A serious question for the board part 2

I've read all of your responses for the Serious Question for the Board thread and I appreciate the honesty.

And now another questions: What are you expectations of the club?

What would you like to see from the club. But here's the catch, explain to me how Prince can achieve this. I look forward to your honesty. I know you won't hold back.

I expect downloads of unreleased/rare material. We've gotten a little of that, but there needs to be more. Considering the price of the membership this year, I don't expect to see a cd/dvd as part of the membership. They'd probably lose money doing that.

At least first access (if not exclusive) to new releases, and access to good seats if there's a tour. I'd like to see some club exclusive releases one of the ONA concerts/aftershows or something like that, unedited.

A damn decoder ring

I'm not a donkey, I don't expect anything from them anymore !

wyld1 said:

wyld1 said:

seeing The NPGMC beat The Org out on Prince & The NPG NEWS would b nice 2 see

Peace & Stay Funky [Live4Love] ...  

~* NPG Member 4 Life *~

I expected Vault III to be a Pay-Per-Download Vault for selected unreleased music (old and/or new). I most definitely expected the U Tell Us section to go horribly wrong one way or the other. And I expected NEWS to have a lot longer exclusivity to members than just a matter of a few weeks (although after ONA Live, I can't work out why I expected that). Oh, and I expected the Vegas DVD to have a PAL version available for European members (and wherever else they have PAL).

Apart from that, whatever comes next will be okay, it's only cost $25 and I feel that I've already had my money's worth.

I for one, was happy that the club was back. The $25 to join, to me, meant that the only perk I would be getting was gaining entrance to the website.

When I saw a forum, and a chatroom, that surprised me a great deal, as I knew eventually the elation of the new site would die down, and as time has shown, opinions on the NPGMC would start to get negative. Not to say they would not be warranted, but that members might start to get frustrated (which they did) by the lack of direct answers to their inquiries. We should not have been surprised by this, as this has been the trend over the years.

The videos, the music from the reflection room, and chatroom interviews with other artists also added greatly to the experience.

Satisfying everyone, well, that just won't happen - there are far too many variables.

I would have liked to see Prince himself make a few appearances, perhaps having his own section on his thoughts and/or opinions directed at his members. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Haystack said:

* - Release an full album of new material each year. Sold at least a month or two in advance through the club. Partner with a reliable distributor that can handle a high volume of orders and deliver on time. Make it easy to recieve an immediate refund, if they cannot follow through with your order in a timely fashion. This is at least the third time, paying members haven't recieved their shipments prior to it hitting retail (Crystal Ball, ONA Live, NEWS).

* - The $25 admission fee is fine, the site looks wonderful. A more practical navigation would be appreciated. I was under the impression that the Vault areas would contain some exclusive mp3 downloads of unreleased tracks. What's currently there now, a breif synopsis of his albums with clips, isn't really important to us, as we know this already and own most of these albums.

* - Lighten up on the forum moderation. Prince fans come from all over the world and all walks of life. It shouldn't be a plastic bubble with heavy handed moderation. When you walk around in public, you're subject to all kinds of language, even things you may be offended by. But that's life. The more they try to block it, the more people are going to make it a point to push buttons.

* - And most importantly. If you want to do something unconventional with members, such as some new way to distribute music, assistance in building a case against WB, whatever, please think it through thoroughly, and explain it in as much detail as possible to avoid confusion and speculation. False promises amd vague messages are the number one cause of arguments. Prince fans can be very obsessed, and as a result, very tempermental.

LaVisHh said:

I for one, was happy that the club was back. The $25 to join, to me, meant that the only perk I would be getting was gaining entrance to the website.

When I saw a forum, and a chatroom, that surprised me a great deal, as I knew eventually the elation of the new site would die down, and as time has shown, opinions on the NPGMC would start to get negative. Not to say they would not be warranted, but that members might start to get frustrated (which they did) by the lack of direct answers to their inquiries. We should not have been surprised by this, as this has been the trend over the years.

The videos, the music from the reflection room, and chatroom interviews with other artists also added greatly to the experience.

Satisfying everyone, well, that just won't happen - there are far too many variables.

I would have liked to see Prince himself make a few appearances, perhaps having his own section on his thoughts and/or opinions directed at his members. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Joshy said:

hey V is back!

hey Wyld1.

in answer to your question i think it would be great - no, make that IMPERATIVE - that NPGMC for once and for all gets its act together and treat members (who paid extra $ for the 'privilege' of ordering NEWS directly through the club), like VIPS by making sure that members who 'pre-ordered' receive the CD BEFORE THE REST OF THE WORLD.

as to how prince can achieve this it's not that hard really, it just means making sure the people who work for him are competent professionals who do their jobs well.

Tom said:

Simple - over the years so far I would have liked to have seen more new music ( I know there was plent y in year 1) and a willingness to give it.

We allknow that Prince has a huge wealth of tracks sitting collecting dust - so what explanation could there be for him filling up a good 10 new songs space in Year 1 with already released stuff like Horny Pony, Thieves in the Temple etc etc. My only conclusion can be money for old rope.

Secondly..why be such an arse??? Why not use teh club to bring people together with music instead of causing arguments (they prefer 'debate') about highly contoversial and often phobic issues.

Thirdly - How about taking a little responsibility for problems and taking on board peoples comments ...instead all we get is " actually we didnt say this" (no but you fucking implied it 300%) or we get genuine fan comments deleted from existence incase people should see them and agree.

