EXCLUSIVE: New Details on Prince's Online Venture, Live Dates, Photos, and More!

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by Seth Colter Walls



Prince's new online venture, LOtUSFLOW3R.com, will debut on March 24. The site will offer digital downloads of the three new albums previously announced with a March 29 street date, in CD format, at Target stores. Two sources in Prince's camp also have confirmed that the rumored price of $77 for one year's subscription to the site has been formally settled upon. The picture above is an exclusive screengrab provided to us by Prince's web developer, Scott Addison Clay, who recently gave me an advance tour of the Web site. That main image, derived from the cover to the album of the same name, will be the user's portal into the online "world" of that album, complete with lyrics, artwork and new photos, in addition to the tunes. Two other "worlds," one for each of the other two Princely releases, also exist on an animated 3-D plane, in an arrangement that Clay compares to the popular game Myst. The album "MPLSoUND," as previously reported, is Prince's electronic counterpart to the guitar-heavy "LOtUSFLOW3R," while "Elixer" is the debut offering from Prince's latest protege, Bria Valente. Check out the covers for "MPLSoUND" and "Elixer" below, first on PopVox:





On the technical tip, Clay's creation is clearly a step up from some of Prince's past online homes, some of which were subject to unfortunate outages at peak times of Prince interest. And, by the way, the new music sounds pretty exciting, too. "Boom," the proper kickoff to LOtUSFLOW3R following a 30-second instrumental interlude, mixes psychedelia with funk rhythms and orgiastic guitar wailing. The song "Chocolate Box," on the electro-influenced album titled "MPLSoUND," features one of the all-time great Prince boudoir boasts: "I got a box a chocolates / that'll rock the socks of / any girl that wanna come my way." It also features one of Prince's best collaborations with a rapper to date, in the person of Q-Tip. During the 90's, Prince's revolving door MC's-for-hire were generally far less distinct than his music. And even when Prince used name-brand rhymers like Chuck D, their styles did not always mesh. Q-Tip's jazzy delivery, however, is the perfect fit for Prince's endearingly askew electronic sound-world. Here's to more of that kind of collaboration.

There are other new details, as well. Prince will perform "multiple times," in different locations around Los Angeles, on March 24, though those performances will not be streamed or recorded for the site. As Billboard previously reported, Prince will then be a guest on the Jay Leno show from March 25-27 (and again during Leno's last week in May). A representative for the Purple One says, however, that ticketing information for the three non-Leno events on March 24th will be posted on the beta version of LOtUSFLOW3R.com in the coming days. "The site is going to be your key to figure out how to get access," Prince's representative told NEWSWEEK.

Three new videos, one for each single off the new albums, are also in the can. "Crimson and Clover," Prince's cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells classic (with a little bit of Hendrix's "Wild Thing" thrown in for good measure) is the first single from "LOtUSFLOW3R." The aforementioned "Chocolate Box" is the nominee from "MPLSoUND," while the Bria Valente song "Everytime" will be the first multimedia from that disc. All three videos will debut on the site upon its March 24 launch.

And for the curious, here's another, exclusive new shot of Bria, taken by Prince himself:



During the tour, LOtUSFLOW3R.com appeared to be a multimedia powerhouse capable of playing videos and live clips (including Prince's cover of Radiohead's "Creep" from last year's Coachella) while also handling advanced 3-D modeling and Flash-based photo galleries. Clay gave us some more details about future plans for the site. Check out next week's print edition of NEWSWEEK for more details.

I see a disco jelly fish!

lotus flow3r is by far the nicest looking cover, I'd say.
The other two are rather tacky, aren't they.

I do like the jack-headed bird though.

My God this is going to be SICK!!!!! And this all starts 2 days before my birthday too! Prince fucking loves me! (pardon me for acting fammy ). This is exciting news and man oh man do I wish I was in L.A. for that week! He's going to tear that city apart! He better do the same in NYC the next week or in April when it's warmer! Man I'm super excited now!!!

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

Thanks for the info Papaj and this definately needs to be a sticky! Happy days are here again!!!

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

Woohoooo!!! That's awesome, thanks for posting!

Multiple shows in L.A. on the 24th, damn I wish I could get over there!!

