Hi,

ive been a long time Prince, but for some unknown reason i still havent joined the club. Ive heard so much about all the stuff u can get b4 its released etc, and thats cool. what i wanna know is can u buy all these post warner bros albums from the NPGMC. im talking about

1) NPG Albums Exodus & Gold Nigga
2) Crystall Ball 5 disc edition (i was fortunate 2 get the 4 disc but no Kamasutra)
3) (i think its) the Xenophobia album??? where all the songs start with X - was this relased or do i have my info wrong????
4) ive heard that there have been all these "WNPG Radio shows" and also 1-off songs like Cybersingle etc - are these always available??? or are they available then they are gone????

theres so much that i want 2 get, and i was hoping that i could get it all from the Music Club... if not, any suggestions as to where else can i get this stuff from?

thanks

KMXE

You do not need to be a member to see the music that's available for purchase at the club. There are some CDs available in the retail section of http://www.npgmusicclub.com and the rest of the available music is in the Musicology download store, where you can purchase rights-managed WMA files with the ability to burn songs to a CD using Windows Media Player for PC. (If you're a Mac user, you'll have to do some more work to get your club downloads to work in iTunes or get them burned to a CD. But, it is possible to do it.)

So, visit the club and check out the Musicology download store and the "ahdio" section of the club's retail store.

To answer your specific questions...

1) No, Exodus & Goldnigga are not available through the club. I would suspect that they never will be, considering that Prince has done away with cursing and likely will never take the time to offer "clean" versions of these albums. Try eBay if you want those original discs.
2) No, Crystal Ball is not available, and likely never will be at the club for the same reason as #1. Try eBay or used record stores.
3) Xpecation is the name of the "X" album you're thinking of. It's an all-instrumental album that was originally "Xenophobia," but the title track was omitted from the final release. XPectation contains 9 tracks, about 40:53 running time. It's only available as a download and has never been officially released on CD.
4) NPG Ahdio shows sometimes pop up at the club in the "Glam Slam" room on the weekends, but those are only accessible by club members and they're meant for online listening only, although with some trickery you can save the audio to your computer. Unfortunately, the Glam Slam room offers tracks in crummy quality (92 kbps mono). And, one-off songs are a bit of a thing of the past at the club (for free, anyway), although a few months ago a couple new tracks were played in the Glam Slam room for members only. But no, "Cybersingle" is nowhere to be found on the club's site.

There are many other internet-only releases available in the download store, including the albums "The Chocolate Invasion" and "The Slaughterhouse," which are basically compilations of internet-only tracks released in 2001-2002. Also available are virtual b-sides to the Musicology singles, including "United States of Division," "Magnificent," and "Silver Tongue." Live single tracks are available as well. The Rainbow Children and the instrumental N.E.W.S. albums are also available for download, but if you want those I'd recommend visiting a record store -- you can find the actual CDs and won't be stuck with rights-protected WMA files.

Singles are 99 cents for non-members, 77 cents for members. Albums are generally $9.99 for non-members and $7.77 for members.

If you're thinking of buying a number of downloads, your $25 club membership will pay for itself and will get you access to other perks, although those perks are a bit unknown at this point until the next Prince project surfaces.

thanks for the detailed response!!! now i just gotta find the money for everything that i can get my hands on.....

kmxe said:

I'd recommend starting slow with the Musicology download store. Drop 99 cents on one of the single tracks, and give yourself a chance to download the file and make sure everything works for you before going hog wild and purchasing tons of tracks.