Beyond that, what should happen to the rest of the material that Prince produced — the records released, the live performances recorded, the re-workings and remixes, and all the material he recorded but, for whatever reason, he didn’t release?

Given the complex considerations, the diversity and volume of material Prince is known to have produced, and open questions around what the Vault might actually contain, hard and fast recommendations aren’t easy.

But a little bit of something beats a whole lot of nothing, so here’s a list, which is probably incomplete, but should provide a framework for thinking about what should be done, and act as a catalyst to a broader discussion.

1. Remaster and re-release his albums as “Deluxe Extended Editions”

Prince’s life and work beggar belief — his achievements so great, and his attitudes so extreme, that they lend themselves to hyperbole.

Indeed, it seems almost impossible that the music that made his name, the incredible run of albums in the 1980s, remain essentially untouched since their release.

These albums were released when vinyl was the default mode of music production, and were mixed and mastered with this medium in mind.

Sign ‘O’ The Times — Alternate Album Artwork by Laura Lipuma — 1987

Because Prince fell out with Warner Bros. he blocked any further modification of these releases, so the version of Sign ‘O’ The Times you can buy today, is exactly the same version that was released in 1987.

This completely ignores the changes in audio technology made in the last 30 years. The music suffers as a result — in digital form, Prince’s most important albums sound “thin”, muddy and lacking in bass.

These albums need to be remastered for today’s technology to provide the best possible listening experience for today’s listeners.

For the Purple Rain re-release, we can assume that Prince signed off on any remastering — but there’s no guarantee that he oversaw the re-work of any of his other Warner Bros. albums.

Which raises the question of who should undertake this work now that Prince no longer can?

For his early albums, the choice is relatively straightforward.

Susan Rogers was Prince’s engineer from Purple Rain to the early days of Paisley Park, and helped record these pinnacles of Prince’s career. She was also instrumental in gathering Prince’s recordings together into what would later become “The Vault.” If anyone could understand Prince’s musical intent when these albums were created, it’s her, and she should, if possible, play the principal role in preparing this music for re-release.

In this she might have assistance from other close associates from across the breadth of Prince’s career — Wendy and Lisa from The Revolution, Sheila E, Kirk Johnson, a close friend and musical collaborator throughout Prince’s career, Joshua Welton who helped produce two of Prince’s late period albums and Trevor Guy, husband of guitarist Donna Grantis, who worked as Prince’s manager over the last several years.

Indeed, these individuals might form a panel who could oversee and sign off on any re-mastering of Prince’s music, each leading the work in period of Prince’s career in which they collaborated.

And what should these albums contain?

In the first instance, a complete, unaltered edition of the album as it was originally sequenced and released, now remastered for modern audio technology.

In addition to this, the edition should include a complete set of all the related releases from this album — all the B-sides and remixed or extended versions that were released in support of the original album to form a complete edition of the published music from this period.

Hello — Raspberry Beret B-Side Artwork, 1985

In the case of Around the World in a Day, this might include the extended versions of “America” and “Paisley Park,” and the original and extended versions of “Girl” and “Hello.”

For Purple Rain, this might also include music from the related artists who appeared in the movie — The Time, Apollonia 6, Dez Dickeron’s Modernaire.

These albums should also contain unreleased demos, tracks or extended versions directly related to the album.

For Lovesexy, this might include the earlier version of the title track that Prince apparently recorded and then discarded when it was clear that his band members didn’t understand the point he was attempting to convey. There is also a remixed version of the released track that can be heard in the background of a BBC Omnibus documentary released in 1991. An unreleased remix of Alphabet Street is also known to be circulating amongst collectors, and there may well be other alternative versions of these tracks sitting as yet unknown and unheard at Paisley Park.

Purple Rain should include the original extended version of “Computer Blue,” and the ecstatic unreleased track “Electric Intercourse,” which was replaced by “The Beautiful Ones” in the final release.

From Batman, there are unreleased remixes of “Electric Chair,” “Vicki Waiting,” a Big Daddy Kane remix of “Batdance” (yup, that is a thing apparently) and unreleased tracks like “Dance with the Devil.”

The Ballad of Dorothy Parker — Planned Maxi-Single Artwork, 1987

Sign ‘O’ the Times might include an extended remix of “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” as suggested by artwork for a Maxi-Single release which surfaced recently.

Who knows what else might reside in the archives?

