Quote From Hits Daily Double about Musicology Sales

From Hits Daily Double:


"Buzz continuing on the Prince album’s strong run, with industry observers saying even without the questionable concert-venue “sales” that Soundscan is including, the album continues to do Top 10 business—an exceptional showing for a record with virtually no radio support. This week, Musicology added another 65k in “non-traditional” sales, putting the amount of CDs given away to date at nearly 150k."


I think this captures what is impressive to me too...taking out the concert sales, Prince has had a Top 10 album for three weeks running with radio giving him the complete cold shoulder. I am just trying to figure out who's to blame. Is it:

1) Sony, for not getting the singles out to radio. Wasn't "Musicology" single only sent to Urban AC? Why is it NOW being sent to some Pop stations after any buzz the song had is gone? Why hasn't "A Miilion Days" or "Call My Name" been shipped to every format appropriate station? Is Sony not powerful enough to get Prince on.

2) The radio stations and program managers; are they just so caught up in Prince's age and his alleged non-youth appeal that they just won't bend. I mean how the hell is Teena Marie, who hasn't had a hot in a decade and who is just as old school as prince getting the airplay she is getting for her new song?

3) Prince himself. Is he just so overextended with the tour that he doesn't care about single promotion at this point? Does he not care about the retail sales because he's getting paid from the concerts so much that it's a moot point. Is a Top 10 Hit just not important to him?

I don't know why it is so important to me but I just want this album to be a smash on every level and the radio front has been the only non-participant thus far. Maybe I am just greedy but I want Santana like success here! Radio is the key to that.

No radio support ? WTF?

I'm almost getting sick of hearing it on the radio, and I don't listen to that much radio. I've heard it at least once a day for the past few weeks.
But that's just Irish radio coverage.

If he's not getting radio coverage in the US it's probably down to clear channel, and I wouldn't be surprised - after the things he's said about them over the past few years they probably hate him.

Oook! EMC Funk Radio Celibate, Mushroom, Canopy, Arse Gravy.

I smell a rat

The p tour promoter is concerts west which happens to be

a rival of clear channel.

I think what clear channel is doin is illegal


we need to start a partition drive to send the story to the media


This is agiant FCC rules. Yhey r blocking out him because
his concert isnt promoted by clear channel

You're right about Clear Channel. They were pursuing Prince as late as the February 2004 Fillmore shows. Their representatives showed up at the Fillmore to make final proposals for the tour. Representatives from Concerts West/AEG and Another Planet Entertainment also showed up to make their bids.

Clear Channel lost the tour at the 11th hour...and, to look at it from their point of view, why SHOULD they play Prince's music, when airplay will only beef up the concert sales of their competitor, Concerts West/AEG? I guess bizness is bizness...

It all comes down to guaranteed money. Prince took the best guaranteed money financial offer for the tour, and didn't worry about the Clear Channel radio giant. He makes much more money out of touring than album sales, so I guess he looked out for his best interest.

I wish Prince would have taken the Clear Channel deal and used them for radio strength, but that's easy for me to say. I guess If I were in his shoes, I probably would have done the same thing. Half-a-million per show "in hand" - is better than two radio hits in the bush.

Temptation said:

I"ll add my two cents onto what Temptation and OM said, namely Temp's "would you rather be rich or famous?".

It's one thing to be famous. Prince already is (could be more, but stick with me here...) rfom his past days, but that doesn't allow freedom for his own creativity in projects. Say for instance he took the offer from Clear Channel, which would have clearly given him exposure. That doesn't necessarily turn into sales. It would, however, create a demand for more radio material in the next release. Maybe he doesn't want to do that. His most recent releases have pretty much proven that he wants to spread his chops out over different genres without care for airplay. You can't do this when you're on top of the charts and expect to please the casual listener.

Since he took the road less travelled with this deal, he gets a substantial amount of finance from this tour. This will allow him to do what he wants/plans with Paisley Park (if there are plans), fund side release via the club, get NPG Records closer to being more of a self contained entity so as not to rely so heavily on P&D deals.

All in all, I'm glad he took this route, and I'm saying that from an independent and finanically stable view.