L4OATheOriginal said:

You were being ironic, right? Since he became free 2 do what I wanna he's released less albums than when he was with Warner

btw when I say 'albums' I mean hard CDs, not downloads
[Edited 3/15/09 15:00pm]

"Charlie Brown, do you own your masters?"

So for basically what boils down to less than $6.50 a month... I'm getting the three new albums, new videos from the albums, concert footage (like Coachella which people have already seen), the potential for other un-released music and videos, etc etc etc

$6.50 from my monthly entertainment funds.....

Hmm.. Prince's site or a bucket of popcorn at the movies.... hard choice.

Guys, it is just supply and demand. If you don't value access to possible streaming music, concerts, videos at $77 then don't shell out the money. The NPGMusiclub was more than worth the money that we paid. I made that money back just in Ticketmaster fees I didn't have to pay to go to his concerts. Oh, and we also got the best seats in the house. I'm not expecting 10 albums worth of previously unreleased music, but if he tours, I'm gonna take advantage of the pre-sales and that alone makes it worth $77.

ThreadBare said:

omg.

As i live in Zambia where our internet speed is less than great, I dont see how this site will even work here. Streaming? Forget it. Lots of flash? Forget it. Downloading songs? Forget it unless it is possible to use a download manager that picks up where the download last stopped.

As for concerts? Well.....

So 77 bucks may not be much, but it is a lot when you cant get anything back for it except a flash prgress bar... 2%... 4%... 7%.. etc etc.

No Target stores for several thousands of miles either so thats pointless. Looks like some trusty ol' torrent sites and hours of downloading for me... And thats it.

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

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.

77 dollars is not THAT much money for one of your favorite artists. I really don't understand all the complaining. 1 million tickets have been sold in days for concerts from an artist who hasn't released an album in many years and hasn't performed live in more than a decade. Do people really know what they are going to get for that money ??

rwn said:

I do understand why people that are true fans would not join at this point with the info given. You can get the 3cds at Target. No BIG tour has been announced. Now if they announce that 4-5 cds from the Vault are going to be available for the $77 you can bet that masses of fans will be joining.

10 cds of material were mentioned in an article and it means nothing until something is officially announced.

rwn said:

I do understand why people that are true fans would not join at this point with the info given. You can get the 3cds at Target. No BIG tour has been announced. Now if they announce that 4-5 cds from the Vault are going to be available for the $77 you can bet that masses of fans will be joining.

10 cds of material were mentioned in an article and it means nothing until something is officially announced.

Unfortunately as a die-hard Prince fan I cannot currently afford his $77 membership fee and won't pay it. Too bad he isn't charging less. He'd have probably gotten new fans on-board and increased membership. This is yet another "counter-intuitive" Prince decision that makes me scratch my head.

Everybody has the right to join something or not. I was talking about the complaining over 77 dollars. Are all these posters here really homeless and depending on charity ? I think not.

realm said:

Exactly.
It's not the expense many people are "complaining" about, rather the value. What will $77 get us?
Until we know definitively what that is, it doesn't make sense to fork over $77 for possibilities.

Everybody has the right to join something or not. I was talking about the complaining over 77 dollars. Are all these posters here really homeless and depending on charity ? I think not.

rwn said:

I don't understand your point at all. Why should I throw money at him without knowing for what. This isn't a cult and prince aint my guru. He's an artist who wants to sell products to us. But first I want to know what he's intended to sell, then I can decide if it's worth the money.

Prince has got to come on with it and stop bullshittin' his fans. One minute, he's anti-record labels and then you look up and he's signed to one! Now, he's shuffled back to the Web as well as signed to distribute the CD at Target. It makes you wonder what side of the fence is he straddling on?