Each album would ideally be accompanied by a set of extended liner notes outlining the genesis of the work, its release and reception, placing it within the larger context of Prince’s life and career — perhaps according to the example set by Alan Leeds, Prince’s former tour manager, in his work on James Brown’s Star Time and Prince’s own The Hits and The B-Sides.

All of which would please the fans immensely, and given the plenty of reason for people to purchase these new editions.

2. Treat each Album as an “Era”

But for Prince, music was just the beginning.

Each album was the centre of a creative “era” that had its own art directed “look,” a new fashion direction, a new visual presentation in music videos or film, and, more often than not, a tour and set of live performances on TV that brought it all to life.

To present Prince, is to present not just the Album, but the “Era” — so each Deluxe edition should be accompanied by a set of releases of related material.

Glam Slam Music Video — 1988

Lovesexy, for example, was an outstanding record, but a truly incredible concert experience, captured for posterity at the Dortmund show from 1988, and released on VHS as a two volume Livesexy set, but now out of print.

Any presentation of the Lovesexy album should be accompanied by a release of the best possible version of the Livesexy concert, perhaps with a standalone audio version of that or a similar show from the Vault.

In addition, a number of aftershow concerts from this period present Prince at a musical peak — a recording of the show at the Paard van Troje nightclub in The Hague from the early morning of the 19th of August 1988 has long been circulated and recognised as a one of Prince’s most accomplished performances — his cover version of “Just my Imagination” being worth the price of admission alone.

Prince: A Musical Portrait was culled from an aborted feature length documentary shot around this time and presented footage from rehearsals in London and Los Angeles, and the aftershow at the Camden Palace (now known as Koko), all of which would form a brilliant compliment and contrast to the footage of the show proper.

Lovesexy is not unique in this regard.

Prince — First Avenue, Minneapolis, August 3, 1983

Purple Rain is a movie soundtrack, but there was also a live broadcast from its tour, numerous performances at award shows, and music videos. There is even a video of the First Avenue concert, August 3rd, 1983, at which the title track, and several other songs from the LP, were recorded live.

Prince had his Controversy tour professionally filmed, and apparently intended to release it with short intervening skits in a movie called The Second Coming, all of which footage apparently now resides in the Vault.

Prince appears to have shot an entire movie to accompany his album 3121, as indicated by the trailer for it he released on his web presence around this time.

There are professional recordings of Parade-era shows, the Nude tour from the Batman era, the One Nite Alone… tour after The Rainbow Children album, and the Musicology tour was broadcast live to cinemas across the U.S.

The 2009 shows at the Montreux Jazz Festival in support of his Lotusflow3r album had brilliant jazz-infused set lists, an incredible band, and were pro-shot and recorded by the organizers.

2103 shows at the same festival featured entirely separate performances backed by The New Power Generation big band, and the stripped down funk rock of 3RDEYEGIRL.

Prince released The Beautiful Experience TV special around the time of Come and The Gold Experience with unique live and video performances to support this release.

I mean, he even put together a “Making of” video for the video of the song “A Million Days” from the album Musicology, but never released the song as a single, never released the video, or put out the “Making of.”

There are numerous other examples.

Such “era”-based packages of material would provide a clear view of Prince’s vision for his work, its cultural footprint, and context — providing material for fans of his music, cultural commentators and historians. It would also provide a unique promotional “centre of gravity” for each album re-release, helping the estate to co- and cross-promote these different releases and formats.

This should create a sense of event around each “Era” which should help generate excitement and sales, delivered over an extended period to create a feeling similar to that at the time of the first release.

3. Release the cancelled configurations

While Prince’s work felt never less than meticulously curated and perfectly polished, his working methods were fluid.

New opportunities, personal set-backs, sheer inspiration or simple distraction could cause sharp changes in musical direction and the abandonment of a favoured project.

The most famous example was his decision to shelve The Black Album in favour of Lovesexy.

But there are several other instances of Prince working up detailed musical concepts, only to abandon them at the last minute, or re-work them into new forms for later release.

Camille Test Pressing Record Label — 1986.

Sign ‘O’ the Times, for example, was the result of two different album concepts, Camille and The Dream Factory, both of which were abandoned, and both of which fed into their released successor.

The Dream Factory was The Revolution’s last album, compiled in various versions from April to July 1986, and is one of Prince’s most compelling musical statements, and much of it has never been released in any form — it absolutely stands-alone as an album and deserves a wide release and pride of place amongst Prince’s albums.

