R u happy with the site or wish u waited longer b4 giving ur $77 2 Prince site unseen?

rainbowchild said:

Yes and No....

The only reason I paid for it site unseen was due to the line

"exclusive stuff in the first week that may never be available again".

Knowing his history, sometimes rare items are released for sale, and I was worried they'd be sold out before I had a chance to join and buy them.

Since nothing exclusive was released, WHATSOEVER. I feel ripped off...

So far I consider the CDs to be worth say, 15 bucks. The shirt, which I would have never bought if I had the choice, we'll say another 15.

That leaves the videos, for 44 bucks? No, definitely not. Most of them I don't care about, however, the Sacrifice of Victor was a VERY pleasant surprise. I bought this "official" video from NPGMC a long time back and the tape quality was so abysmally poor, I had no clue how they could justify selling it. 25 bucks, hissing all the way, for a VHS when VHS was already obsolete, but I bought it. The posted version is better, at least the sound quality is. So, all that said, I'm going to value the available videos at another 15 dollars, as I now have them in my collection...

So I'm definitely short 30+ bucks in "VALUE" here...

And the thing that bugs me the most is it seems like very little is being done to increase content or add the stuff we actually want. And all these photographs, I couldn't care less. Couldn't care at all...

But I don't have serious remorse as I kind of expected it, and at this point, I only consider myself out around 30 bucks. Hopefully the value for that 30 bucks is demonstrated in the future.

the t-shirt was exclusive for founding members..limited.

i knew it was going to be a reaming but i signed up because i don't mind throwing some money at him once in a while. i have a lot of prince music that no one ever paid him for, so i try to buy most things that are officially released.

rainbowchild said:

No. I loved getting the albums before their physical release, and I loved seeing live clips I hadn't seen before. And I love that over the remaining 49 weeks there will be more goodies for sure.

Swa

stanleylieber said:

I feel exactly the same. If you compare the amount of money I have spent on Prince versus the amount of pleasure I have got from hearing the music (unofficial and official) or seeing him perform live I am still a net winner (by a very long way)

i have about 90gig of boots and unreleased stuff that prince never got the ££ for. so i don't grudge him 75$

metallicjigolo said:

Considering that the promo piece mentioned BOTH the shirt AND the exclusive stuff I hardly think we should interpret that to mean the same thing.

I wish I hadnt spent $77 bucks on the site. I was hoping for a chance at some unreleased music during the "rare material only available during the first week" instead i got rare videos which i personally could care less about. I havent received my tshirt yet, i bought the cd' at target as well, so I'm n ot thrilled with what little I've received.

Yeah, I definitely have some buyer's remorse. I guess it depends on what else we will be getting over the course of the year. I have a bad feeling that any additional music released through the site is going to cost extra. I'm also a little disappointed that there isn't really any reason to visit the site on a regular basis.

Buyers remorse? Definitely. I git sucked in by the hope of getting tickets to the LA shows only to be foiled by the stupid solving the clue to subscribe thing which, at the time, really pissed me off. I also wasn't too happy when it became apparent that the site never had many tickets available at all.

I couldn't care less about a t-shirt or the photos or even the videos. There ain't nothin that rare or 'vault' stuff on there at all and I'm not gonna hold my breath over the next 11 months or so.

I was more annoyed with myself for getting hoodwinked once again into parting with my money and getting sucked in, once again, by false promises. I should know better by now.

I hate that video globe. The only video I'm interested in is a DVD that I can play on my big screen TV.

I'm a collector of Prince's (and others') music, primarily on CD, and so new music is all I hope to get from the site. But actual music files or discs, something I can play in my car without having to rip a poor quality audio track from a video file.

Of course, being a collector of Prince CDs, I had to pay for an import of Lotusflow3r anyway, and I don't wear T-shirts. Like others said earlier, I'm worried that any additional music will cost additional cash and there doesn't actually seem to be any reason to visit the site regularly.

I also feel lied to about the exclusive stuff only available in the first week (It was definitely suggested that this was as well as the T-shirt).

