Listen to me prattle on the Prince Podcast
The highly-respected Prince Podcast hosted by longtime orger (from day one!) Michael Dean did an interview with me last night. It was fun to talk with MDean about the history of the Org, music, and my feelings about the current situation. It’s pretty long, but if you’re curious to know a little more about me and the org, worth a listen!
You can download it directly from his entry about the prince.org interview, or grab it via iTunes. Heck, why not subscribe to the feed and get some of the past episodes while you’re at it? It’s good listening… he’s always got interesting guests (well, except for last night :)) and fascinating conversations.
Personally, I don’t know if I thanked the org moderators enough in the podcast… that’s who is really responsible for the site’s success, especially the last 5 years. Maybe we can do a podcast with some of the mods one day? That would be fun! What do you guys think? (Also, vote in the poll on the homepage!)
November 6th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
im listening to it right now!! BEN YOU ROCK!!
November 6th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
…and as im listenening and you said that the last prince concert you went to was at the orpheum theatre in SF and I WAS THERE!! haha i just thought that was awesome! anyways Representing the Bay area!!
November 6th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Ben,
You are a funny dude. Enjoyed the podcast
November 6th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Gr8 Podcast, it seemed 2 have cleared up a few things 4 me. I’m uploading it now to Yousendit.com and sharing it with some more Prince Famz @ The PurpleMusicMansion Yahoo! Group and The FloridaNPG Yahoo! Group …
Thanx …
November 6th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I wanna read those “Lou posts.”
November 6th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
none of the links work for me, any suggestions? Thanks for the update, just listened, enjoyed the podcast, very nice interview. Kudos to everyone who runs and supports this site.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Yeah, what happened? Nothing works for me either. Was it yanked?
November 6th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Sorry folks. The site was beat down for a few hours. Things should be up and running now. If anybody wants to share the mp3 (post it/host it) on there site please do. I ain’t trippin.
November 6th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
wow…this is just awesome. nice to hear from you again, ben. a lotta stuff on there makes me feel OLD since i remember much of it, i can’t believe i’ve been around online for so long!
the intro to the show is fucking hilarious (and very fitting of the current situation).
November 6th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Ben!!!!
I’m enjoying this! I remember meeting you at Prince: A Celebration when we had the barbecue away from PP so Prince wouldn’t know we were eating meet. I still have my group photo and my Prince.Org lanyard. I wear it every day to work. The wording is wearing off.
Thanks for this web site and giving me the opportunity to meet a lot of people, especially my soulmate.
You are so right, that Prince.Org is not really about Prince. It’s about we that have come together because of one common interest, Prince. The fan web sites are marketing Prince and for any of these web sites to shut down, Prince would win. We cannot allow him to win if we are going to protect our first amendment right, freedom of speech.
November 6th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
yeah, i remember meeting ben too (and the bbq across the way…that was fun). i used to have one of the flyers that were printed for the meet-up, but i’ve lost it.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
That was an awesome podcast, I really enjoyed listening to what ben had to say. d/l it so I can listen whenever I like
Ohhhh I would love to do a podcast, sign me up!
November 7th, 2007 at 8:36 am
I always enjoy the podcasts. It was great hearing you Ben. Great stories! Thanks for sharing.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Great podcast! Really cool listening about the beginnings of prince.org… not just about the org but about the growth of the web in general.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Ben, man.
Nice to hear you talkin’ and the whole history and I was almost ready to back the PFU based upon this idea of ‘what if it was a political figure shuttin’ down debate?’
But, really, I think you moved on to sum up the issue when you said ‘The site isn’t really about Prince..it’s about a community and really in that community Prince is really just a footnote’.
I think that’s true but I don’t think it’s then cool to front up a community where Prince is just a footnote with Prince imagery, logos, Prince stuff period.
If I was the dude or if you were the dude and you had a community frontin’ itself up with your shit, it would be a cause for concern, given that there’s a lot of diss-topia in PrinceFanSitesVille. So based upon your whole trip about the whole thing I’d say lead the way, get off Prince leave everything else unchanged and thereby widen out the trip and you know everything gon’ be just hunky.
