Noodled24 said:

That entry with the dubious source?

A) Wiki says 33,000.
B) Checking the source the figure is actually 26,000\26,360.
C) HipHipDX doesn't actually cite their source, but gives exact numbers.

D) Why would HipHopDX have access to sales numbers other sites don't?

Having said all that, it's probably not far off. + another 10,000 or so, who likely purchased/pre-ordered via 3rdeyetunes or whatever that site I haven't visited for over a year is called.

Actually WIKI is accurate about Plectrum. The first week and 2nd week billboard sales added up to 33,000. After the third week it completely fell off the Top 200, So in the U.S. it sold under 40,000 I would presume, that number is probably too high as well...

[Edited 8/31/15 13:02pm]

IstenSzek said:

^ it's not that important but so what? Sports fans talk about team stats all the time. Music fans talk about things like sales numbers.

It's not about sales figures... The point is, if he continues to not do any promotion what so ever especially in this day in age where he is virtually unknown to the new generation, no visibility on internet and social media platforms... What will be the future of other releases in the next 5-10 years... Anyway's Prince can do what he wants, regardless I will still buy and listen to his product, just like the people who have disdain for Prince here on this site will still do.

I love these kinds of posts.

Fucked Up said:

Why does everybody wanna be record executives??

Because they make money for doing what we do? Often to less succcess?

It seems people are always acting like they're A&R at record labels.

Because the people who have those jobs have proven over & over that they are unreliable. Again, we do that better here.

What happened to just being a music fan??

Because our favorite artists are becoming legacy, we are concerned with their... legacies.

Who the hell cares about someone's promotion and sales??

Fans and record executives (See Question 1)

Prince is rich as phunk, yet people are concerned about his marketing strategy. Why??

Because he doesn't seem to invest anything in his product any more. Why should we?

Either you like his stuff or you don't. Plain and simple.

Or you like two of the tracks and dislike the ones that sound like the same stuff from last album.

You can either rock with it, or throw a rock at it.

Black and white. Binary. One choice. No thanks. We can do all kinds of things.

Either way, the brotha is "PAYD AND FREE". If he wants to make shitty music, that's his choice. YOU can choose not to buy it, or in this case, stream it.

The evidence of that choice will be available likely one or two weeks after the release.

Simple.

Nothing is ever simple. It may look simple to some.

KingSausage said:

skywalker said:

KingSausage said:

Prince could release his best album since Lovesexy and it would still sell like shit. He's never going to be a big seller again. Ever. The sooner Prince and his fans forget about album sales and just focus on QUALITY, the better. This obsession over sales is ridiculous.

True. Funny thing is, Lovesexy was released in 1988...just 4 years after Purple Rain-mania....and it sold poorly in the U.S. - Do we blame lack of promotion? Nude album cover? The lack of "quality music"?

Good point... Could be all of the above... However I do feel lovesexy was a QUALITY album...

It's not so much an OBSESSION of sales, rather the dissapointment that an artist like PRINCE doesn't get the proper commercial recognition he deserves with QUALITY albums... History shows he's made a lot of wrong choices in terms of promotion... Now 2015 an album 7 days away what do we have? A corny website, thiscouldbeus.com

TheGoldStandard said:

I love these kinds of posts.

Fucked Up said:

Why does everybody wanna be record executives??

Because they make money for doing what we do? Often to less succcess?

"If you want to be one, then be one. Go work with an artist or put out your own shit. Stop bitching about Prince's executorship skills."

It seems people are always acting like they're A&R at record labels.

Because the people who have those jobs have proven over & over that they are unreliable. Again, we do that better here.

No, you just bitch more. You don't A&R better. Whom have you A&R'd for? Probably no one. Unreliable for what?? You either wanna buy the music or you don't. Remember the "music"??

What happened to just being a music fan??

Because our favorite artists are becoming legacy, we are concerned with their... legacies.

"YOU are "concerned" about Prince's legacy?? Funniest shit ever."

Who the hell cares about someone's promotion and sales??

Fans and record executives (See Question 1)

"You're just a fan. You aren't an executor over Prince's music. Just stop it."

Prince is rich as phunk, yet people are concerned about his marketing strategy. Why??