So, yes, I wish I'd saved my money.

We've only just begun ppl, chillax! Personally speaking, I mainly signed up for the exclusive tix. The rest of the site is all gravy. I'm certain more is to come. I am happy thus far to answer ur question.

Klick

NO, no remorse.

Ask the same question in another six months. By then I'd expect to have some significant measure for the investment of a 'yearly' subscription (which IMO wasn't that much to begin with) I spent $77 dollars on dinner with a date... and it was just a dinner. Of course the return on that was very significant... but that's besides the point.

BigDaddyHQ said:

I'm glad you got yours...and I agree that the best is yet to come!

Big fat waste of $$ so far. Like many, I got sucked into

the whole

. What a load.

I also bought the album at Target and listen to that version more because I LOVE Crimson & Clover. I was going to wait and buy it at the store only...shouldn't have drunk that damned purple kool-aid.

I regret joining....not worth the money.

Nope, I'm fine with it so far.

funksoldier said:

DITTO!

yes, i regret it, there hasnt been up dates for a few weeks now, what happened to all the content we were promised, at most all we really got that was exlusive was about 5 videos

RumAndRaisin said:

Was anything actually promised?

I haven't had $77 worth yet but there's a load of time left on the year I paid for, so I'll wait and see.

No remorse here, I'm very happy that I joined.

It's impossible to know an answer to this until a full year has passed. It's like asking if I felt remorse after paying $100 for an NPGMC membership and getting the first 5-7 downloads back in 2000-2001. I was excited to see what else would come, which is what I'm hopeful for on the new site. I can't see how we could go 12 months and not get some exclusive music that would make it all worthwhile, even if a tour doesn't materialize.

Feeling remorseful right now. The lack of updates is driving me crazy.

Gohi said:

Were you really expecting 52 updates - one for each week? I think it is natural for the site to quickly evolve in the first two weeks, then perhaps monthly updates from then on. Of course more stuff to promote (new singles, videos) will lead to more frequent updates.

Swa
[Edited 4/15/09 19:51pm]

Hopefully a tour is in the works with members having access to presales similar to the way the NPGMC handled the One Nite Alone & Musicology tours... other than that, I don't expect a whole lot from the site itself.

It's a one-way site... the members can only view, listen, and buy (if anything ever goes on sale)... that kind of web model with limited or no interactivity is in the past, and is not the kind that garners a lot of traffic or repeat visits.

They don't even email updates to people letting them know for instance about the "news" section, or the latest videos added.

Lotusflow3r is more like a basement/storage facility... that depends on sites like prince.org or email lists like NPNY, bumpsquad, etc. to inform members what's really there.

I guess Prince & his camp had enough with the NPGMC forums which were gradually moderated into an abyss of deleted threads & postings... but interactivity is what gets buy-in, what sustains repeat visits, and what lets people generate content until something new is offered.

NuPwrSoul said:

They don't need a forum, or feedback pages. Just some kind of easy to manage list of content and what is new.

we just started so let's wait and see .so far i have enjoyed the cd's downoads whil i was waiting for the cd's in the shops (belguim). i enjoy the video's on the globe .most of them i already got but thats no reason to complain i'm sure more is comming .the only thing i don't get is why we could not buy the cd's from the lotusflow3r site ?

TheEnglishGent said:

That would be good... I was saying though that a forum makes the site self-generating in terms of content, which would make up for the lack of real content updates from the service provider.

Additionally, it's the direction of web 2.0... static sites are dinosaurs at this point in web development. No longer a destination site.

Unfortunately Prince's approach to the web is entirely too cynical--it's merely a marketplace for him to hawk his goods, and that's it. He doesn't see it (anymore) for the role it can play in constructing global, interactive, engaged communities. NPGMC came close to that before it got run over by overzealous moderators... but that's what won him the Webby.

The mantle of web pioneer has been taken up by others, who are building community online, and taking into account an increasingly mobile user with mobile versions of their sites that don't require heavy hardware or bandwidth.