I wish I had a reason to feel like I would want to visit the site on a daily basis. I feel like it kinda shot its wad for a while, then maybe at some point in a few weeks we'll get another wave of stuff, then more silence. Right now I feel like I picked the bones clean on that site.

Anxiety said:

Bet it took ya 10 minutes!

Rorywan said:

i went back once when the full choco box video was posted. after that...what else is there? the video globe is chock full of stuff diehard fans have seen a kajillion times. i don't need a "holy crap!!!" moment every day, but a semi-regular sign of life would be nice.

What happens once the LF theme has run its course and we are, say, one-two years further down the road... reboot and charge fees for an all-new site?
[Edited 3/30/09 13:00pm]

Anxiety said:

well there is now 40 thumbnails now! it seems there are 2 new pics to look at someone has had 2 much botox???

Copycat said:

well, prince worked the 3121 theme well after he was on to a new album project, so maybe he intends on keeping the lotusflow3r concept going for a while, who knows...

where is that youtube demonstration of the site?

I'll toss in my $0.02. I have been checking out the main portal for weeks now. The occasional new item piqued my interest, but after a while it just seemed like a fancy flash site that had some streaming audio. Yes, the chance to listen to varying new tracks is definitely cool... I personally just don't like sitting in front of my computer to sample music. I find it hard to even use a great site like Pandora on a regular basis.

I was getting the feeling that there would be a lot of hype to whip us up into a frenzy about the site's proper grand opening. The sign in for e-mail updates seemed assuring (at least I'd know right when the site was live). Then one update was vague... turning out to be a declaration about something happening on March 24... hopefully going live. I had the feeling that there would be puzzles as part of this "Purple Universe". I also had the sneaking suspicion that the site would be flash heavy to accomodate the intense graphics; I generally dislike flash heavy sites as the graphics and animations can be slow to load, even on a maxed out computer.

Okay, now it's March 24. The site looks live because the link under the ticket says, "Already a member? Log in." But what am I supposed to enter in the fields on the ticket? I was feeling a little impatient and immediately went to the org. The first answer said 1986 and Los Angeles. I plug that in and the ability to register presents itself. I was annoyed that I was required to solve 2 puzzles to gain the access to register... one to click on the right image to bring up the ticket and a second for the fields.

Alright. Now I'm reading the TOS and general info. I have a little trepidation over the download once and one copy for music and download once and no copy for video... but no biggie, really, because any technical issue that would necessitate multiple downloads would basically be allowed. The site was cheaper than I expected. I read the NPGMC was 100 USD for a yearly membership, so 77 USD didn't seem outrageous at all. I was a little intrigued about a FREE t-shirt so I quickly decided to sign up.

I sign up and I'm told at the end that the FREE t-shirt (which likely won't fit) will require S&H. Come on! 77 bucks with the t-shirt as sign up early bonus and you can't give me a truly free shirt? That's pretty lame.

I get into the site no problem. I even got to use my .org handle. After navigating a bit I can see that I'm supposed to explore and unlock everything like a video game. I thought maybe this could be cool, but this generally tries my patience. It's easy to see what I can and can't do as the cursor changes from a pointer to a hand. Click on the hand. Easy.

Here's the part where common sense set in. The site is overloaded. Somethings just won't load. It's the inaugural run... of course it's busy and I should come back later. Especially to try the downloads.

Over the next couple of days I come back and explore. The graphics are okay (I like the polished design... I'm just not super keen on the art direction... I don't hate the art direction... it's just not really my bag). Some gimmicks are cool (like the cursor plucking the guitar strings in the MPLSound area). Basically there are 3 areas, one for each album and a semi-hidden video area. I expected the video to look like ass, as my computer meets the requirements, but a snazzy new video card with lots of RAM and a powerful processor would be necessary to really enjoy the content... I can't really watch any streaming video as it hiccups on my old mac. When the videos played like said assed-ness I wasn't surprised, nor bothered.

As I'm going back to the site over a couple of days, I keep checking in with the org. I think it's kind of lame that there are so many technical difficulties and no ostensible help from Losusflow3r.com. I think a lot of this could have been avoided. There should have been some area of the registration prompting new members to view the site in particular browsers according to which platform they were using (Mac or PC). An instruction window should also have popped up when the user clicked on a download. It should have had platform specific suggestions to help avoid the partial download confusion. The later addition of the file sizes was a nice touch, however.