Because he doesn't seem to invest anything in his product any more. Why should we?

"If you like the music, then buy it. If you don't, then don't. Prince didn't ask you to invest in shit. And he don't owe you shit."

Either you like his stuff or you don't. Plain and simple.

Or you like two of the tracks and dislike the ones that sound like the same stuff from last album.

"Umm, that's okay for you to do. You can like one and hate all the rest, or you can like them all. Your experience."

You can either rock with it, or throw a rock at it.

Black and white. Binary. One choice. No thanks. We can do all kinds of things.

"It is black and white. You either rock with it, or you don't. That's two choices, not one."

Either way, the brotha is "PAYD AND FREE". If he wants to make shitty music, that's his choice. YOU can choose not to buy it, or in this case, stream it.

The evidence of that choice will be available likely one or two weeks after the release.

"Yep it will. I have a feeling you'll listen to anything he makes until you die. Just accept that and quit bitching. "

Simple.

Nothing is ever simple. It may look simple to some.

"This is pretty simple. You either do or you don't. You either will or you won't. Prince ain't begging for your vote."

"People need to stop being IN the business when they aren't really IN the business. It's music. You feel it how you feel it. Stop being overly concerned with the business of someone else's music. Make your own shit and work it however you like."

feeluupp said:

Also still no clear announcement on when the phsyical release is. FNAC says Sept 15... But does that mean only for Europe or France?

October 15th

bigd74 said:

feeluupp said:

Also still no clear announcement on when the phsyical release is. FNAC says Sept 15... But does that mean only for Europe or France?

October 15th

Exactly why I said no clear announcement... Yesterday it said OCT 15, earlier this morning they changed it back to SEPT 15, now back to OCT 15...

KingSausage said:

Prince could release his best album since Lovesexy and it would still sell like shit. He's never going to be a big seller again. Ever. The sooner Prince and his fans forget about album sales and just focus on QUALITY, the better. This obsession over sales is ridiculous.

Bingo! nobody but us cares about new Prince music (and some of us don't) i wish people would just realise it. Prince isn't going to outsell shit like Taylor Swift and such, even his peers like George Michael, MJ and Madonna sell cock all compared to todays shit.

[Edited 8/31/15 21:46pm]

[Edited 8/31/15 21:53pm]

bigd74 said:

The way I interpret his lack of promotion?

1. It's one of his traditional options, starting with ATWiAD, lack of video of SOTT (the song), pre-releasing Kiss way before UTCM came out, the whole Gold thing. It's the "I want this music out quick, don't care about promoting it massively, just let the music speak for itself".

2. It's him associating playing pop star with idolatry. That's an early theme too, there are traces of that even during the Purple Rain tour when he associated seeing a giant prop of himself with idolatry. Of course, he has hardly ever been consistent, but it's nothing new that he wants his image to take a backseat to his music. There might be a religious component to this by now.

3. He's tried to do the big pop star thing notably with Rave and apparently, he ultimately felt like a fool, like it was bringing out the worst in him. Best in that vein was Musicology, but that was him presenting himself as an elder stateman of music, not the "pop star trying to be "hot".

4. Most importantly, he doesn't live off his new music and doesn't think he can generate enough interest in it due to the Matrix or the System. He's happy getting the record out for his own satisfaction, making some honest money of it and living off other sources of income if needed.

[Edited 8/31/15 21:57pm]

skywalker said:

KingSausage said:

Prince could release his best album since Lovesexy and it would still sell like shit. He's never going to be a big seller again. Ever. The sooner Prince and his fans forget about album sales and just focus on QUALITY, the better. This obsession over sales is ridiculous.

True. Funny thing is, Lovesexy was released in 1988...just 4 years after Purple Rain-mania....and it sold poorly in the U.S. - Do we blame lack of promotion? Nude album cover? The lack of "quality music"?

I was going to point that out. Lovesexy's US sales were very poor. And there were videos: Alphabet St., Glam Slam, :eye: Wish U Heaven. Of course the cover (which would be perfect for Miley today) was a turn off to many at the times (not me) and being more explicitely religious was not the Prince that people wanted to see.

