Is Prince aware that he just released an album on a major label?
I really think somebody needs to let him know this happened.

Didn't he do this with 3121?

I remember reading a magazine article once (I can't remember, but

it was either 'Q' or Spin, I believe that stated that music retailers didn't

like to stock a lot of Prince CDs because the first week was always

great, but Prince always seemed to quickly lose interest in promoting

his material.

Blixical said:

Is Prince aware that he just released an album on a major label?
I really think somebody needs to let him know this happened.

Didn't he do this with 3121?

I remember reading a magazine article once (I can't remember, but

it was either 'Q' or Spin, I believe that stated that music retailers didn't

like to stock a lot of Prince CDs because the first week was always

great, but Prince always seemed to quickly lose interest in promoting

his material.

Mister Mysterioso has his unknowable reasons mere mortals like you and I can only imagine, including: -- hopes of riding on the PR re-release coat tails (bundles?); he's decided to play the reluctant pop star; he's disappointed with WB/getting back at them; he's disappointed with the album leaking and seeing 90 % of the Org reviewing AOA before the release date; he had a meltdown over the Funknroll video.

Why is this important? I genuinely don't understand.

Promotion is for the kids, for the people who have to be spoonfed what new music product to listen to... you have the albums, which are the artist's definitive statement, who cares what promotion is around them? And if Prince is known for doing this, why are you surprised?

In ten years, you'll either still be listening to the new albums, or you won't, nobody will give a rat's ass whether or not Prince appeared on a cheesy TV show or made a cheesy video. He will go on making music his way as he has always done. I'm baffled as to people's indignant response to the promotion for the albums.

If you like the music, listen to it. No-one should be caring how he is represented in the wider media/pop world, surely?

Rimshottbob said:

if the music was better there would be a lot more promotion .. wierd people making excuses for prince own lack of interest like "he don't like getting new fans" and "wb doesn't want the release to sell to new customers" .. yeah right

why do you care really,, either you like the albums or you don't..Its almost as people need others to like it to validate whether they like it..

MIRvmn said:

He is probaly already bored with the albums and working on the next project

\

Prince has been like this forever..we all know these albums have been completed for at min a year..you can tell from the new stuff that the sounds hav3e changed..he past it..wanted to get these out and PR Remaster and havea new disc next yeart

Rimshottbob said:

Why is this important? I genuinely don't understand.

Promotion is for the kids, for the people who have to be spoonfed what new music product to listen to... you have the albums, which are the artist's definitive statement, who cares what promotion is around them? And if Prince is known for doing this, why are you surprised?

In ten years, you'll either still be listening to the new albums, or you won't, nobody will give a rat's ass whether or not Prince appeared on a cheesy TV show or made a cheesy video. He will go on making music his way as he has always done. I'm baffled as to people's indignant response to the promotion for the albums.

If you like the music, listen to it. No-one should be caring how he is represented in the wider media/pop world, surely?

lwr001 said:

why do you care really,, either you like the albums or you don't..Its almost as people need others to like it to validate whether they like it..

not really. To me it's no difference in him performing/not performing the music live. That's also promotion.

Part of me that "thinks" I should care about Prince's music selling well because that means that he will make enough money to sell more music, but at this point I have also realized that Prince has enough money and that the technology allows him to make and distribute music on his own terms no matter how weird those terms are regardless of the sales/numbers of AOA and PlecElec. Additionally, I guess because I've been a fan since before Prince could go "gold" I'm rarely concerned with what his sales/numbers are. I didn't need anyone or sales to tell me that I liked Dirty Mind and Controversy. I'm amazed that people forget that Dirty Mind and Controversy, which are "now" considered "essential" Prince albums, barely sold "gold," and that was mostly based on the success of 1999 and Purple Rain. So, again, I've been a fan long enough to know that sales alone don't measure the quality of Prince's work. As fans, we've had it both ways, even recently. Lots of promotion for Musicology, which became number one, and very little promotion for 3121, which also became number one. (And more importantly, 3121 being number one disproved all the people who said that Prince could only have a number one record with the scam of selling the album with the ticket sales.)