After Prince disbanded The Revolution in July that year, he set about recording a number of solo tracks with distorted vocals (a mistake by Susan Rogers, which Prince wholeheartedly embraced), and compiled them into an album in November, titled Camille, the pseudonym for this new musical persona. This album was so close to release that test pressings were made, the only known copy of which was recently sold at auction.

While all but one of Camille’s tracks later found release in various outlets, hearing the album as it was intended provides not just an interesting insight into Prince’s working methods, but also a compelling, consistent and coherent musical statement that deserves to be heard on its own merits.

Equally, Prince shelved plans for The Flesh, a jazz album recorded in 1985/6 with best members of The Revolution and the Lovesexy band, and the Batman album derailed plans for a 1989 album Rave un2 the Joy Fantastic, which progressed to the point of initial artwork.

In the late 90s Prince apparently also considered compiling an album of music written with The Revolution, titled Roadhouse Garden — and if this album was ever completed, it’s release would showcase music from one of Prince’s most prolific periods, and also reflect his later attitudes to earlier work and collaborations.

Prince cancelled, cannibalised or corrected numerous projects throughout his career — many of these were artistic expressions of the first order. Where practical these Prince-prepared productions should be released in their original form.

4. Remaster and re-release “Paisley Park” Albums as Deluxe Extended Editions

Prince didn’t just put out music under his own name — he created new acts as expressions for different aspects of his artistic personality, and supported the endeavours of his associates.

While those from the more well-known acts like The Time or Sheila E are still widely available, much of Paisley Park’s output is currently out of print in any form.

Goldnigga Album Cover — 1993

It is impossible to buy either Madhouse album, the album from The Family, two pairs of albums from Mavis Staples and George Clinton, or albums from Carmen Electra, Ingrid Chavez and long-time associate Jill Jones, whose eponymous album on the label is perhaps the best “associated artist” release. You still can’t buy the first album released as a solo effort from The New Power Generation, Goldnigga.

Each of these items could benefit from a remastered / Deluxe Extended Edition — providing all the remixes and extended versions that accompanied the release at the time.

But Prince’s collaborative working methods present interesting opportunities. For many of these releases he simply recorded the entire track himself, and had his collaborators replace the vocals. The Vault may still contain his original recordings of several of these songs.

There might, perhaps, be “Prince” versions of entire albums from associated artists. The “Prince” version of The Family, for example, might indeed contain the solo Prince recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” — something that should be heard.

5. Create the Prince “Anthology”

All of the above could provide perhaps 2 dozen sets of releases.

Properly managed and marketed, putting out that many releases could take decades, but would still not really touch the true promise of “the Vault” — original Prince compositions which have never been officially released.

Many of these are well known, having circulated for years as bootleg recordings — Princevault.com, a comprehensive listing of Prince’s music and performances lists hundreds of unreleased Prince songs.

Many are known to be outstanding examples of Prince’s work.

Adonis & Bathsheba Concept Artwork — 1993. Track recorded July 27, 1986

To pick a few examples at random, “The Grand Progression,” “Adonis and Bathsheba,” “Purple Music”, “Roadhouse Garden” and “Turn It Up,” are all unreleased and are all great Prince tracks.

How much more completely unknown music resides in the Vault? How many more tracks, how many more albums, might Prince have recorded which have never seen the light of day?

For example, immediately prior to his death, Prince was known to working on an album, Black is the new Black, with Bassist Mono Neon, playing jazz with the New Power Generation Quartet, and recording tracks with his band 3RDEYEGIRL, one of which, “PANGEA,” has been described as “redefining the Minneapolis sound.”

This was just a snapshot from the single year before Prince’s death. It’s perfectly possible that there are multiple albums worth of material which don’t fit any of the above criteria, and which merit release.

There are also one-off tracks, and even albums, which were released, but never properly promoted, and so remain largely unheard — and Prince’s own attempt at a Vault release, the triple CD Crystal Ball, contained some great work, but presented the music out of chronological order and came across as something of a grab bag.

The temptation might be to cherry pick tracks and compile releases from across the span of Prince’s career, mixing and matching music from different periods and different approaches.

While there might be some merit in an artful presentation of strong material in one-off releases, it would obscure the aesthetic evolution of Prince’s work, and cloud the historical significance of a given recording in Prince’s career.

A chronological “Anthology,” similar to that produced by Apple Records for The Beatles, might be the best solution — where material from a given period is grouped together and sequenced to provide a snapshot from that era.

“Anthology” releases might fill in the gaps between the Deluxe extended albums, compiling all the material that fell through the cracks in any given era to create a compliment to the albums proper and round out the full compass of Prince’s career.