The truth is that Prince had vastly different experiences with promotion and an history of being low key. Lovesexy (the tour and the whole project) cost a fortune and didn't sell much. ATWIAD, Parade and SOTT were all well below his Purple Rain numbers and did not follow the promotion textbook of the time (Parade to a lesser extent -- he did do the huge single but the album and movie were arty and artsy (respectively), Kiss was released too early, the movie was a mega-disaster).

Compare this to his "rival" MJ, working multiple years to try to top Thriller, then match Bad, the obsession with being a "chart king". Prince evidently wanted to issue as much music as possible and did not want to use some kind of formula to try and stay "Purple Rain"-level famous, he wanted to be known as a great musician and songwriter, less as a personality/phenomenon.

Any fan of his should be sooooo used to his way of doing things. Sure, he could make more of an effort, but in the end it's the fans (more than him) that would like full-course pop star dinner. If he was so unhappy about it, you'd see him try hard so personally I got the message a ong time ago that he was only going to follow the textbook once in a while, if at all.

feeluupp said:

KingSausage said:

Prince could release his best album since Lovesexy and it would still sell like shit. He's never going to be a big seller again. Ever. The sooner Prince and his fans forget about album sales and just focus on QUALITY, the better. This obsession over sales is ridiculous.

Yep.

Hey, it's Prince's journey, we get the music either way, no promo does not bother me, I do not need other people to like Prince, hear Prince, etc, in order to validate my love for the music. Present company excluded of course.

peace

leadline said:

Hey, it's Prince's journey, we get the music either way, no promo does not bother me, I do not need other people to like Prince, hear Prince, etc, in order to validate my love for the music. Present company excluded of course.

peace

i agree 100%, i just want the music without the promo B/S, I could even do without these annoying little interviews - just hit us with the music - we know what to expect with his albums these days.. he ain't gonna sell any more or less records by doing half-baked promotion, so he might as well just get the music out, which I believe he now understands.

[Edited 8/31/15 16:30pm]

laurarichardson said:

KingSausage said:

I hope there's another MASTERPIECE live stream event!

Me too, that last one is my jam!

djThunderfunk said:

KingSausage said:

I hope there's another MASTERPIECE live stream event!

Me too, that last one is my jam!

As long as they skip the "Lovesex is my jam" girl this time around...

KingSausage said:

Prince could release his best album since Lovesexy and it would still sell like shit. He's never going to be a big seller again. Ever. The sooner Prince and his fans forget about album sales and just focus on QUALITY, the better. This obsession over sales is ridiculous.

Spot on, hence why WB put very little money into promotion for his last two, he's a nostalgia/hits act the general public couldn't care less about new material.

The only people who care what Prince releases these days are his fans, who's numbers are decreasing with every release.

I dont care as long as I get some new music

[Edited 9/1/15 0:34am]

feeluupp said:

....what's even more scary is he will go more into obscurity to the general public wih his constant antics of not being involved with social media, youtube, and the removal of all his music and footage on the net...

I don't get why it's scary? What difference does it make to an individual Prince fan if they're aware of this (or any other) upcoming release?

I'm not saying that Prince is "right", I just don't see that it's that big a deal...

That fucking cover.

XxAxX said:

prince also does not promote his concerts, yet sometimes they sell out in minutes.

.

miley cyrus dropped a 'surprise' album last night for her fans. no promotion

.

maybe the 'old ways' of promotion are becoming, well, the old ways...

.

She was hosting the gorram VMAs and thus that album was going to be all over the news. Meanwhile Prince couldn't be arsed to go to GMA to promote AOA & PlecElec when they had trailed his HUUUUGE announcement for days.

BartVanHemelen said:

XxAxX said:

prince also does not promote his concerts, yet sometimes they sell out in minutes.

.

miley cyrus dropped a 'surprise' album last night for her fans. no promotion

.

maybe the 'old ways' of promotion are becoming, well, the old ways...

.

She was hosting the gorram VMAs and thus that album was going to be all over the news. Meanwhile Prince couldn't be arsed to go to GMA to promote AOA & PlecElec when they had trailed his HUUUUGE announcement for days.

.

yeah no. my point that 'promotion today might be changing' still stands. moreover, no matter how many ugly, obsession driven remarks and attacks you make on the man, he is still head and shoulders above you and always will be. thanks for listening