*

Now, I will admit that this is a bit odd for Warner Bros. because they only invest in music to earn a profit so I'd be interested to know their reason and reaction. I can only speculate that they only invested in AOA and PlecElec so that they could have the right to reissue Purple Rain and other older work. But, since I already have Purple Rain and the older work and could care less about the reissue of Purple Rain and the older work, then I can only assume that Warner Bros. is hoping that many younger folks who don't have the older work will be interested in reissues of the back catalogue along with Prince fans who don't like Prince's previous fourteen years of work. (Yet, regardless of the new technology, the songs will not sound differently; one either likes them or they don't so, again, a reissue is worthless to me.) But, Prince's behavior or lack of promotion for AOA and PlecElec is not new or unusual for Prince so I'm surprised at those who are surprised by it. And for those saying that Prince isn't promoting the albums because the music is not quality, Prince toured and performed the bulk of the PlecElec music for about a year. Of course, we can fault him for getting back in bed with Warner Bros. and then complaining how long it takes them to release music when he knows how long it takes. But, Prince's history is proof that what gets promoted rarely has anything to do with quality. "Breakdown" has been pushed/promoted heavily by Prince, and while I love most everything else on both albums, I consider it the weakest song. So, this is just Prince being Prince. I'm just glad that I'm still able to access work by Prince that I like. Again, maybe I should care that more people are not being given the opportunity to know it exists, but, at this point, I'm just happy that Prince has provided more music that I like.

TrevorAyer said:

He's not self-aware. Heck he's not even conscious.

I was sort of wondering the same thing. This would be a good time to play ping pong with Jimmy Fallon or maybe release a video. I was going to start a thread asking if there were going to be any videos made for these records but this seems like a good place to ask.

wildgoldenhoney said:

He's not self-aware. Heck he's not even conscious.

1725topp said:

Part of me that "thinks" I should care about Prince's music selling well because that means that he will make enough money to sell more music, but at this point I have also realized that Prince has enough money and that the technology allows him to make and distribute music on his own terms no matter how weird those terms are regardless of the sales/numbers of AOA and PlecElec. Additionally, I guess because I've been a fan since before Prince could go "gold" I'm rarely concerned with what his sales/numbers are. I didn't need anyone or sales to tell me that I liked Dirty Mind and Controversy. I'm amazed that people forget that Dirty Mind and Controversy, which are "now" considered "essential" Prince albums, barely sold "gold," and that was mostly based on the success of 1999 and Purple Rain. So, again, I've been a fan long enough to know that sales alone don't measure the quality of Prince's work. As fans, we've had it both ways, even recently. Lots of promotion for Musicology, which became number one, and very little promotion for 3121, which also became number one. (And more importantly, 3121 being number one disproved all the people who said that Prince could only have a number one record with the scam of selling the album with the ticket sales.)

*

Now, I will admit that this is a bit odd for Warner Bros. because they only invest in music to earn a profit so I'd be interested to know their reason and reaction. I can only speculate that they only invested in AOA and PlecElec so that they could have the right to reissue Purple Rain and other older work. But, since I already have Purple Rain and the older work and could care less about the reissue of Purple Rain and the older work, then I can only assume that Warner Bros. is hoping that many younger folks who don't have the older work will be interested in reissues of the back catalogue along with Prince fans who don't like Prince's previous fourteen years of work. (Yet, regardless of the new technology, the songs will not sound differently; one either likes them or they don't so, again, a reissue is worthless to me.) But, Prince's behavior or lack of promotion for AOA and PlecElec is not new or unusual for Prince so I'm surprised at those who are surprised by it. And for those saying that Prince isn't promoting the albums because the music is not quality, Prince toured and performed the bulk of the PlecElec music for about a year. Of course, we can fault him for getting back in bed with Warner Bros. and then complaining how long it takes them to release music when he knows how long it takes. But, Prince's history is proof that what gets promoted rarely has anything to do with quality. "Breakdown" has been pushed/promoted heavily by Prince, and while I love most everything else on both albums, I consider it the weakest song. So, this is just Prince being Prince. I'm just glad that I'm still able to access work by Prince that I like. Again, maybe I should care that more people are not being given the opportunity to know it exists, but, at this point, I'm just happy that Prince has provided more music that I like.