I doesn't bother me that the site navigation was unintuitive, that's by design, but I do think that technical issues should have been more thought out like my suggestions above. A FAQ or technical forum should have been present. It can be very frustrating when you already had difficulty registering and then you're not sure how the site works (is it broken? is it just not working with your account? is it just not working on your computer?). People should be put at ease after they plopped down a decent chunk of change for a game-like website.

Before I heard bad news about an old friend I was very excited to buy tickets. "Hell yeah!" I thought since I live in L.A. But, extenuating circumstances demanded that I travel up north. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a shot a tickets, but there was a good chance there were already sold out and I would have been in the dark about how I was getting charged and how I'd get my tickets. Again, my member friendly explanations should have been on the site and included in confirmation e-mails.

Now onto the credit card part. I don't like this at all. My sign up didn't seem secure, and apparently I have to have a card at all times to keep my membership valid. I don't trust the security of the site (any site at all and this site in particular). I don't like keeping info on any site (even Amazon lets you delete info after you've made an order... it's just there for your convenience). I also don't like the idea that I could easily explore a ticket option, only to get accidentally billed. This also sucks, because what if I wanted to give an annual subscription as a gift? I can think of 3 friends that I would be tempted to gift this to, but apparently it's not possible.

More about the content. I've talked about the graphics, but I thought I'd go over functionality. I like that each album has a jukebox of the whole thing (even though, like I said, I'm not into streaming audio for myself), images, and lyrics. It looks nice and it works very well.

Now I didn't have any real problems with the downloads, they actually worked pretty well. I chose WAV and got the best results with Safari (it even unzipped itself). I didn't get the membership for the albums, but I wanted to see how well something like this would work (this will be a make-or-break deal for most people). I made CD-R's of the albums and they've been playing in my car and home for the last few days.

After more investigation about the video, it seems it's just ass all the way around. It doesn't seem to depend on traffic or the end user's computer. I haven't been a rabid fan for very long, so many of those videos I've never seen. I'd like to see them. But they just don't play, can't stay in sync, and they're in the wrong aspect ratio! I figure the videos will get sussed out, but they've gotta re-render the video! 4:3 content is displayed in a 16:9 window which just makes Prince look like a hobbit!

PROS:
Attractive Site
High Quality Downloads
Lots of Album Info
Exclusive Tickets
Quickly working to fix issues

CONS:
No Credit Card Security... yikes, this is a must have
No platform specific guidelines to maximize functionality
Not much tech support
Videos are in the wrong aspect ratio!

This is a lengthy post, but we're almost done. I didn't join the site for the albums. That'd be silly. 12 USD would get me these with professional replication, artwork, liner notes, and only a fraction of the hassle.

I signed up for the hope that I'd get a chance that NPGMC members did. Lots of extra downloads, exclusive albums (both digital and packaged), and first shots at tickets.

I may be let down, but my 2 big hopes are for show tickets (I live in L.A. baby!) and re-issues of the 4 exclusive download albums that I never got a chance to get (especially in lossless WAV formats). Xpectation, C-Note, The Slaughterhouse, and The Chocolate Invasion were all made in this decade and are part of Prince's JW phase, so I don't see a reason not to re-release them. It would also be nice to re-release One Nite Alone... it's an amazing album and should be back in print.

Based on the interview that Joe Kelly conducted with the site designers, it would seem that what we've already seen is going to be it for a while.

They don't seem very familiar with Prince's material, so whatever he gives THEM will seem new & exclusive & special to THEM. Like the Syracuse Purple Rain concert, the Sacrifice of Victor, old music videos. I don't expect to see anything that most fans haven't seen before, or that hasn't been released publicly already.

As for music, they didn't seem to think there'd be new music added. The hype about 10 CDs of material... don't bet on it.

And no plans for a forum. That last thing Prince probably wants is a thread like this one on his own site.

One thinks he prefers to the be like the bird with the headphone jack--buried in the sand.

I'm open to being pleasantly surprised... but as of now, all I am really looking forward to are some concert dates in my area.

