MUSIC
Pop’s Virtual Royalty
Prince once ruled the Web. Now he's got to step it up.

By Seth Colter Walls | NEWSWEEK
Published Mar 14, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 23, 2009


http://www.newsweek.com/id/189242


Prince has always wanted to be your everything. On his first hit single, back in 1979, the R&B Romeo declared his intention to become not only your lover, but "your mother and your sister, too." The public compromised by letting him become pop's polyamorous changeling. During his "Purple Rain" guitar solos, Prince could be our Jimi. When funking it up with "Kiss," he was a falsetto-voiced James Brown. He even showed an affinity for Joni Mitchell–style lyricism, giving her a shout-out on "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker." So when Prince ditched his record company in favor of self-distribution during the '90s, anticipation ran high. Since he had been battling over the right to release as many albums as he wished—instead of a measly one per year—the upside was implicit: Prince was going to tear it up on the Web. There were rumors of unreleased, would-be hits, deliciously out-there funk sessions and hundreds of other Princely experiments that could finally hit the marketplace. That treasure trove never fully materialized. His online "music clubs" came and went with each new Prince recording, but they were frustratingly uneven. Worse, the best new tracks came saddled with antipiracy technology that didn't play nice with your iPod. Prince's last site went dark mere months after charging for "lifetime" memberships.

Now Prince—the first marquee musician to flirt with the Web—wants to go on another virtual date. While he is partnering with Target to sell a new three-CD set for the recession-proof price of $11.98, Prince will also offer subscriptions to his new site, Lotusflow3r.com, for a not-so-recession-proof $77 per year. With the physical albums available so cheaply at a bigbox retailer, you'd be forgiven for wondering whether the site could possibly be worth that much. More important than the economic rationale, perhaps, is whether Prince can use the Web to advance any artistic payoff.

Prince's counterintuitive move to charge top dollar for a digital home that duplicates music available on CDs is a new strategy for inducing hard-core fans to pay more. Nine Inch Nails tried the reverse in 2008 by offering multiple MP3 downloads for virtually nothing, and then enticing fans to pony up as much as $300 for deluxe, fetish-object box sets. While Radiohead's own pay-what-you-wish MP3 gambit is cited as a revolution, it's often forgotten that their site also sold a premium box-set version of "In Rainbows" for $81. Even smaller acts are getting creative. Cult country wit Robbie Fulks recently released 50 new songs—a Prince-like deluge—exclusively via his Web site for $35. Fulks isn't sure whether he'll release the music on CD, but says this is not just an eco-nomic experiment. By writing many more songs than could fit on a standard disc, Fulks says he was trying to discover new musical ideas that might not have occurred "under more stringent self-censorship." (His plan worked.)

As other artists learn to harness the Web for creative reasons as well as financial ones, Prince can no longer skate on his reputation for being pop's first online mover. Scott Addison Clay, the artist's latest Web developer, gave NEWSWEEK AN advance tour of the Web site, and it seems better designed than Prince's past efforts. The music, by the way, sounds exciting. "Boom" mixes psychedelia with funk rhythms and orgiastic guitar. When Prince deigns to adopt modern fads, such as Auto Tune–like pitch-bending in the song "Chocolate Box," he innovates by harmonizing with the digital sounds in a way T-Pain could never accomplish. But all that mere music can be had at Target for less than $12 starting March 29. Ultimately, the site, which is set to debut before the Target street date, will have to thrive apart from those first three albums. Clay says future plans for Lotus flow3r.com include a hybrid documentary-music video. But the deal-sealer, he concedes, is the potential for streaming live, VIP-only concerts from Prince's Los Angeles mansion. "There could be a live chat going on with members watching a concert, and Prince could actually play requests," Clay says. He also claims a colleague has organized 10 albums of old Prince music never released in any form. Should there exist an all-tuba record Prince recorded half out of his mind back in 1988, now he's got a place to let it toot—if only he can commit to digitizing all his diamonds and pearls.

first!!