Must logical and brilliant thing written on the org in the past 5 years. As a fan since 82 I am happy as well just to have new music constantly flowing from an artist I enjoy well into his 50s when most artists have shut it down or release a few songs every 10 years. Whether you like it or not...he's providing us art, in his way

For normal artists his management team would be arranging all of this because more sales would mean more money they could get a cut of. In Prince's world he takes one thing at a time because it's not like anyone's holding a candle to his ass to force him to move faster than he feels like. Most artists would be extremely envious to have that level of freedom to do what you want when you want. At any rate, Donna just said their locking in tour dates now, so they'll probably make tv appearances (if they're going to do them) when they announce those.

The promotion matters to me because I want to see these great songs I love finished out. The story... The performances... The Live side to the story. For me, a concept album is just waiting for a director to add a great visual to great music. I want to see Way Back Home... I love listening to it and I see my imagery... but let's face it, Prince is a visual artist and videos like "7" and "Cream" really finished off the songs!

loveu2the9ss said:

The promotion matters to me because I want to see these great songs I love finished out. The story... The performances... The Live side to the story. For me, a concept album is just waiting for a director to add a great visual to great music. I want to see Way Back Home... I love listening to it and I see my imagery... but let's face it, Prince is a visual artist and videos like "7" and "Cream" really finished off the songs!

This is a good idea. This record lends itself better to the "concept DVD" more so than D&P or Symbol; certainly more than Graffitti Bridge. There's a visual element to it. I'd like to see a promotional video approach: 2 DVD's. One would be the space-aged Barbarella meets the Mothership onnection thing he did with AOA using a visual approach like the "I Wish U Heaven" video and the PE one would just be live, loud, aftershow style rock/funk jams in the tradition of The Undertaker or the VH1 Get Wild/Exodus thing he did (I forgot the name of it).

.

Of course, none of that will happen and, knowing Prince, there'd be too much cheese on that burger, so for now I'll settle for two pretty good records, wait for a tour and figure out a way to squirrel away $300 to pay for it.

.

There was a good thread not too long ago about doing a tour based on a single record like Pink Floyd does. AOA would fit that bill if he could pull it off live but I'm not sure he could. It reminds me of Lovesexy where the more studio driven and effects laden tracks (Dance On, Positivity) were never played so I don't know but it'd be fun to see him try.

.

I agree, having listened several times now it seems to lend itself to a "Beautiful Experience" or "Undertaker" treatment.

loveu2the9ss said:

The promotion matters to me because I want to see these great songs I love finished out. The story... The performances... The Live side to the story. For me, a concept album is just waiting for a director to add a great visual to great music. I want to see Way Back Home... I love listening to it and I see my imagery... but let's face it, Prince is a visual artist and videos like "7" and "Cream" really finished off the songs!

