TO JOIN OR NOT TO JOIN?….THAT IS THE QUESTION.

Open-letter to all NPG Music Club members.

I am thinking of joining the NPG Music Club for the year commencing January 2003.

I heard about the Club while attending the recent Prince concert at The Point, Dublin, Ireland. All the Club members were seated right up the front, and were invited onstage to dance on a number of occasions throughout the 3 hour show. I managed to attend the Aftershow at Spirit, after queuing for a few hours. I had a great night altogether, as this was my first time ever to see Prince live! The Club members were given VIP treatment at the Aftershow – they didn’t queue and were seated upstairs and had better views. I paid 77 Euro for the Point concert, and 50 Euro for the Aftershow. No complaints.

Had I been a member for year 2002, I would have been seated upfront at the gig, attended the pre- and after-shows free, received the Piano and Voice CD, and the ONA-Live package weeks in advance. (The ONA-Live will probably cost me 70 Euro when it becomes available…btw I think it will include the piano&voice CD as a bonus).

One years’ Club membership would have cost me only 120 Euro approximately.
It sounds like it would have been excellent value indeed.

As it seems unlikely that he will perform in Ireland again during 2003, should I join up for 2003? What do you think? What would be the advantages do you think?

I’ve read a lot of very negative comments throughout this site, so I would like to hear some positive comments from members who were happy during 2002.
For instance, I would be very happy to join if I were promised 4 cds at regular intervals, say March, June, September and December. Prince is supposed to have a lot of material in the can, and also, he surely records his Jams at Paisley Park, so he could send that material out to members on a regular basis.

What advice would you give me please?

RigRay

If you only want to hear positive comments then I guess you've already made your mind up. Just don't have any expectations of getting CDs at regular intervals or anything like that, or even that there will be another world tour next year.

Sax is right, even though I've been happy with the club I've learned not to expect much in the way of regular updates and releases. And if you don't have some stored money to do with as you please you may not be able to get to the concerts if he does tour again. Cause honestly most of the US dates were off what I would consider a regular tour path but since I relocated to the boonies I was good for four shows surprisingly. I don't think they are gonna do the downloads again unless they up the membership costs because all that bandwith had to be eating up major change. And you see now that even though the club has been up and running since February most of us didn't get the first release till May and now seven months later we are getting the final release. If you have patience, an immense amount in this case, then it's a cool experience. If not then keep your money and don't count on getting that ONA as a bonus disc in the set. I seriously don't think they'd run the risk of pissing off the remaining loyal consumers by selling a disc that was repeatedly touted as a reason to join the club. But if I'm wrong yippee for you.

What advice would you give me please?

Join, by all means, but remember that patience is meant to be a virtue.

nas3110 said:

Hmmm. Close...

Carefully read what they promise, what they write.
Backup a copy of that if you agree and want to go ahead.
Carefully backup anything what they write about promises for the club; be sure to regularly check the validity of the promises with npgmc@npgonlineltd.com.
Only then: be patient but strict.

Time is up now.

udo

Thanks for your advice everyone. Patience would seem to be a requirement OK. Still, I am sorry that I didn't join up at the beginning of the year, I think I would have got very good value. I have just ordered my ONA...Live boxset from Amazon.com, cost $55 plus $29 express international post in order to have it before Christmas. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 vision. I shall look very closely at what is on offer for next years membership. - Rigray