We know he likes control, we know he’s gonna get it and we know why he wants it..because he and other artists in an ‘everything is free’ web economy are gonna need to get back their imagery and their shit as a unique selling point to get people to their cribs rather than lettin’ their stuff front up (for free) multinational advertising profit.
The ‘free’ internet is fine but who pays for the amps of the non-millionaire new bands whose work is currently valued at way below zero.
Prince is as ever just ahead of the game and takin’ the pain to get ahead in the game and as an artist myself, I’m backin’ him because I need to get paid TOO.
It’s his shit and he’s withdrawn it from the public domain because he still, for the moment, has the right to!
That’s COOL by me. Why isn’t it COOL by the PFU?
I really don’t need to hear this cross-collateralised with freedom of speech. THAT is the defence line of the PFU and it’s an ignoble position to take in this context of a rock and roll and funk dude who’s enriched our lives and imaginations.
It’s a much simpler question than the PFU is making it and that question is: “Why isn’t it cool to say what’s mine is mine?”
‘After all, we are not communists.’
Get lateral with it all. What y’all don’t understand today will be common currency in the reconstructed music business.
Don’t get in the way.
INCREASE THE PEACE
November 7th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Good to hear from you Ben…love the intro.
Your delivery was calm and reasoned even though you did say the word “like” a bunch of times, LOL! I hope that people will calm down and let the process take it’s course. Conflict isn’t always a bad thing. There was an impasse and now a step has been taken toward resolution.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Thanks Ben. Really appriciate this talk. Very interesting.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Great interview! Appreciate the appreciation for us mods.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Ben, you sound so at peace with the whole litigation and website on the podcast. I guess that is San Fran attitude. I enjoyed listening to the history.
I am ready take that collection of amassed items when you no longer want it.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Michael aka Nostradamis said: “You’re going to inspire him to write ‘Billy Jack Bitch Part 2′…”
November 9th, 2007 at 3:33 am
thanks again, ben. memories…
we all had some good times back then
plus it was encouraging to hear your take on recent actions
you have a great way of looking at all of this
respect
and thanks for inspiring the latest prince song
ya know he couldn’t have written it without you!
now that’s something u can take 2 the bank!!
lol, hit ‘em in the pocket now
kidding!
peace
November 9th, 2007 at 10:43 am
ben! that was fantastic! yes prince IS a footnote to this place. but an important one. we can prattle on about any topic and yet the thing that unites us is that we all *get* the music. references that would go over the heads of our real life friends are met with laughter or nods here as we all traveled the same road as a prince fan!
i used to think that you held on to this place out of some nostalgia but now i get that there is more. for one it’s your baby and you don’t want anyone else poking around under the hood. (car reference as i see you enjoy cars
) and i think maybe it’s about giving back to the community… although i am still at a loss to know why i deserve it. but i love you for it.
so many friendships and connections made here… all thanks to you. i am soooo glad that PFU was initiated. if we as a community can’t stand together, what then??? i realize it is super easy for me to say here in my livingroom but as i have said on housequake and to aaron, you do what you have to do. and keep filling us in.
oh and molove!! great show!
and a word to princeypoo… honey, i ain’t never going to be your “fam” but i will buy a ticket to a concert… so just get on with it please!!!
November 9th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I’m one a those old school ppml cats. Miss those old chats. I loved my battles with Finess, haha
November 10th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Your presence on the web isn’t all that necessary, because the day NPG launches it’s own fan site, similar to this, ya’ll are dead. Who better to get information from than from the original source? You don’t represent, not even half, of his fanbase. NOT half. The fans are NOT fans because of you, we’re fans because of Prince. He makes the music, not you! He’s the star, not you! It’s about him, not you!
You guys have made being a fan into a business. You are overly infatuated with each other, and each others’ infatuation of Prince. It’s sickening.
Look at this man’s track record, he’s damned protective about his brand/image. It’s too bad that you guys are so full of yourselves that you can’t see where he’s coming from.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
“It’s not about Prince and what he want?” ~ Micheal Dean.
But you’re using his brand name and image. The foundation of this community was built on that. To say it’s not about him or what he wants is a total insult. Then to gossip about the man?
