Um, you can legally buy The War, Xpectation and Night Alone (Piano) on CD. They may cost a bunch, but they are official CD releases that you can pick up used from some individuals parting with them.

amyhr said:

ya know, sandra bernhard of all people is doing something really smart on her official web site.

most of her CDs and albums have gone out of print, and if you go on eBay, you'll find albums of hers like "without you i'm nothing" and "i'm your woman" going for up to $100.

she's had copies of her out-of-print albums pressed (dunno how she managed to do this legally, other than the fact that the label the records on which they were originally released is now defunct), and she has put together a few CDs of live shows and studio outtakes.

she's selling these items to her fans for between $25 - $35...pricey for a regular CD, but far less than what you'd be likely to pay on eBay.

now...if NPGMC sold a musicology download of ONA for 7.77, and sold the CD w/ original packaging for, say, half of what it's going for on eBay....what would the reaction be?

of course, NPGMC making the CD available would bring down the auction value on eBay, so there's that factor to keep in mind.

and also keep in mind that i don't necessarily think what works for sandra bernhard and her fan base would work for prince and his fan base.

HolyRiver25 said:

Xpectation has never been officially released on CD, though there are boots of it being sold as official. United States Of Division has been released on CD as a B-Side to Cinnamon Girl. Controversy "Live" is also the CD Single for sale with the "Hat Box" on NPGMC.

.
[Edited 3/28/05 16:56pm]

Anxiety said:

ONA is going for $100 on ebay!?

I still have a sealed copy.

Well, I'll have to double check I guess, but my friend got an official copy of Xpectation somehow.

squirrelgrease said:

tackam said:

i dunno if it's still going for that much now that you can get the 7.77 download, but...yup. it's been going for ridiculous sums on ebay.

prodigalfan said:

Someone may have mentioned this...but that 25 buck will just get you free videos you can't DL. IMO you don't save THAT much by getting cheaper music. The membership is cool for the cheap and close concert tix. Since it seems that you are just going for the music, save your bucks. Although there are the videos.

Anxiety said:

You know, it'll prolly keep selling for a lot. If people were happy with the downloads, they would probably have gotten them on P2P rather than spend $100 on ebay. It's not like P gets any money either way. . . but then, that assumes some level of logical thinking, and I've only been frustrated and saddened when I've held expectations like that.

TheBigBang said:

I agree that he ought to offer discs. If he were an unknown or something (like Wing from Southpark this past week) mp3 downloads are the way to go. I am sure she sold a hell of a lot of downloads this past week. It wasn't like people we gonna go out and get a cd from her...a few would have. But how easy was it for me to look her up and listen to music.

Prince has a different following. We like to own his stuff in our hands. Yes, We'll take any ol thing he puts out in any format, but most of us like owningf. He should offer both. Even better would be if you get one...you can have the other cheaply. Or offer the hard copies and you get the soft copies for free. The trend is movig towards digital audio media. It will be the main way you listen to music in the future.

P is on the cutting edge with this technology, he should though give a hard disk option, if you wanted that.

tackam said:

Placing limitations on certain releases creates a demand. I've paid for the expensive hard2find releases time to time and I've also profited a couple times. I've noticed sooner or later they meet the demand, but if your in the game and start collecting everything your gonna pay $100 for a strange shaped box/a book/cd/tshirt. The limitations from time to time make people spend!! But hey, I make good $$ trading a few stocks a month so this money spent is all fun for me. Obviosly limitations are placed on certain releases to create the demand of not being able to have it all!!

tackam said:

For me it's more of actually having the music. If it's good I'd pay money for it. I heard ONA wasn't all that, so I never persued it. Id get the mp3 version for 7.77 though...and that's a maybe.

superspaceboy said:

it's definitely worth 7.77.

it's worth 9.99, even.

if you like prince's joni-inspired work, then this is something you should have.

man....i can't get in either now with all those graphics...it is like my computer freeezes up everytime i try to log on.....SUCK!!

I'm just happy to see the videos for "Willing and Able" and "Same December" finally in Cyberclips. Those are two of his most entertaining videos. Willing and Able, the video version of the song has a great arrangement that sounds different from the album. I'd love to have this version in mp3 form. And "Same December" is actually a kick ass video.

jtgillia said:

i'd loooove to have a really nice sounding mp3 version of that 'willing and able' recording. i'm nuts about that video, not to mention 'willing and able' is one of my favorite prince tunes.

Anxiety said:

She can probably do this becasue

- she is the artist that made the recording. It's mostly just her voice.
- She has the money to press such things
- and she probably had the recordings in her possession
- and could either know the people who had "rights" to it or has permission to do so, since the company is now defunct.

does anyone know what song is on the main page before you enter in your ID?

