Prince

Prince

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Prince's Paisley Park Memories Go To London For 21-Day Exhibit

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London's O2 Arena will commemorate Prince's 21 days of sold-out concerts from 2007 with "My Name Is Prince" exhibit in October
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Aug 21, 2017 - 3:48 pm

London's O2 Arena will commemorate Prince's 21 days of sold-out concerts in 2007 — a record that stands to this day — by hosting a unique exhibit of his personal belongings "Direct from Paisley Park" for 21 days this October.

My Name Is Prince: The Official Exhibition is designed to give visitors "a unique insight into the life, creativity and vision of one of the most naturally gifted recording artists of all time" and will include guitars, famous outfits, handwritten lyrics and other memorabilia from the iconic singer's career, such as Prince's third-eye sunglasses.

"The word 'icon' only scratches the surface of what Prince was and what he remains to me," wrote Beyoncé in the foreword to the forthcoming book Prince: A Private View. Like other master artists, his major works invite us to return again and again to experience greater depth, as we did a few months back revisiting his 1987 album, Sign 'O' The Times.

Tyka Nelson, Prince's sister, said, "This is the first time we've taken any items out of Paisley Park." With Prince, as with other musical legends, their private objects invite us to spirit ourselves into their artists' solitude, the place where mortals create the immortal. Tears of mourning and inspiration are expected, and VIP 90-minute guided tours are available.

Learn More About The GRAMMY Museum At L.A. Live's Exhibits

 

Prince

Prince

Photo: FOX/Getty Images

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Legacy Recordings To Distribute Prince's 1978–2015 Releases

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The bulk of Prince's massive catalog is set to be re-released under the new deal
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jun 28, 2018 - 7:10 am

On June 27 Sony Music Entertainment's Legacy Recordings and the Prince Estate announced a comprehensive distribution deal to re-release Prince's 1978–2015 album, in stages, beginning with the great artist's 1995–2010 work. The immense range and quality of Prince's creative output will take years to appreciate and SME Legacy was selected to steward memories that will become renewed listening experiences for millions.

Sony had already distributed Prince's 2004 Musicology and 2007 Planet Earth albums. The "Musicology" title track won Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance at the 47th GRAMMY Awards while the album's "Call My Name" won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. At the 50th GRAMMY Awards, "Future Baby Mama" from Planet Earth won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

Additional albums expected sooner rather than later from Legacy include Prince's GRAMMY-nominated 3121 from 2006 and The Gold Experience from 1995. From 1996-2001, fans are about to re-receive Emancipation, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and The Rainbow Children.

Like modern appreciation of David Bowie, the imagination and reinterpretations surrounding Prince's body of work are joining burgeoning academic disciplines such as studies of Beyoncé and Solange. This is the year after all that Kendrick Lamar received rap's first Pulitzer Prize.

Prince: "Albums still matter"

"We're looking forward to working with the heirs and Sony on giving fans what they've been waiting for," said Prince Estate adviser Troy Carter, "more great music from Prince." Rolling Stone summarizes some of the material Legacy will begin distributing over the years ahead.

We're also awaiting the Warner Bros. Records release, Piano & A Microphone: 1983, coming in Sept. The material from Prince's vault is a whole different flow many hope will form a river of its own, streaming online.

With this new distribution deal, Prince's legacy continues to grow as he is a major part of our music and cultural history, and his creative works will long be shared and re-remembered.

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Prince

Prince

Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images

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Listen To "Mary Don't You Weep" From Upcoming Prince Album

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The GRAMMY winner's take on a historic American spiritual provides the first listen of unheard recordings from the vault
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jun 7, 2018 - 3:54 pm

On June 7, the day Prince would have turned 60, Warner Bros. Records and the Prince Estate announced that nine rare tracks of him singing at the piano in his Minnesota home studio will be released on Sept. 21, titled Piano & A Microphone: 1983. Accompanying the day's special announcement, the track "Mary Don't You Weep" was released from the album, providing a movingly private and up-close listening experience of the artist who inspired so many.

The newly released version of the track was supposedly played live by Prince in the 1990s. We get to hear it in recorded form for the first time from the upcoming posthumous album. Prince's recording of the classic spiritual will also appear over the credits of the not-yet-released Spike Lee film BlacKkKlansman.