LondonStyle said:

No one will complain about the membership fee if these 10 albums make their way on there....we can dream of course, but it probably won't happen.

blacksweat said:

Well 10 albums make $77 /£54 look good....but that's an IF .... maybe he could play safe and charge less for membership and a cost for each new Album/CD that may or may not be released ?
[Edited 3/14/09 11:59am]

LondonStyle said:

If the site is going live on the 24th, they need to send an email out and let everyone know what they'll get for their $77.

Just release the fucking ten cd box set at Target, put some great pictures and lyrics, great packaging and charge fifty bucks for it! I will suck Prince's toes..lol

i gotta feed my kids princey-so 77 dollars for something we are all gonnan get for free anyways on the net?

nah thanks
[Edited 3/14/09 12:34pm]

10 lps worth ??? prayers have been answerered

!0 cds of un-released material and live streams of concerts?

LondonStyle said:

I find it difficult to believe any artist would release ten albums of unreleased songs along with live broadcasts, video documentaries, archive concerts - not to mention three new albums - for $77. I'm just judging by precident and past experience here. If these compilations exist, we'll have to pay. And pay I probably will. Gimmie that ten minute Kirky J reggae remix of Tell Me How U Wanna B Done.

P2daP said:

it won't happen

the streaming concerts will happen maybe 4 times in one year if you are lucky. the unreleased music is the bait to get you there. this guy really shouldn't play with the fans by saying that...now even if Prince gives you a few unreleased gems people will bitch about not getting 10 albums worth...

the moral of the story is, wait until you see feedback from members on here before you plunk down $77 so you actually know what you are in for.

Live stream on the 24th - Boom

Maybe they are thinking that's a good price for people who probably have a lot of the unreleased music anyway ...

I would go ahead and buy it, if its a nice box set with photos, credits background info etc even though I may have everything unreleased that is circulating

Number23 said:

10 albums-worth of old, never-released Prince material. In the terms of the membership contract?

He "could" take requests. He "could" have video streaming...

DaddySmooth said:

second !!

77.00 for a bunch of could bes, may bes and potentiallys!

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

We're of like mind on this issue.

blacksweat said:

I'm on this one with u !!!

By the way, a lot of writers take knocks here when their work gets posted. I think the author did a solid job on this article. He obviously has more than a fleeting familiarity with both Prince's musical work and web efforts.

hear, hear.

i don't believe a 10 cd set will be released in a 77 dollar yearly subscription..


sorry, don't believe that

Sdldawn said:

Neither do I unless its the stuff already released such as the 4 cd set Crystal Ball and Choclolate Invasion, NEWS material.

Defintitely not a 10 cd set of never released material.

Hell, I wouldn't believe a 5 cd set.

xlr8r said:

Prince knows that his old unreleased stuff is worth more than that. 10 cd set of of his vault material? thats the definitive collection for any prince fan, he is well aware of what he holds in that.. that won't be touted from some subscription site.


oh well, hopefully something will come out of it

Sdldawn said:

A 5 cd set of some material we havent even heard of including titles could be sold. Even if it's material from his much scoffed at 90's ooutput. They say he has like 5000 songs so 5 cd's of unknown songs would be but a pebble in his vault but I dont think he would even do that. Why, I do not know.

xlr8r said:

Discussions of "the vault" border on the apocryphal at this site, replete with estimates and guesses about recording degradation.

It'd be one thing if the speculations in this article and on this board were about an artist with a uniformly harmonious relationship with his fan base and with his own older (more prized) material.

Prince, for all of his current media deals and implied promises through his employee quoted in this article, still has a really spotty track record on delivering. He's still a bad guitarist, though.

it makes perfect sense to charge 11.98 for the 3 cd set,
making it very affordable to the masses

and then charge us hard core Prince junkies
the $77 for the site...
I'll pay it though
gots 2 have my fix!!!

ThreadBare said:

Okay lets say he has 500 then. Better? More practical? So 5 cd's ten songs each? 50 songs. Not too much still.

Looking forward to it.

xlr8r said:

Doesn't arrest my doubts, but I'd love him to prove them foolish. Time will tell.

P2daP said:

DON´T take everything 4 granted... especially from Prince....