As much as i like Lotusflow3r i think we'll get some more stuff but quite how much i'm not sure, i'm sure we won't get the vault stuff that most people would give their right arm for, but after all we have paid $77 which quite alot of money,i'm in uk and i didn't sign up for the tix as i'm sure he won't play here this year but it's alot of money for 2 exclusive tracks,Here and The Morning After, and some videos not seen before Choc, C and C and Bria's, so i'm hoping for something else like unreleased tracks/ videos, after all isn't it a bit strange that on the opening weekend of his website he drops In A Dark Room With No Light and Journey To The Centre Of Your Heart live when he had so much other stuff he could have played. was it a hint to us? i hope so. is it wrong that when i'm listening to MPLS i feel guilty that i'm not listening to Lotus instead? and visa versa, i can't make up my mind which i like more.

Anxiety said:

I'm sure you noticed anyway but Cora's drumkit still had the 3121 logo on the recent Leno appearance.

KeithyT said:

that just doesn't make any kind of sense.

i was paying attention the night michael b. played on the tonight show, because i love his bass drum with the big picture of himself with a cheesy grin.

HELLO

IM NOW A MEMBER AND IK LIKE THE NEW CDS OF COURSE A LOT. THY ARE GREAT.
IK HOPE WE WILL GET 2 SEE MUCH MORE VIDEOS, CONCERT FOOTAGE AND MAYBE UNRELEASED MUSIC.FOR ME AS A STUDENT IS 77.- MUCH MONEY SO I HOPE WE WILL GET MUCH MORE IN THE FUTURE.I HOPE WE WILL SEE THINGS THAT WE NEVER SEEN BEFORE BECAUSE I HAVE ALL THE OFFICIAL DVDS AND CDS.

THANK U

I am in the UK with a three year old PC and basic broadband connection.

On day 1 I was able to download all three new albums.

Since Day 3-4, I have been able to view all the videos without glitches.

So far, I am very happy with the site and service. Any problems seem to be fixed quickly.

However, it is a 12 month subscription. We have yet to see/hear all the content yet.

I just fund the DMSR video from the lotusflower site...but why is picture quality so shite? Do I have to get some specific program to see all the videos on top quality...D&P video for example is ok.

skyhigh said:

it appears that it's the video file, shame really the audio is fantastic.

I want to now what ill get for my 77 Bucks.can someone that is already signed up tell me?

some pretty cool live footage i have never seen

so far, kinda worth it to me but that is based on something coming later hopefully

if you download the latest Adobe flash player, your vids should work

FirstCircle said:

Yeah! What he said!

I paid cash money to join NPG Club, do i get a discount or something for being a loyal fan, or what?

I don't have the "extra" cash to buy a paid subscription so I didn't get past the "Kiss" video unless I missed something...

help signed up ages ago lost my password and screen name and cannot get in to the site can someone send me the contact email for the site inside the site please

love4one said:

Hello, per the website the email is: support@lotusflow3r.com

I'm from Peru, i paid my lotusflow3r.com membership on march 31, while filling my information there it said people from countries outside the US would be charged extra $7 for the t shirt, and after finishing the process it said my card would be charged $84, but i was only charged $77 (as i've seen later on my bank account), also on the email i received right after that said "this email is to confirm that you have paid $77..." ... the thing is i still haven't received t shirt, and i'm worried if i wasn't charged the extra $7 means they'll never send me the t shirt....
i had to be charged $84 as it said i would be charged in the last screen of the sign up process... any foreign (outside USA) lotusflow3r.com members here, have received the t shirt? were you charged $84 or the $7 will be charged later when they send the t shirt? anyway, its been 23 days since i paid my membership! and there's no email to ask lotusflow3r.com
[Edited 4/23/09 16:11pm]

I love the site and how to crack the code was fun. I wonder whht is hiding in the universe from Prince

Gonzalo1979 said:

me 2 i won't receive t-shirt... firstly i don't want 2 pay the extra $7, secondly i don't want the t-shirt, i want his music!
don't understand why in USA they don't pay an extra...

How many songs are available? How many videos? How often is it updated? What format is the music in?

What are the answers to these questions :p