horrible, but since we will never get it remastered, I have no choice.
TylerPunk
Posted at 19:07h, 17 August@Alfred I completely agree with u, and that’s the exact reason why Prince, Heaven 17 and other artist don’t have music on YouTube. Because its still “usage of copywritten material.” YouTube and Google have not asked for permission or offered to pay for usage. It’s all about fairness, just ask TLC about the wonderful world of the music business.
Deiidra
Posted at 18:55h, 17 AugustI totally agree!! I am one of the biggest Prince fans in the world but he is sending himself the way of the dinosaur. He’s killing his legacy. EVERYTHING now is about video and social networking. If you remove yourself from it…who is gonna see you. How will my children know who he is and what a TRUE MUSICAL GENIUS and LEGEND he is?? I asked my son 9 year old if he knew who Prince was and he said “I’ve heard of him but I can’t tell you any of his songs.” That is a friggin’ TRAGEDY!! EVERYBODY should know who he is! Everyone should be able to see his assless chaps!! Everyone should be able to see him rising out of a bathtub in a fog-filled room! No one should be deprived of the AWESOMENESS that is THE PURPLE ONE!! It’s just a shame that he could be so generous in some parts of his life and so selfish in this one! He should really rethink his stance on this issue. He is in his 50’s and his popularity is nowhere close to where it used to be. And maybe because he is in his 50’s and he is the caliber of star that he is he may not care. Maybe he’s satisfied to become a relic and have his legacy die with my generation. Well…who can say that that isn’t Prince. He’s always been one who pushed against the grain and did things that could have made him unpopular (which strangely always had the obvious effect!) Hey, maybe he knows what he’s doing afterall. Maybe it’s all some fiendish plot. Maybe he’s got something in the works that will blow all of our minds! I guess we shall just have to wait and see!!
Alfred
Posted at 17:00h, 17 AugustI agree with Prince’s decision to pull his stuff from YouTube. Google isn’t going to share any of their revenue with him, so screw ’em!
1817
Posted at 16:33h, 17 August@ leseff – lite’in up man…..lol!!! Who really cares ”bout dat dees days anyway. It reads just fine. DrFB – u go on wit ya bad self and keep us updated!!
leseff
Posted at 12:43h, 17 AugustDr. F, you seriously need an editor or at very least someone to teach you proper punctuation.
Rick
Posted at 10:02h, 17 AugustYoutube is full of Prince vids. Great stuff also…. And remastering? It would be nice but not necessary…. and besides that, Does the world need more Prince fans??
Michael
Posted at 10:00h, 17 AugustWe might see Prince re-issues in 2013… In accordance with The Copyright Act of 1976, a lot of 1978 music might be re-issued in 2013…and then, many more re-issues each year after that.
There is so much more that can be done with music, film/motion images, live broadcasts/transmissions, merchandising, music education, and more that Prince should consider everything. A Prince Park(or Paisley Park) in every town would be great!
Barack
Posted at 08:55h, 17 AugustI share Quest’s frustrations. Free The Music. And without a family, what will happen to all that music when he dies. Will the Witnesses have control and keep all that dirty music from us? So sad. I guess it will be up to museums and libraries to keep that music available to the public.
Anonymous
Posted at 08:28h, 17 August2 me his music is like a text book; if frequently used it gets beatin up, tattered, pages start falling out…..etc,. iv been a fan since the mid 80’s and to this day I can be listening to something of 1999 or SOTT….etc.,and hear something I missed the last time around. If he remasters, imagin how the refreshed quality you will hear. I am not too hip on the remastering process but seems with all the new programs out there he would be able to showcase hidden details that his currently available stuff don’t have. Lovesexey is another CD that has tons of stuff to listen for. But remaster or not it is a shame and loss in more was then one that he is not an all the friendly to the u tube audience – young and old.
Anonymous
Posted at 08:27h, 17 August2 me his music is like a text book; if frequently used it gets beatin up, tattered, pages start falling out…..etc,. iv been a fan since the mid 80’s and to this day I can be listening to something of 1999 or SOTT….etc.,and hear something I missed the last time around. If he remasters, imagin how the refreshed quality you will hear. I am not too hip on the remastering process but seems with all the new programs out there he would be able to showcase hidden details that his currently available stuff don’t have. Lovesexey is another CD that has tons of stuff to listen for. But remaster or not it is a shame and loss in more was then one that he is not an all the friendly to the u tube audience – hound and old.