"Mary Don't You Weep" has its own track record of providing inspiration.. It was the first track on Aretha Franklin's 1972 album Amazing Grace, which was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 1999. The spiritual's lyrics of freedom inspired the Paul Simon song "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which earned both Record and Song Of The Year at the 13th GRAMMY Awards.

The nine tracks on Piano & A Microphone: 1983 had been stored on a single cassette tape. The upcoming album's announced track list will also include early versions of "17 Days," "International Lover," "Purple Rain," "Strange Relationship," and a cover version of Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You," among others.

Prince's career took off to major success soon after these musical ideas were recorded and put away. Prince Estate advisor Troy Carter said, "The Estate is excited to be able to give fans a glimpse of his evolution and show how his career ultimately came full circle with just him and his piano."

Further rarities are expected to be released next year through the Prince Estate's deal with music streaming service Tidal. For now, "Mary Don't You Weep," as the first ambassador of the works in Prince's vault, speaks to us with simple beauty but also with reverberating historic overtones.

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Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran

Photo: Matt Jelonek/WireImage

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IFPI Global Music Report: Streaming, Ed Sheeran Top 2017

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International recording industry organization reviews a year of continued strong growth, but music still has not recovered its former market strength
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Apr 24, 2018 - 2:52 pm

On April 24, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its Global Music Report 2018, reviewing and tabulating the business fortunes of the recording industry last year worldwide. The music industry grew overall in 2017 by more than 8 percent to $17.3 billion, led by streaming revenues which grew more than 41 percent. "We're not getting complacent," said Warner Music Group CEO of international and global commercial services Stu Bergen at the report's release event in London. "We've fought too hard to get here and, after 15 years of decline, there's still plenty of room to grow." Last year was the third consecutive year of growth for the first time this century.

The IFPI report credited Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" as last year's top song followed by Luis Fonsi's "Despacito." While top sellers and the 176 million subscribers paying for premium music accounts make for good news, IFPI chief executive Frances Moore warned that "there is a structural fault in the system" because of the value gap. Combining paid and ad-supported streaming for music, revenues total $5.6 billion with 272 million users overall. On the video side, revenues are $856 million, much less, with more than 1.3 billion users, much more. "Until we fix that structural defect to the market it will always be a struggle," said Moore.

In 32 global markets, digital is now more than half of all revenues. Physical sales and downloads have continued to decline. Without counting video, streaming is 33 percent of all revenues. In 2017, adding video back in bumps that 5 percent up to 38 percent from all digital. If the value gap wasn't holding back fair music revenue for video streams, that video bump would be much more substantial.

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Prince

Prince

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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Prince's Memoir Will Hopefully Arrive By Christmas

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Speaking with Variety, ICM's Esther Newberg discusses the manuscript Prince authored just before his passing and when it is expected in print
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Apr 17, 2018 - 12:47 pm

When seven-time GRAMMY winner Prince passed unexpectedly on April 21, 2016, it was approximately one month after he announced he had begun writing his memoir. "The good people of Random House have made me an offer I can't refuse," he said, describing his book deal with the publisher's Spiegel & Grau imprint during an invitation-only event with friends. "It's going to be called The Beautiful Ones ... You all still read books, right?"

Speaking with Cynthia Littleton on Variety's Strictly Business podcast, publishing superagent for ICM, Esther Newberg discussed making the deal with Prince and when we can expect the forthcoming memoir to be released.

"It will be out hopefully at next Christmas," Newberg told Variety.  "He wrote about 50 pages, in his own handwriting, and we had a writer hired to work with him who knew as much about Prince as anyone alive." Newberg was referring to The New Yorker's Dan Piepenbring. Working with someone who knew about his music in depth was evidently one of the star's chief concerns.

"At one point he asked me who my favorite musician was and I put my head down," she said. "I was embarrassed. I said, 'Well, I'm a Springsteen fan.' He said, 'So you brought your own music guy with you, didn't you, who knows my work?" She had a music-book editor with her from ICM who was indeed expert. "We took three editors to Minneapolis to meet with Prince at the same time. It's never been done before," Newberg explained. "We had to do it because I knew he would not want to meet individually with people the way sometimes authors do."

Prince "wrote it in longhand and what we may do is actually show those, the real pages," Newberg tipped, creating fresh anticipation for the long-awaited publication. "It will be a wonderful testament to a great songwriter and performer," she promised.

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