I can now watch videos with very few breaks.

I can now download the albums (wasn't working 24 hours ago)

BUT, I can't extract the files and listen to the albums (.wav versions). I keep getting error messages saying the compressed folder is invalid.

Incidentally, I still haven't had any password reset mails from when I first tried to log in...I used my correct screen name and the email address they have been mailing me on (so they do know about me) but no response as yet two days down the line. I had to re-register.

The site is much better today.

Mars23 said:

My 77 clams will remain safely in my pocket.

Amazing how a free site like the Org provides 100000x more information than the artist's official site.

Prince, or Scott, whoever - go look at something like nin.com. That's more of what we had in mind. We're not 11, we don't want games, we don't want "planets". Music, info, video, that's what we crave!!!

billymeade said:

nin.com is fucking awesome.

Wow the site runs ridiculously better now

NuPwr319 said:

O.K., navigation is much better now. The videos are better, but they still stutter and they still cut off. I was watching the Brit Awards and it cut off right in the middle of "Purple Rain".

Vendetta1 said:

davidlynch.com is also really cool. it's informative and gives a sense that lynch is participating in his own fan site, but at the same time it has a playful, artsy, mysterious vibe that you would come to expect from david lynch.

It's Prince's 2009 Economic Stimulus Plan.

Part A: Release a three cd set exclusively through Target, forcing consumers to visit the Target website and/or walk through a brick and mortor Target store, thereby causing said consumers to make impluse purchases which create unexpected profit as all parties involved are already making money on the aforementioned three cd set. (How's that for a sentence? Eh? )

Part B: Open a new fan website just far enough ahead of the previously mentioned CD release that the herd will still sign up en masse. Doesn't matter that the site isn't ready, or that the system requirements are still far more than the average PC owner currently has, he still got the fawning multitudes (myself included) to pony up the cash in a hot second.

Part C: A large portion of those mentioned above, who were not aware that the minimum suggested RAM is 1GB, go out and by new 1GB RAM sticks or new superfast gaming PCs.

Part D: Go on tour so all your fans can prove they STILL love you after the website mess by getting them to spend another 100 million plus on concert tickets.

BRILLIANT!!

Good thing Lotusflow3r is great and MPLSoUND is good (I don't hate the Bria album - there's just not enough Prince on it).

Someone posted that people took a risk when subscribing. I disagree. It was 100% certain that any prince site was gonna fail, no risk at all there

And making people pay to watch videos they already have (because only hardcore fans can be bothered joining and they already have all the publicly available material)? Brilliant!

And telling people they would have to pay even more to see "premium" material (check the T&Cs)? Priceless!

For anybody outside the US, there is 0 value proposition, as the CDs will be available elsewhere in real CD for cheaper. For anybody living outside LA, there is very little short term value, you rely on the hope he'll tour the US this year and you may get a ticket (or may not, the site clearly states there is no guarantee), and in the meantime you get charged $77 for 3 albums (well, 2.5, proteges albums are almost always weak).


And the site itself? As per prince's past practice, he probably chose a yes man who offered the job for cheap instead of using a more expensive but reputable company. And I wouldn't be surprised if Scott sues him in 2 years because he still hasn't been paid ... that's a very usual pattern with any prince supplier.

I won't get anywhere near this site with my credit card, I'll wait for the CDs

If in 11 months there is plenty of content and the $77 seem worth it, maybe I'll join then, when I know exactly what I can get for the money. Otherwise, forget it.

Edit: forgot to add: "recompiled the zip files"? Who the hell recompiles zip files?

[Edited 3/27/09 21:38pm]
[Edited 3/28/09 3:26am]
[Edited 3/28/09 3:27am]

Anxiety said:

yes, but is there a chicken with a headphone-jack face that you have to plug in to activate its features?

and if not.... shouldn't there be?

Still, after a coulple of days, they haven´t fixed that I can't extract the zip files.

MichaelHogberg said:

Strange...
Downloads over here were OK except MPLSound wav zip.
Now that was fixed.

Do you get complete files? Not cut-off ones?

MarriedIntoPurple said:

It should be made so its compatible with mobiles and other devices, youtube iplayer etc do it. I wish they will make it available like that.

Anxiety said:

I'm glad 2 c that these people seem 2 b professionnal Thanx guys 4 communicating with us.

the videos are a bit better now. at least they don't just stop and
return to the beginning.

it still took me about 8 stops before i was 4 minutes into the
sacrifice of victor video. so i gave up.

will try again next week. hopefully by then they will have sorted
this.