*

You make an excellent point about the supplemental nature of videos, but I can't say that the videos for "7", "Cream," or any other video made me like the song more, and I'm one of those people who tends to like Prince's videos whether they are performance videos or concept videos. But, I can't think of a time where I liked a song "more," which is not what you are saying, per se, because of a video. As such, I tend not to miss the supplement the video adds. Also, videos cost money, and Prince clearly has a number in his head that determines whether or not he makes videos and other things. Of course, we can debate whether or not Prince's method of wanting to be paid a "certain" amount "upfront" is outdated, but, clearly, Prince has drawn some financial line in the sand that unless he receives "________" amount upfront then videos and other "promotional" elements will not be used. And while I say that I don't "need" videos, I can admit that I do enjoy them as another expression of Prince's art. And, I guess, for me, I keep returning, not to Prince, but to Warner Bros. If I'm baffled by anything, it is by Warner Bros. embracing this headache again. By now, who doesn't know that Prince is a jerk when it comes to promoting his work? After the deal with Clive Davis went sour, I'm still amazed that record companies continue to work with him. And, sure, there are new people at Warner Bros., but there must be some holdovers, or at least the new people there would know the history of how difficult working with Prince is. So, the more I think about it, the lack of promotion is as much Warner Bros. fault. Based on Prince's history alone, they surely would have included something in the contract to ensure that he would promote the albums? And, if not, that's Warner Bros. fault since Prince seems clearly happy with what he's received. So, let's blame Warner Bros. for us not receiving any quality videos. :^)

Prince's "problem" is not really Prince's problem at all -- it's the archaic, one-sided system of distribution and royalty recoupment that benefits the record companies to the detriment of the artist. Not only does the record company hold the upper hand, but they also work on extremely long timelines (1-3 years from "creation" to distribution) that just bores the sh*t out of someone who makes new music while we sleeps [sic].

Its funny knowing there's people out there who think he's gonna play stuff from the album live... The Breakdown might get played on future (hits) tours, and PBL / Fixurlifeup on future 3rdeyegirl tours

1725topp said:

loveu2the9ss said:

The promotion matters to me

And, I guess, for me, I keep returning, not to Prince, but to Warner Bros. If I'm baffled by anything, it is by Warner Bros. embracing this headache again. By now, who doesn't know that Prince is a jerk when it comes to promoting his work? After the deal with Clive Davis went sour, I'm still amazed that record companies continue to work with him.

Short answer: because they know he's good.

1725topp said: And, I guess, for me, I keep returning, not to Prince, but to Warner Bros. If I'm baffled by anything, it is by Warner Bros. embracing this headache again. By now, who doesn't know that Prince is a jerk when it comes to promoting his work? After the deal with Clive Davis went sour, I'm still amazed that record companies continue to work with him.

herb4 said: Short answer: because they know he's good.

*

I'm not one to refute Prince's talent as I am enjoying both albums, but being good and marketing one's art in a manner that will allow both parties to earn a profit are two different things. But, whatever the reason, promotion or no promotion, it seems to be working well for both. At least neither seems to have any complaints as of yet.

as I said in another thread.....these albums are on a major label.That's the real reason why Prince isn't promoting them his attitude is probably "why should I work to make them richer"?

Rimshottbob said:

Why is this important? I genuinely don't understand.

Promotion is for the kids, for the people who have to be spoonfed what new music product to listen to... you have the albums, which are the artist's definitive statement, who cares what promotion is around them? And if Prince is known for doing this, why are you surprised?

In ten years, you'll either still be listening to the new albums, or you won't, nobody will give a rat's ass whether or not Prince appeared on a cheesy TV show or made a cheesy video. He will go on making music his way as he has always done. I'm baffled as to people's indignant response to the promotion for the albums.

If you like the music, listen to it. No-one should be caring how he is represented in the wider media/pop world, surely?

It matters because the number of people buying his music is shrinking. At some point there will not be enough to justify releasing anything. And then we, the remianing remnants, will not get anymore new music. We will just be left with tours packed with "the hits" for ever more.

56,000 copies of AOA sold in the first week. That right there is the number of his hardcore fan base still prepared to buy his music. Without promotion, that will be pretty much it for sales. The man will not get out of bed for that kind of return. So why bother next time?

Can't say I agree with that.

He's managed to make music and distribute it himself/through one-off deals etc, these last twenty years.

He'll always find a way to release stuff and there'll always be people who want to buy it...