What the club needs to make it better is Music (NEW Music), freedom and a sense of responsibility instead of the moral 'Dress code' they have on the door or teh attitude that you can coem in but you better not put a foot wrong or speak out of time.

We know our place master...we are just there to pay the bills.

THE END

Lav...Im really glad you are happy with this years club and that you get membership to the site.

But what exactly do you get membership to is the real question - yes it pretty but apart from a chat room that is heavily censored not to mention provocative (in a bad way) at times, or a now deleted forum that they took no notice of...there is nothing there.

There are samples of songs we all own, videos of other artists, a dog which does sod all and a collection of religious rantings in a specialy designed room...thats not a music club. Its just a collection of rooms taht are now ,what, 5 months old?

wyld1 said:

I agree with the sentiment of your post, but all one has to do is listen to the train wreck of a "dj" that Prince hires to host parties at the Park and tour with him, and you'll know that he will never hire competent professionals.

He hires yes-men, and downright stupid ones at that.

XxAxX said:

After listening to Prince talk about the 500 unreleased tracks he has in his vault for 15 years, how could you NOT expect that "The Vault" would contain unreleased music?

It's not even acceptable as a discography, shit. I got a bootleg discography from a Billy Jack Stud recently which puts that inaccurate, incomplete "Vault" one to shame.

wyld1 said:

XxAxX said:

theblueangel said:

These people...John Blackwell, Candly Dulfer, Eric Leeds etc etc..are pretty much yes men. What career do they have outside Prince...you can bet your bottom dollar that nobody would have heard of them if it wasnt for Prince (I guess soembody will prove me wrong).

So why do tehy do gigs with Prince, sure maybe cuz hes a great musician but I bet the main reason is the crowd and the pay that comes with saying YES to the little man - 3000 a night with Prince in a stadium or 30 punters down the Dog and Duck...you chose Mr Leeds
[This message was edited Tue Jul 29 14:35:16 PDT 2003 by purpledoveuk]

purpledoveuk said:

Thats cool - $25 isnt a lot to many folk...but you must have had some type of expectation. If you had paid $25 for example just to look at the fountain for 1 year even you must be miffed. I thin everyone had expectations to some degree (more than others).

the other point is,yes its only $25 and we shouldnt expect much at all...but why not do something good and charge more. Afterall this is now the main/only way for Prince to interact with his fans...wouldnt you put some effort into your only resource.

Whats my point...hmmm, maybe its that if you went and bought a Prince related boxed item from a shop and got home only to find it wasnt empty you would be miffed so surely its worse that Prince is selling his own form of boxed item (in the fact that the club was 'sealed' when we joined = no let on of what was inside) and is quite happy to do it directly to the fans.

I think thats my point

Fabulous input, I think I love this thread

I agree with everything Anx, Lav, Tom and XxAxX said.
I just wanna add a couple of things that were above and beyond my expectations for NPGMC 2003.

* the technology - The site is well made, has loads of features, everything works most of the time and they're much better prepared for peaks in their bandwidth needs.
A thought-out content management system is running behind all this that allows them to change many things all over the site. I suspect some changes are on an automated schedule.
Technologically it's leaps and bounds beyond anything NPGMC attempted to do before.

* the drama of it all - From the seemingly random appearances of the letters N.E.W.S. on the floor of the main hall in the days before they announced it, to the Moors in Spain... From the pharaoh email to the invitation only rooms (yall realize that one of those invite only rooms is the one where they sell tickets, right? )
So far it has been a very dynamic experience, and the first ever NPGMC site that feels like it truly has Prince's blood pumping through its arteries... I think the site represents him well and it’s cool we all get to take this rollercoaster ride through prince land.

good points m3taverse

i should have said how much i like the site. I LIKE THE SITE A LOT! there.

So, now could we have your answer to your own question, please?

Peace.[/quote]


You are correct in saying that everyone does have expectations. I had expectations too. I expected music. That's what I've gotten. I also expected an experience. Exactly what kind of experience, I had no expectation. See, I like to be surprised. I like different things. I've liked all 3 years of the NPGMC. If I had to choose which year was best, I definitely preferred year 1.

But as far as the Vault goes, I realized Vault III would be just like I and II. There was nothing to indicate that it would be otherwise.

A lot of the situations that have arisen during this year have come from individuals perceptions. I am looking at this from the perspective of output. Since January 1, 2003, we have received 2 full albums (Xpectation and NEWS), downloaded song (Reflection), Music samples from musicology, and soon a DVD of the concert. I think that output is good. When Prince was at WB, he could never do anything like this.

I am happy with the club. As far as some people not receiving their NEWS album and the various situations where stuff didn't get delivered, you have a very legitimate complaint. I have received everything I've ordered from the club promptly.

I only asked this question to see if everyone would reflect on this situation. Just to see if maybe you're asking a bit much, or maybe you created these expectations without provocation.

Some of you guys have really good ideas and I hope Prince listens to them. But then, if he doesn't, oh well. Life goes on. I've been a Prince fan since the Dirty Mind Album. My life doesn't revolve around Prince. I've been fortunate enough to pretty much have a new Prince album just about every year since getting into him. If the music stopped, life would still go one.

Peace and b wyld

purpledoveuk said:

Oh yes tehy are very clever with words...but why would any club WANT to get out of giving you stuff right from day one?

If that was the aim,and they wanted to do it honestly, wouldnt you have a free site with pay elements. more to the point do you think they would have taken a donation for less?