The “Many Faces of Prince” Project — Martin Homent.

But perhaps an “Anthology” might be compiled once the Deluxe Editions are completed, and include all of Prince’s music released or unreleased — to create a single, continuous and complete account of Prince’s artistic career.

This could comprise a multi-disc release from every year of Prince’s career, each year having a cover from the iconic “Many Faces of Prince” project created by Martin Homent.

Some might suspect that Prince commissioned exactly one portrait a year for just such a reason.

6. No licensing of Prince’s music to others

But as important as what should be done, is what shouldn’t.

Prince was incredibly protective of his music, ensuring it was available in only those places and formats he thought suitable. In particular, he never allowed his work to be used for purely promotional purposes.

This unambiguous example should set clear direction for the future management of his estate — Prince’s music should never be used in commercials or related advertising or promotional content under any circumstances.

He would have absolutely hated it.

So don’t even think about it.

He was slightly more flexible when it came to allowing his music to be used in films, etc. under specific circumstances where he could approve the context and content.

But this approval was based on particular personal preference.

He can no longer make these creative decisions, so let’s err on the side of caution — his music should never be licensed anywhere.

That’s a lot of potential revenue to forgo — but the artistic imperative should here over-ride the commercial — particularly since there are so many other ways to generate income for the estate.

7. No “musicals,” no “remixes,” no “collaborations,” and no samples.

If Prince went to the trouble of suing a family who had a child dancing to his songs, we can be pretty much certain that he did not want people using his music without his permission and control.

We can also be clear that he would not want anyone re-interpreting, re-working or otherwise re-casting his music in ways he had not personally approved.

Which means that there should absolutely not be any Prince “musical” along the lines of those from Queen, Abba or the Kinks, where the artist’s songs are stitched into a narrative or performance.

Purple Rain would almost certainly make a great stage show and you could get great people to do it, and it would make a lot of money.

But he would have absolutely hated such a thing.

So it simply shouldn’t happen.

In any form.

Ever.

Charles Koppleman, take note.

Prince was also notorious in having complete control over every part of his art — as well as writing all the music, playing all the instruments and signing all the songs, he produced pretty much all of his music.

As far as I’m aware he shared production credits only twice in his career — once with David Z on “Kiss,” which he’d original given away to Mazerati, and then took back, when he heard how well it turned out, and second with Joshua Welton on his recent albums Art Official Age and Hit’n’Run Phase One.

In both cases Prince supervised the work of close personal collaborators. He sometimes shared song-writing credits, and approved remixed versions of his music, but in exactly the same circumstances — when he had personal input, control and approval over the final product.

He never allowed his music to be altered by anyone outside these limited circumstances and would have vigorously protested anyone doing anything with his music outside a close personal collaboration.

Hell, he objected to people doing cover versions of his songs.

So, other than remastering, and other minor audio quality adjustments, the music in the Vault should be left completely untouched, unaltered and unadulterated.

There should be no “remixes” by famous producers, no “collaborations” where current artists add a vocal track to an existing recording, no “completing” his work, where others add further instrumentation to an “unfinished” track.

There can be no doubt that he would have been absolutely horrified by the prospect.

And no samples of his music in the work of others — he wouldn’t do it while he was alive, so there’s no precedent or justification for it now.

Untouched, unaltered and unadulterated.

No exceptions.

8. Re-stage Prince-approved performance pieces

There should never be a “Prince-inspired” musical. No Cirque du Soleil Purple Music.

But that doesn’t mean that Prince’s music should never appear on stage.

Prince worked on a number of stage productions over the years. Since each of these received his personal imprimatur of approval, they seem good candidates for revival.

Joffrey Ballet — Billboards — Laserdisc, 1993

Perhaps the most interesting of these was the Joffrey Ballet’s Billboards — a ballet using Prince’s music as its inspiration, which became part of the company’s repertoire and successfully toured the U.S. for a number of years.

In the mid-90s Prince also worked with his wife Mayte on stage projects.

The first of these was a rock-dance-opera piece titled Glam Slam Ulysses, which, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, re-told the Homeric story of The Odyssey alongside music from the albums Come and The Gold Experience.

Mayte also set up “The NPG Dance Company” which performed a 3-act multi-style piece titled Around the World In a Day in a number of U.S. venues in 1997, the second act of which was a stand-alone ballet piece Prince wrote for her entitled Karmasutra.

