Using guesswork...and CD/Album sales...Say a fan of his music would own 20 Prince Albums or more....

Looking at the figures below ...I would guess Prince's fan base at about 1 million fans worldwide? anyone think its lower than this worldwide?

The 70's + 80's = Worldwide Figures from
http://www.ukmix.org/foru...hp?t=34161

1978 For You 930,000 = 550,000 + 380,000
1979 Prince 1,950,000 = 1,500,000 + 450,000
1980 Dirty Mind 2,015,000 = 1,085,000 + 930,000
1981 Controversy 2,650,000 = 1,550,000 + 1,100,000
1982 1999 6,075,000 = 4,320,000 + 1,755,000
1984 Purple Rain 19,880,000 = 14,480,000 + 5,400,000
1985 Around The World In A Day 4,585,000 = 2,845,000 + 1,740,000
1986 Parade 4,155,000 = 2,105,000 + 2,050,000
1987 Sign Of The Times 4,025,000 = 1,840,000 + 2,185,000
1988 Lovesexy 2,825,000 = 960,000 + 1,865,000
1989 Batman (Soundtrack) 4,790,000 = 2,500,000 + 2,290,000

The 90's

1990 Graffiti Bridge 2,305,000 = 980,000 + 1,325,000
1991 Diamonds & Pearls 6,450,000 = 2,780,000 + 3,670,000
1992 Symbol 2,700,000 = 1,100,000 + 1,600,000
1993 The Hits/The B-Sides 1,000,000 = 650,000 + 350,000
1993 The Hits 1 2,750,000 = 2,000,000 + 750,000
1993 The Hits 2 2,250,000 = 1,750,000 + 500,000
1994 Come 1,000,000 = 500,000 + 500,000
1994 The Black Album 575,000 = 275,000 + 300,000
1995 The Gold Experience 900,000 = 550,000 + 350,000
1996 Chaos & Disorder 350,000 = 150,000 + 200,000
1996 Emancipation 1,200,000 = 700,000 + 500,000
1998 Crystal Ball 275,000 = 125,000 + 150,000
1998 Newpower Soul 425,000 = 225,000 + 200,000
1999 The Vault 250,000 = 125,000 + 125,000
1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic 750,000 = 500,000 + 250,000

The 00's

2001 The Very Best Of Prince 2,000,000 = 1,300,000 + 700,000
2001 The Rainbow Children 300,000 = 175,000 + 125,000
2004 Musicology 1,500,000 = 1,000,000 + 500,000

....But now I've got an army and we're 3 million strong ...Lyric from "Letitgo".

Don't know about the accuracy, but maybe it just flowed better with the song.

Princes 1994 guess.
[Edited 1/23/09 8:11am]

i would guess in terms of people who buy his albums aprox 500,000 global.

people who buy tickets to his shows or casual fans probably a lot more.

people who will join his online community, probably between 25,000-75,000.


which proves again that altho a household name and a giant talent, prince
isn't really that big a seller. look at the list, he hasn't sold over one
million copies of any album in over 14 years.

emancipation sold 1.2 mil according to the list, but they counted each of
the three discs as 1 unit so 3 per "emancipation", which comes down to an
average of 400,000 units shifted for emancipation which fits perfectly if
you look at the albums before and after it.

then the very best of prince sold 2 million copies but that's a hits album
which always do well, especially since half of prince's back catalogue is
nowhere to be found in stores these days.

musicology didn't sell anywhere near the number on that list above since
all the give away albums counted as one sale with the concert tickets.
it still made him sell more albums tho, since it was a clever ploy to give
the album a push up the charts and thus a prime shelve place in stores.
[Edited 1/23/09 9:09am]

setyrmindphree said:

probably based on the sales figures for the symbol album in 1992 which
came close enough to 3 million units.

IstenSzek said:

Really worldwide 500,000 that's not much ...after 30 years, he not grown his fan base since his 1999 cd came out ...which is kinda funny but it means he's not really lost his core fans i guess ?

IstenSzek said:

What people forget is that with Musicology, even without the CD giveaways, the CD still sold a million copies at retail, so he would have gone platinum either way.

I guess when the new cd arrives...The sales will answer that question. Or even the sales of the "21 Nights," book.

I'm not gonna disagree with LS....he has done his home work...wow!

