I'm listening to Rhonda Smith's CD right now and the song "Be Careful What You Wish For" reminds me of all the complaints last year about the club and downloads, and how actual CD's would be much better. (Those folks who did not have any, or poor (56K), internet access had a legitimate concern.) But I do miss the downloads, of which there were plenty in year 1, not only for content, but also for the monthly "surprise" factor.

So for those people who are bashing the NPGMC and painting a picture of them not listening to us, the customer, I would think again. If we get 4 CD's...then that was the deal in terms of "new" music CD's. And I do believe it was stated to be "at least 4". Of course it could be more, and I doubt it will be less.

As for the CD's "advertised" in the back of the ONA book (thanks Dorthy Parker ) and the website...these were not hard and fast promises. What happened to the "Witness 2 the Prosecution" CD mentioned during the NPG chats? Prince has a myriad of ideas, however, bringing those ideas to fruition is another matter all together. Being that he, for lack of a better term, micro-manages, it is difficult to bring all of these ideas to fruition when anyone, let alone Prince, has so many "irons in the fire" so to speak. All this without mentioning his current tour, composing new music and having a personal life.

I plan on renewing my membership, because I am in for the long haul. That's just me though. I am hoping, and sending positive NRG to the universe for everything to fall into place and work out for everyone, or the majority of members anyway. That's my 2 cents...Peace! Live 4 Love

4 brand new cds. Thats what people were promised & thats what they are getting. Doesn't matter what titles were listed in the back of a program - everyone is getting 4 brand new cds. NPGMC covered their bases.

I was (and still am) all in favor of 4 CDs rather than monthly downloads. It would have been nice to have those 4 CDs sent out regularly every quarter (but that's just a minor quibble). As long as NPGMC fulfill their promises by Feb I will be MORE than happy to sign up for another year.

I don't even mind if we don't get exactly the 4 CDs mentioned in the ONA tourbook. As we all know, Prince changes his mind constantly about his releases, and I think quite rightly should have the freedom to update or change the CDs, as long as what we do recieve is in the spirit of the initial agreement. It's just that at the moment there is some concern that NPGMC will send out ONA..Live! as part of our membership and consider this as completing their obligations because it's a 3CD set.

IF this occurs (and it IS only an 'if') then that would clearly not be in the 'spirit' of our membership agreement, and most of us would feel cheated (and therefore, probably not rejoin in 2003). But like I said, this is all just 'concerns' and 'ifs' at the moment, there's still plenty of time for Prince/NPGMC to come through and make us all happy.

Yeah - exactly. Problem is some people seem to be letting their concerns overpower their ability to reason. Ain't no getting thru to them. They are ready to throw the baby out with the bath water.

no ZaZa, do not attack those who have legitimate complaints about how the NPGMC is being run.

the NPGMC is clearly not adequately addressing members' concerns or even supplying members with information. it is unprofessional in the extreme.

it's hard to imagine how they could do a worse job. no information, no product.

i repeat do not blame the victim. members have ALREADY PAID and deserve AT LEAST information about release dates.

obviously

ps: i'm one of those who prefers the CDs to the downloads - that is i will when we finally get them

XxAxX said:

I don't care either way: downloads or CDs. But I will say this: the club felt much more "interactive" last year with the downloads...I had a reason to visit the club site every month and felt like more attention was being paid to members last year.

While the 4 CDs idea is fine with me, what is *not* fine is if three of those four CDs are available at retail outlets. The downloads were cool last year because they really were exclusive. If you weren't a member last year, it can be tough to find "SexMeSexMeNot" or "Jukebox with a Heartbeat" if you don't know where to look.

Doozer said:

Melody said:

Melody said:

[/quote]

Legitimate complaint: I paid $100, and eight months into the year-long membership I have received One Night Alone (piano/voice CD) and the news that the next (and *possibly*) last part of the promise of 4 new CDs will be fulfilled by a three disc set that I do not need to be a member of the club to get. Simple math...that's $25 for ONA piano and $75 for ONA live, which will be available to the public for surely much less.