Maybe he'll stay on a major label now, maybe he won't, maybe the major labels won't last.

Prince has proved that there's many ways to get your stuff out there... he's not a good, 'practical' businessman, so there'll always be screwups, but that's what he's like.

Even with him on a major label and his music being the most widely availabe it's been in years, there's people still saying he's doing it wrong... he should be this, or that, or the other... he has never done things in a completely conventional way, and he never will, that's part of the journey, that's part of the fascination, that's part of why we're here, because he's not like everyone else... that may get frustrating sometimes, but you got to take the good with the bad, I guess.

Anyway, still for me, promotion is something for Prince/Warners to worry about.. I have a feeling they know what they're doing. We might not agree with their plan, but they're never going to care about that.

Rimshottbob said:

Can't say I agree with that.

He's managed to make music and distribute it himself/through one-off deals etc, these last twenty years.

He'll always find a way to release stuff and there'll always be people who want to buy it...

Maybe he'll stay on a major label now, maybe he won't, maybe the major labels won't last.

Prince has proved that there's many ways to get your stuff out there... he's not a good, 'practical' businessman, so there'll always be screwups, but that's what he's like.

Even with him on a major label and his music being the most widely availabe it's been in years, there's people still saying he's doing it wrong... he should be this, or that, or the other... he has never done things in a completely conventional way, and he never will, that's part of the journey, that's part of the fascination, that's part of why we're here, because he's not like everyone else... that may get frustrating sometimes, but you got to take the good with the bad, I guess.

Anyway, still for me, promotion is something for Prince/Warners to worry about.. I have a feeling they know what they're doing. We might not agree with their plan, but they're never going to care about that.

He has always found ways to distribute, you are right. But as the pool of fans willing to pay for it continues to diminish, at what point does he say fuck it (or duck it), whats the point? If no one is interested, it doesnt matter how he distributes his music. And the way he is doing things, and has done things for a long time, he is just not giving his music a chance to replenish the pool of fans that is slowly evaporating away.

I really dont care how popular he is or isnt, I like his music by and large, and I am a fan regardless. But I would like to continue to get more new music. And, more to the point, I would like to see him expand on the direction he took with AOA. But if he deems AOA a failure then he might just abandon that direction and start doing his pointless jazz noodlings again instead. That would be a shame because it is a strong album and all it needs is a bit of proactiveness on Prince's part. Hell, it could even be the start of a new Prince era entirely.

I dont want Prince to promote himself so he can be popular again. I want him to promote himself so that the resulting popularity keeps his fires burning and we dont end up with more albums like NEWS.

Ha, I'd love more albums like NEWS!

I love it when he's more adventurous, nothing pointless or noodly about it to me, but then I'm a massive jazz fan...

Absolutely it's his creativity that should be encouraged, which is different from his popularity.

He seems to have hit on something with Art Official Age, it's fresh and deep, where albums like 3121 and Planet Earth (and parts of Musicology and 20Ten) were insipid, sounding like a talented man who was just tired and didn't really know what to do next.

With Art Official Age, I'm properly interested in listening again. I loved The Rainbow Children, NEWS, One Nite Alone (and its live box set), Xpectation (and some of Musicology). That was a mini golden age in itself to me, where Prince was properly inspired. This new one is the first album since those where I don't spend any time cringing at some of the tracks ('the main problem with war, is that nobody ever wins'? 'ain't no fury like a woman scorned'? Ouch&Shudder).

Anyway, I too want to see him fired up and encouraged, but I really thought when I saw him on the One Nite Alone Tour that he was finding a way to move away from needing to be 'popular', i.e. competing with whippersnappers, who can't hold a candle to him. He seemed to be moving into an 'elder statesman' role which suited him well, like a James Brown, or Marvin Gaye... bu then came the mid-00s and some of the weakest material he's ever put out... I guess his whims have to be accounted for and can never be predicted. Again, part of why we're here, I guess...