Thank you

i think those figures answer your question for you. He has 200- 300,000 fans who will buy anything and everything he releases and will continue to do so for the rest of their lives. There are an extra 200- 300,000 who are fans but aren't completists and only buy things they like. Beyond that I believe he has a further 500,000 who will actively seek out his concerts/ liked him in the 80s who take a loose interest. Right now i'd say that his army is a million strong

in any case, who cares how big it is? i'm just happy i signed up:-D

So, let's say it's 500,000 (which seems to be an accurate guess to me). That's peeps who will buy everything he puts out.

When you consider that he keeps a majority of the money from an album sale, let's say the average is $12, of which he keeps $8 per.

calculating...


He's making $4 million for just putting out a CD???

Nice...

I think his fan base alone in England has grown alot when he did 21 nights in London. I noticed that more people bought cd's such as purple rain, (and DVD) sign o the times and ultimate. Reason why i noticed cuz i worked in amusic shop for a bit around that time and we sold more prince cd's than any other time.

Its hard to say theres a lot of statistical bias. First of all we shouldn't assume every album sold is a fan buying it. Also theres clearly several thousand fans and former fans who have died in the past 30 years, along with a small amount of new fans all the time (some teenage orgers who got hooked with Musicology and now having joy exploring the older stuff).
There are as other orgers decide degrees of fandom
*Fanatics, who buy every album, single attend every concert, buy all merchandise and books, org and other sites, worship prince. Maybe 50,000 world wide
*Fans, casual fans who buy most albums, attend some concerts if they can, like Prince, will discuss members of sites, buy books etc. Maybe 250,000
*Casual fans, buy what they like, may org and other sites, may attend a concert, will mention him maybe 250,000
*Fall offers, People who have a casual relationship with Prince, but used to be in one of the former categories but have become disillusioned over time, some may have become hostile towards him now. at least a 100,000 maybe more
* Occasional listener, People who say they like Prince and they loved Purple Rain and that Corvette song, (Didnt he change his name?), you know the rest - millions.

Add to this mix

*Disillusioned territorial fans, I can see myself hes fallen off the radar in more isolated territories like New Zealand, South Africa, South America, parts of the Pacific and Island states like Mauritius and Malta. Prince has never toured these places and usually record companies here restrict the flow of foreign music there, theres hardly any publicity over Prince releases at all since Emancipation. Prince has doen little to publicise himself in these places, and as a result his following has practically disappeared. I would say in New Zealand much less than 100 (maybe even 10) true fans remain, when during the 80s it may have been high as 10,000 fans.

Huggiebear said:

I guess I would defitnitely fit in the fanatic category.

That's very sad. Same thing in Russia: even though his CDs can be easily found - but here you have the added difficulty that sales are badly hurt by the crushing ubiquitous presence of pirated copies - a perennial problem in Russia.
And then he is never played on the radio, contrary to Madonna for ex, who is hugely popular in Russia, even way before she came for her concert.

I don't know about the maths and stats of sales, but I would be interested simply to carry out a global survey asking people "Do you identify yourself as a Prince fan?" and see what the results are.

Huggiebear said:

A lot.

Whatever the number is, it's in a steady decline.

viewaskew said:

I couldn't disagree with you any more...

For every 5,000 that leave, 5,000 more jump on the wagon...and his wagon is an aircraft carrier.
Dude, he's set with his fanbase... That's why he doesn't feel the need to promote his material.

Revolution said:

How can you possibly make that claim? He has nowhere near the commercial presence or widespread appeal that he had at his peak. He makes move after move to ostracize his current fanbase & kills whatever momentum that might increase it with impressive live appearances by releasing records months after the fact that are forgotten in a week.

He needs to be nice to his fans.

annastesia1 said:

I think he needs to embrace the internet instead of seeing it as a enemy. His fans love him and only show their appreciation by devoting websites to him.

Also he needs to relax with the picture taking..

Why do people always feel the need to say what he 'needs' to do? He's been alive and successful longer than most of them have been alive. to his devoted fans he's still doing fine.

viewaskew said:

Prince has clout...at his peak, he never did the Superbowl show, the most watched TV event in history. He's been on the highest rated TV series in American Idol. He continues to do unprecedented things, but he has no appeal?
21 sold out shows??? A-listers are at his beck and call when he puts on intimate shows in Hollywood. All of these events have occurred just recently.
He picked up new fans just from his Rock N Roll performance of While My Guitar Gently Weeps...I know peeps (nonfanatics) that RAVE about that performance still

Every artist's fan base dwindles as they get older.

When he goes on his next arena tour, it's a guaranteed million tickets sold.

Now record sales are a different thing. Nobody sells records anymore.

Madonna had the highest grossing tour, yet her album didn't sell. Even with a hit single.