None of these pieces is likely to speak to as wide an audience as something like Abba’s Mamma Mia.

So they won’t make all that much money.

But we know that Prince worked on them, and that they are a way to further share his music in a form that he approved.

That’s good enough.

9. Paisley Park Studios — keep doing what you’re doing

Prince had a very clear idea about how Paisley Park should be used as a museum, he communicated this clearly and repeatedly to his friends and family, and was in the process of making changes to the studios to accommodate this use when he died.

The basic steps to put this plan in place have indeed been made, and with appointment of Graceland Holdings to manage the site, and the recent confirmation by the City of Chanhassen that Paisley Park can be re-zoned as a museum, the future of the site appears broadly consistent with Prince’s plans.

Doubtless, work will continue to make Paisley Park a more engaging and effective museum experience — the initial transformation was done at speed, the guides aren’t yet that knowledgeable and teething problems will need to be ironed out — but the intent appears genuine and the desire to preserve the place and present Prince’s legacy seems to be sincere.

On this point it is worth noting that Prince commissioned designs from a number of artists to re-decorate the facility to illustrate aspects of his career.

Working Sketch by Blule for the “Purple Rain Room” in Paisley Park

For example, he commissioned the decoration of the “Purple Rain Room” from the Australian artist Blule, who shared these designs online.

The “Many Faces of Prince” might also have been intended for a similar use.

Prince did not have the chance to make these changes himself, and at the time of writing, these designs have not yet been incorporated into the presentation at Paisley Park.

While it is a shame that these designs have not been executed as per Prince’s wishes, the preservation of the studio as a museum provides an opportunity to make these changes in future.

Hopefully the museum administrators and estate will make these improvements and present the facility consistent with Prince’s intent.

10. Prince: “Piano and a Microphone”

We might never know precisely why, but there’s no doubt that Prince was becoming much more reflective in what turned out to be his last few years.

The fact that he planned, and apparently wrote at least part of an autobiography, was a something of a shock — a man who had always fiercely guarded his privacy and cultivated a studied air of mystery — if not downright obscurity — was now about to tell his life story.

It simply didn’t sound like the artist we thought we knew.

The state and fate of this book are unclear. It would be good to see it.

But in a sense Prince had already produced his autobiography — and he did it in the form most suitable to his life’s work.

Prince “Piano & A Microphone” Concert Debut — Paisley Park, January 21, 2016

Prince debuted his solo “Piano and a Microphone” concert on the 21st of January 2016 at Paisley Park.

Prince played two shows that night, but while they were both outstanding feats of musicianship, they differed significantly in form.

The second show was an eclectic set of songs from across Prince’s career, performed brilliantly.

The first show was radically different in conception.

Starting with a jarring chord and a scream, it wasn’t clear at first what was happening.

Then Prince spoke:

I wish I could play piano But I don’t know how to play piano Everything looks different Three year’s old The piano looks bigger At three year’s old Mmm… Maybe I’ll just watch TV

And then he play-acted watching the TV.

He talked about his dad not letting him play the piano, but when his father left, he could learn, and he played the Batman theme — the first tune he mastered — and explained more about who he listened to growing up, playing a few snippets from Smokey Robinson as he went.

And then said “No… I gotta write some songs and start at the beginning” and played “Baby” — it’s first and only live public performance — from his first album For You.

And then that you realise that this performance isn’t just a set of songs. Prince is telling his life story — and he’s doing it in the most appropriate manner, and in the most appropriate medium possible — through his music.

And so went the rest of that show — what Prince wanted, who he worked with, who he admired, how songs were written, what they meant to him, how much he loved and missed his father, his family his friends — from start to finish, the performance was conceived and delivered as autobiography.

After the show, Minneapolis music critic and long-time Prince follower Jon Bream remarked that Prince had probably said things in that show that he wouldn’t have told his wife.

He also said that Prince would never play that show again simply because it was too personal.

And he was right.

While many “Piano and a Microphone” shows had autobiographical elements, none had the same particular structure or unity of purpose as that first performance.

So, in the many difficult decisions that will face the estate in the management of Prince’s artistic legacy, one is simple.

The very first release from the Vault, the first unreleased music from Prince’s archive, should be the recording of this show — Prince’s autobiography — it was his statement of his life’s work, it sums up his career, it stands alone as a brilliant expression of his musical prowess, and it was perfect.

Everyone should have a chance to hear it.

“On barren walls tears fall, but what’s the use in crying?”.

(Empty Room, 1985)