IstenSzek said:

I would recommend that you save the .flv file(s) to your HD to keep frustration at bay. Throw it away after viewing, if so inclined, to avoid any moral dilemmas.

crimson/bria promos are down..
And why have they incorrectly ratio-ed several of the videos on the video dome.
Have a look at creep, we see a stretched samll fat prince, for the first and last time. It's just carelessness.

errant said:

You guys are killing me. This stuff is hilarious!

Copycat said:

chicken with headphone jack!

Anxiety said:

Thats good news.

billymeade said:

Make your suggestions to THEM via email. Word it nicely and they'll take it into consideration. They are listening. They do want our money to continue next year.

Anxiety said:

i love his site!! the 1st time i saw the "jump on it!, jump on it!" with lynch jumping up and down had me in stitches! only lynch.

needs more updates though. perhaps this will be when a new project arises. don't get me started on Dumbland

as for lotus, lets give it time... hardly anything has a perfected launch.
[Edited 3/28/09 9:09am]

I love the website now after a shaky start. I also love paying a fee to see the videos. Prince deserves every penny.

Deserves every penny, huh?

If only Prince would hire online customer service representatives to troubleshoot complaints and respond to email inquires. I've been waiting since Wednesday for someone to contact me about a simple sales issue.
[Edited 3/28/09 10:07am]

Okay, so far, I can get the vids to play, and the choppiness is out, but now it "freezes" while watching the videos every now and then, and then starts playing again, so the issue with the vids freeaing is now the only problem I'm having watching the site.

Scott said:

Dear Scott, you may have all these people fooled, so let me pop your pompous ass balloon: your main "optimization" consists of one thing: whereas in the past videos and downloads were all passed through ONE PHP script, you have now removed this. Of course this will "improve performance", because now your servers don't have to run the PHP engine in memory whenever anyone is watching a video or downloading a zip or listening to the music in the online players, they now can simply send the files directly to the users (something the servers are optimized for to do). Moreover, users' browsers will now also properly cache those files.

But to this day all that precious content is UNPROTECTED. I'd have expected that you would have at least bothered to implement Basic Access Authentication (which was used by the v2 version of the NPGMC, which was set up after Tekadence was sent packing after months of displaying their utter incompetence), but even that seems to have been too hard for an "expert" like you. (Not that I'm a fan of that kind of authentication, because it's still fairly vulnerable, but at least there is SOME security in place.)

Does Prince now that you're hosting his music and videos in a way that is so vulnerable that someone who's intent of distributing his music doesn't even have to bother with uploading it to another service? No, said person can simply hand people a URL to a file on your server farm.

Congrats Scott, you've managed to compile quite an impressive list of serious security breaches. How come an "expert" like you is so utterly incompetent at this?

Scott said:

This is just beyond pathetic. Admit it, you didn't even bother to test this site one bit before it went live.

Scott said:

No wait, THIS is beyond pathetic. Didn't you use to run some kind of film site in the past, Scott? Haven't you noticed that people now download hundreds of MBs at the drop of a hat?

Scott said:

Most videos are crap to begin with and look like they were ripped from bootleg DVDs by someone who's never ripped a video before. Some/most are in MONO.

Scott, just admit defeat. Reimburse all fans. Resign. Take down this abomination of a site. Treasure your memory of singing Play That Funky Music with Prince backing you, and do the world a favor: never pretend you're web savvy ever again.

.
[Edited 3/28/09 13:04pm]

stanleylieber said:

If he cannot determine whether someone is the right one for a certain job, he should ask others with knosledge for input. Actually, that's why most artists have a MANAGEMENT (because that way they only have to worry about getting screwed by one guy).

I've looked up Scott in Google, and this guy seems to me to be someone with very little skills and with a deep craving to be amongst celebs. I can tell you one ting: if I was doing Prince's site, I wouldn't be performing some stupid song, because he'd been too pissed at me for rejecting his dumb-ass website ideas and for pointing out that his artwork was hideous.

But then I look at who's populating Prince's bands lately, I look at his online presence for the past decade, I look at his artwork, I look at his 21 Nights book, I look at the places that get news updates from the man, and all I can say is: there's a pattern there. You can get unlucky once, but Prince has made a career out of doing the dumbest things.

ok...i had to sit there after i logged in for like 5 minutes and finally the purple orb took me to the 3 worlds. is that NORMAL???? to wait that long? my pc is only a year old for chrissakes.

Yay! Finally the "Everytime " video and "Chocolate Box" and "Crimson and Clover" are all playing all the way through smoothly with no choppiness. and since I couldn't make it to LA this weekend, I'll just pretend I'm there having fun with all the rest of the fans that were blessed to be at 3 shows in one day.
[Edited 3/28/09 14:21pm]