That’s like making friends, business deals, by dogging someone else out, or dogging them out after the friendship/deal is established. You use and disrespecting them.
Rename the site, change the content to be non-Prince related and if they’re that gung-ho about this community, the subscribers will come back. By defending your stance in continuing to use the man’s image says a lot about the value of his image in this site’s existence.
Without his image this site would have never come into fruition, yet the man whose image that you used to benefit from got nothing from THIS.
And your response to this fact is:
“I don’t care what he thinks?” ~Micheal Dean
You’re not really a fan, then. You’re a LEECH! This is a business venture for you, and that’s it.
November 10th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
correction ~Micheal Dean is in reference to the Micheal Dean produced PodCast where Ben Margolin was interviewed. Those are Margolin’s quotes.
November 10th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
@relir:
Normally I don’t respond to egregiously silly comments such as yours, but I’m waiting for iTunes to update so I’ve got a minute.
Prince (the NPG, whatever you want to call it today) has launched at least 3 official sites during the tenure of prince.org. We seem to uh, not be ‘dead’. In fact, after every attempt by Prince to create an official site, we end up with disgruntled fans coming to prince.org and staying, enjoying themselves. If they didn’t, they’d leave (some do, hey, freedom is a great thing.) prince.org sees more daily user sessions than Prince has packed into any single venue in the last 20 years. Obviously, there’s something of value here.
As to the ridiculous ‘business venture’ comment: I must be the worst businessman ever, then. I operate this site at a pretty significant loss every month. Running this site has cost me tens of thousands of dollars over the years. It has never come anywhere close to ‘break even’. If anything, we drive $ into Prince’s pocket. Artists who actually ARE smart businesspeople understand the value of a vibrant UNofficial fan community online. I couldn’t prove it, nor could you prove otherwise, but I am certain if all the unofficial sites shut down tomorrow, Prince’s bottom line would suffer for it.
If I, or anyone else cares to disrespect Prince, here or anywhere else, that’s our right. See, we have this thing called the Constitution. You might want to check out Amendment I sometime. It’s not illegal to say un-nice things. If I were “defending my stance in continuing to use the man’s image” (your words, not mine), I would be defending my rights as an American, something I do do, and care deeply and passionately about. It’s insulting to ME that you or others say that about prince.org, as we possibly more than any of the other sites, go out of our way to enforce policies that are respectful of Prince’s business goals. But still, it’s your right to offend me, and I respect that.
“I don’t care what Prince thinks…” Yes, that’s right, I don’t care what he thinks. If I did, I’d have shut the site down long ago, since I know he doesn’t like it for his own control-freak reasons. The people who participate in the site love it, and that’s whose opinion I care about. As I said in the podcast, if the userbase told me the site wasn’t working for them anymore, and they left, I’d shutter the site.
If you are sickened by this site or my opinions, that’s your prerogative. Thanks for the comments, buh-bye.
November 18th, 2007 at 6:48 am
I’m not saying you don’t have the First Amendment Right to freely express your opinion. What I am suggesting is that your angle of “Being a Prince fan”, thus creating this site is phony. You’re not genuine in that aspect. IMO you are competing for Prince’s fan base for your own benefit. For whatever that benefit is, perhaps it outweighs loosing the tens of thousands of dollars per month as you claim you do.
Unofficial fansites don’t hold as much financial influence as you make them out to. The fans are their regardless of this. Unofficial fansites don’t make fans, the artists themselves do. I’m not going to stop being a Prince fan or supporter just because I didn’t enjoy my user experience on his website, I’m a fan because he has always been a great musician. And I’m not going to hear his songs on any website other than THE official Prince/NPG site. I’m not going to see any current photography of him other than from sources who have the proper rights to them. I can get Prince related news from thousands of news sources on line, including his website. This site is not that crucial.
I can visit most any message board, or online community and find people who absolutely love Prince and have great discussions about the man and his music. No one HAS to come here for that. That’s how many fans and aficionados he has, they span WAY beyond the scope of any UNofficial fansite.
December 5th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
ooooh an interview with the mods would be cool!