Well this further whets the appetite. I'm going to be pretty happy with the content at launch I reckon and have no problem if it focusses on the new releases and last couple of years appearances/performances in the main.

I really do hope that this time the site lasts a long time (more than 5 years say) and gets updated revamped from time to time and the content is expanded to include clips and songs from Prince's whole career. I know it's Prince's right NOT to do this but I hope he has been gunning for unauthorised content on the web for this very reason. To make sure he has as much control over it as possible and let's us access it through his official site.

I'm so looking forward to it . I even went to check out my local Target last night to see if anything was going on yet...Prince needs to get on a morning show March 30 to spread the word. I mean really Newsweek Rolling Stone, Spin, Enterainment Weekly, hell even Vibe would give him more exposure. Either way looks like I'm going to be $77 lighter on March 24.

Love the look of the site....new music and bria looks lovely....but Prince man this is hard times and it's not like i'm gonna see you live...

PLEASE ...PLEASE .....PLEASE ....PLEASE .....PLEASE ....bring down the cost of the website.....it too much...

Prince's camp also have confirmed that the rumored price of $77 for one year's subscription to the site has been formally settled upon

The CD is a great Prince thanks.....

I would pay $77 + more to see you live but a website ....it's a bit too much money sorry P....

And so, Prince's long-held tradition of hideous, gaudy and cheap artwork continues unabated.

ejnbmore said:

I'm so looking forward to it . I even went to check out my local Target last night to see if anything was going on yet...Prince needs to get on a morning show March 30 to spread the word. I mean really Newsweek Rolling Stone, Spin, Enterainment Weekly, hell even Vibe would give him more exposure. Either way looks like I'm going to be $77 lighter on March 24.

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

NouveauDance said:

And so, Prince's long-held tradition of hideous, gaudy and cheap artwork continues unabated.

Papaj said:

LiveToTell86 said:

Papaj said:

I love it!!!!!

3 videos? WOW I didn't expect that!

NouveauDance said:

And so, Prince's long-held tradition of hideous, gaudy and cheap artwork continues unabated.

I'm so in LA on the 24th. I hate it there but i'll make the 3hr trip for 3 different show's. Hells yeah!!!!

TwiliteKid said:

NouveauDance said:

And so, Prince's long-held tradition of hideous, gaudy and cheap artwork continues unabated.

I'll agree on the hideous and gaudy, but what makes it cheap?

LiveToTell86 said:

Papaj said:

I love it!!!!!

3 videos? WOW I didn't expect that!

rwn said:

NouveauDance said:

And so, Prince's long-held tradition of hideous, gaudy and cheap artwork continues unabated.

And the tradition of Prince fans whining and complaining continues too

Are those Disco Mirror Jellyfish????

It's hip to be square

CNNBREAKINGNEWS said:

It's goin' DOWN now.

I do wish that he put the hohner on the MPLsound cover instead of the strat, but hey...

...at least the Linn is on there!

; )

approx £54 GBP at current exchange rates. It's not mega-cheap but not completely astronomic either. Hmmm potential access to otherwise unavailable music and video... I'm ready for the question Noel...

God that really is horrendous. I mean, it's like someone puked on the screen. Just a bunch of random shit all over the place. Still, it'd give any of my artist / graphic designer friends a right giggle. Someone got paid for this shit!
[Edited 3/13/09 9:33am]

Giovanni777 said:

Anxiety said:

Giovanni777 said:

It's goin' DOWN now.

I do wish that he put the hohner on the MPLsound cover instead of the strat, but hey...

...at least the Linn is on there!

; )

he turned the building where i work into a giant keyboard!

Prince.org is a cemetery where folks mourn Prince instead of celebrate him and his music. Last time I checked, Prince isn't dead yet.

purplecam said:

Anxiety said:

he turned the building where i work into a giant keyboard!

You must feel so honored right?

So exciting! I can't wait!

I've just realised what it reminds me of, the old Lucasarts "point and click adventure" games of yesteryear. I have a soft spot for that type of narrative driven computer game, but when it comes to efficient UI navigation on a website, I'd really prefer to avoid having to pixel-scrub with the mouse trying to find what gaudy bit of the image is clickable and what isn't.