(went to see if he did know the song)..Glass Cutter??? Whas that?
[Edited 3/28/05 20:32pm]

superspaceboy said:

glass cutter.

realizing I did miss something a bit back. Why is it the thing I want...I cannot have?

Wait..let me guess...it's supposed to be the virtual b-side of Million Days...that never happened, right?

superspaceboy said:

nah, it was some kinda kooky tour-end special in the glam slam room or somesuch...it was paired with something called 'san jose jam', which was kind of an unremarkably amorphous noodling based on DMSR.

superspaceboy said:

Anx got it right...Glass Cutter and San Jose Jam were streamed in the Glam Slam room on NPGMC on the weekend of October 30/31 last year. And personally, I'm rather fond of Glass Cutter...you should hear the whole song, because the snippet on the log-in page cuts off before he gets to the really fun lyrics!

CandaceS said:

x 3 as SSB realizes that he had said song in hand. Wait I even played that didn't I? I thought it was silver tounge I thought it sounded different. I'm a baaaad prince fan.

superspaceboy said:

Thing with a hard-disk option, it costs more money for Prince to put out. Prince can't go out and press just the one and get a single cover sleeve made-up everytime an order comes in.

Things like that are only manufactured in bulk orders - Prince would have to gauge the interest and if there was enough to cover the manufacturing costs and order just enough copies pressed More than likely he'd end up with a load sitting around in a warehouse somewhere and would basically lose money on each unsold one. Then he'd have to get rid of them by giving them away free with some later album release, like he did with ONA and the ONA Live boxset.

Of course you could say, well we'll be happy with just a blank cd-r done with a basic burner and no packaging, but would fans really be happy with that? No, they'd be complaining and asking why there was no artwork for it. And if you download the tracks, you can burn it yourself anyway.

One of the purposes of the club is to release music without all the fan-fare and production hassles and expense of a regular CD, and you can't do that if you mirror every download with an 'old-fashioned' CD release.

I think Prince does a decent job over-all of balancing the 'virtual' songs with hard-copy releases.

squirrelgrease said:

I should have clarified by specifying "Shiny discs I can go into my local Best Buy and purchase". As was mentioned, Xpectation was never officially pressed. One Night Alone was a members only, and the War CD was also not generally available on CD (his website only? along w/Controversy "Live"). I haven't been able to find the Cinnamon Girl import in the places I frequent (which, admittedly, aren't very impressive, and no on-line shopping for this boy...)

"Satisfied" in under two minutes - not me

Just downloaded Satisfied, and it fades off before it even hits the 2 minute mark... That to me is a soundbite, a teaser, but not a real song...

Well, I guess you can't complain for 77 cents...

Anybody else not satisfied with this?

Krid said:

this really should have been in the reflection room or in cyberclips or somewhere that members could access the clip for free. what are we supposed to do with this? it's not exactly something we can enjoy. now, if it had been the entire NAACP performance as an audio clip, THAT woulda been something. even though there were parts of it i didn't care for, overall it was a memorable performance and certainly deserving of a keepsake.

ah well.

metalorange said:

I see your point. I do think it's a simple case of supply and demand. The albums you say end up unsold is because he had to make quite a few for distribution purposes. It doesn't cost that much to make a cd. It costs a lot for packaging and artwork. But I think a silver backed cd with an insert, back cd art and face plate is pretty simply done. To do it cheaply, one would need the mechanics to press on site. Not cheap, but certainly pays off over time.

I think that he can guage demand by getting pre orders and make "limited" edition pressings to handle the initial demand. If it sells....make more and open the door again to buyers. A pressing of 1 cd for every 2 members of the club and announcing that the first people to get it, get it. Then if there is a demand over the pressing...press that many more and a little bit in the next one. And inbetween pressings put a "sold out" sign on the cd offer. Make it limited...sell it out...create a buzz...make more.

I recall that the Beastie Boys had something cool when they did their anthology CD. You could log on and make your own 2 disc set of your favorite tunes. I'm not sure how it faired or what format it came in...but it sounded like a neat idea and certainly doable. MP3.com had the technology to burn CD's on demand too.

You know, I was very plesently suprised when I came home Sunday Night to find
all the change and additions to the Site.....except I didn't have time to
go through it all then. Really, in my opinion, we shouldn't complain.....as of late, this is the biggest Overhaul/Addition, we've been given in some time, and all at one time.

I haven't found it to be any slower either. If it is, it is worth the wait, I think. It took awhile for the Downloads, but I think there are obvious reasons for that.

I mean, I couldn't even get a used version of a 5 Disc Crystal Ball off of Ebay for less then $60. Downloaded it from him for less then $40, and it will still cost me less then $50 to back it up on Disk.

Somedy bought an XBOX!!!