If the ONA live set completes this year's 4-cd promise, then I think that's a legitimate complaint.

And, the fact that I was partly enticed into joining by e-mails from the club listing CD titles that now seem to be toast...another legitimate complaint.

Yes, I also did join to support Prince and "real music by real musicians," but the club is not a charity. $100 is not my in-kind gift to them. I won't be deducting it from my taxes or anything. So, expecting things in return, especially things they put in writing themselves, is not unreasonable.

I will, however, reserve final judgement and withhold a decision to re-join unti the end of the year. I will concede that all complaints are null and void until the end of the club year -- anything can happen.

Doozer said:

Actually, you have also received access to all presales for preferred seating for all performances of the One Nite Alone Tour, as well as access to tickets for this year's Celebration, access to pre-concert soundchecks and aftershows, and even access to the admittedly limited Premium Members Retail Section of the NPGMC website.

If you did not avail yourself of these other benefits, then it likely doesn't feel like this was a reasonable membership. But is the NPGMC to blame? I don't think so. The membership was never intended to only include 4 new CD's. It is a package of benefits. The more of the benefits that you take advantage of, the more satisfied you are likely to be.

Although my membership gave me access to ALL of the ONA ticket presales, I attended just one of the ONA performances, and it was the best concert that I've ever experienced by Prince (or ANYONE ELSE for that matter). Because of my membership, I was given access to seats that I would never have been able to acquire otherwise. The soundcheck and aftershow in L.A. were PRICELESS.

Now do I wish that I had received my ONA Live Box Set two or three months ago? Of course! But my disappointment with the "delay" does not constitute a breach of contract by the NPGMC.

I just hope that all of the complaining doesn't discourage Prince from offering his devoted fans future early access to his new music and exclusive access to the best seating at his live performances. Count me in for 2003.

Bet yo bottom dollar that when one compares year 1 to year 2.. we will have gotten OODLES of music compared to this year.. by far..

look what we got? a ravein2 cd, montly downloads, the ahdios, videos.. just stuff all over the place, every month.. we are getting a live cd and a rehashed piano cd(which we already got) that already was ashes by the time it came 2 our door, we already had most of the songs..

and so what if he sends us Xenophobia studio (thats a big IF) and maybe one final download to close the club, after the 3cd live set.. the jammies were flowing from my speakers last year, and this year, they are collecting dust, or npg operators and using them as a coaster.. either way. have at it..

and the soundcheck experiance was great, and glad eye got the chance, but its not like he invited me up without any ticket cash in his pocket, and one more thing.. eye'm thinking he wont tour next year, thats just a theory tho.
[This message was edited Wed Oct 9 20:56:06 PDT 2002 by Sdldawn]

be sure to save these posts so next year you won't have to retype them. You can just replace "CDs" with whatever they do next year. That way you'll be much more efficient in your unending dissatisfaction.

TheMax said:

Yes, I'm bellyaching, but I'm not saying anything about a breech of contract. I did indeed make it to an ONA show and got access to the soundcheck and 2nd row seats in a small venue -- all beyond fantastic. But like I said before, my $100 was not a charitable gift, and I'm still looking forward to the other benefits of the year that they told us all about up front. Concert perks were part of it, and CDs were also a part of it.

it's seems these THREADs listed under NPGMC r better than the COMMON threads we used 2 have & this is 1 of my BIGGEST concers dealing with Prince & The NPGMC. as he mentioned we r The New Power Generation & people who r & rn't part of The NPGMC have their reasons but lets keep our PRIORITIES in order.

NPGMC gave us what we wanted & more. un4tuenately 4 me eye'm GREEDY & eye'd like more music than i have in my CD case but eye'll just have 2 wait & see what comes 2 my DoorStep. it's been Fun so far & as KFUNK said "i'm in it 4 the Long Haul". eye agree with him on that & so am eye, so am eye.


in it 4 the Long Haul...

xenophobia said:

Eye'd rather retype it, simply because it gets on ure nerves... hehehe..


cry baby cry, make ure mother sigh