What Can Prince Learn From Other Artists?

Forums > Prince: Music and More > What Can Prince Learn From Other Artists?

« Previous topic

Next topic »

Page 1 of 3 12 3 >

Create new topic

Printable version (Log in to 'subscribe' to this topic)

Author

Message

Thread started 07/19/09 11:24am

ernestsewell

avatar

What Can Prince Learn From Other Artists?

I was reading through the Maxwell sticky (http://prince.org/msg/8/312087), and realized a few things. Prince could, and should, take a nod from other artists in marketing. Random thoughts have been posted in different threads, but this one is geared toward this idealism.

It should be said that NO suggestion is a assumption that Prince would be "copying" someone, or not being innovative. He's been innovative with jumping on the internet, and using other forms of technology to his advantage. He's also realized more popular trends in music marketing (like deals with Target, or one off deals with Columbia, EMI, etc.) and worked within those new parameters.

Here are a few things I think Prince should take a nod from to give his fans more fuck for the buck.

1) MAKE VIDEOS. Yes, he made a couple of the Lotus set, but that was it. I don't really ever remember seeing them on rotation on BET or otherwise. Maybe they were, but the last I knew, $77 would get you viewing access. A movie is 1/7th of that, and roughly 30x longer. No deal there.

2) SPECIAL EDITION. Is it really so hard to put a few extra tracks on a CD? or perhaps instead of extra tracks, put a DVD in there. Janet put just 30 minutes of misc footage of the recording process, the video making process, and did some quick interviews about different aspects of the record and project (styling, music style, the writing, etc). 30 minutes, plus a video at the end. That, coupled with the CD was only $14.99 the first week it was out. Most albums are roughly that price at REGULAR price. Maxwell's first album in his forth coming trilogy of albums, BLACKsummer'snight, didn't have any bonus tracks on the 9 disk set, but did have a DVD with a video, and a lot of great behind the scenes footage. He explained a lot of the songs, and also explained what the other two albums would be like in the next two years. For $17.99, it was a good deal. (I missed it on sale the first week it was out.) I think Prince is afraid of those "extra" tracks going on the internet, but brother man.....ALL of your tracks are going to be on the internet. You can NEVER stop that. But fans are willing to pay for an album, to see the artwork, to get the extras, and to have a copy in their hands, to have the experience of opening a CD, reading the lyric book, and so on. Three disks in a cardboard wrapper for 12.98...good amount of songs for the money, but was there anything really special about it overall?

3) TALK TO PEOPLE. Prince has gotten a bad taste in his mouth with his fans, blogging, misinformation, and anything he cannot ultimately control. Hint: YOU NEVER WILL. Prince will never be able to control everything. If he could, he'd not have a bootleg market the way he does. Anyway, he did a fair amount of appearances for Lotus, but he never really TALKED to anyone, except his mediocre talks about chemical trails and angry people in his neighborhood growing up. Talk about the MUSIC. Take us on another tour of Paisley Park. Let us SEE you working. Even if it's Oprah, Larry King, Ellen, or whatever. Do something different. Don't do a cover song, make a new song, and let us see you record the piano on it or something. Let Ellen tour Paisley Park, then meet up with you in Studio A while the band is laying parts.

4) FOLLOW THROUGH. Two videos, a bloated and overpriced website with no real original or long term content, isn't enough for people to pay $77 for. Oh, that t-shirt for original adopters? Yeah, translation: Just Another Sucker. No t-shirt is worth $77. Who is going to pay $77 for an album, THEN go buy it in the store for another $13? That's $90 for the same album twice, an average of $45 for a copy. Most of us won't even pay for that a bootleg CD on eBay. We pay $45 for internet service and can get those things online free (bootlegs). Make another video, do another interview, make another commercial early on to be run again later to regenerate interest in the project. Film and do a one-off show at some 3000 seat theater in a random town, and sell it in stores for $18.99. I'd buy it, as long as it's better production than Rave 2000 and better editing than Aladdin. Do a deal with Showtime or HBO. Just because he does a PPV once, doesn't mean he can't do it again.

Care to add to the list? Go for it.

Ernest L Sewell, IV
Confessions Of A Prince Realist. You might want to sit down for this.
"An ass hanging out on stage is an ass hanging out on stage. Period."

Close2u	they could learn a thing or 2 from him, lol
	- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator

BriaVelveeta	Fuck your groupies and dismiss them, don't write whole CDs for them. And for GOD'S SAKE don't MARRY THEM!
	- E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator