Is it really worth joining prince's website?

the only thing i've gotten for $77 was ripped off
[Edited 6/4/09 10:47am]

got a bunch of azzholes on the org saying i told you so.

But i aint gonna let them spoil the fun. I been with Prince a looooong time.

I know he starts things off slow, Butt when things start jumpin..I'm all over it.

i got videos..music..pics.. and a t-shirt. I also got patience.

Jakeasaurus said:

But!
This is Prince, did we expect anything else?


Thank you Prince, can i have another



Thank you Prince, can i have another



Thank you Prince, can i have another


Thank you Prince, can i have another.....

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Prince, 'I don't care to win awards, it's all about the bank!'
Thank you for your $77.00 contribution to Jehova!
GMAN

...SO DID he eat all of the soup??..yeah..in fact he said it was delicious..LOL..it should b L-O-N-G now..
..yup prince starts slow-motion at 1st..all so he can catch-up 2 the public-pulse..and i know when things get rolling..i'll b here..and if it takes 12 months..so b it..i'll b here..

..and if there really is a God up above..2 Him i owe my life 4 u my L-O-V-E..now darling..if i die yesterday..it's OK..
..mzsexybaby' U R MY I AM THE NIGHT..NOW..I WANT 2 LIVE MY WHOLE-LIFE THROUGH ..INSIDE OF U'

Listen,

We could have viewed all those videos, pictures and music at blazing fast speeds on other sites with a click of a mouse...

But at least we got a nice little buffer.....slow us down to savor the goodness.


First we wait for the for the blue glowing glob to load

click on ticket

click on that you are already a member

enter screen name and password

click

wait for silly tacky images to load

wait

wait

now click on his big head

wait

wait

loading....

loading....

wait, let me go back.....shoot, now i got to start all over again.

savoring

savoring

worth every cent.
[Edited 6/4/09 11:24am]

Maybe it'll be better in the summer.

Gohi said:

Now you got it!


Thank you Prince, can i have another

Suckers who paid for the site.

I am so glad I didn't allow myself to fall for his crap.

i like it.

glad i paid and im excited as to whats coming

WetDream said:

Isn't that a bit like going to the store, paying for an Xbox, and being excited about being given the empty box?


If people are being asked to shell out serious money for something, isn't it reasonable to expect some kind of quality product in return?

I didn't pay for membership, and from the sounds of things I'm more and more glad that I didn't.
[Edited 6/4/09 11:35am]

WetDream said:

ooh yeah, just like that
[Edited 6/4/09 11:33am]

the site is only 2 months old and there are quite a few videos on there.

i know i know, it's not what we thought it would be or what we expected,
especially after talk in interviews of "10 album's worth of material"...

but, it's only been 2 months, like i said. he just released a major new
album(s).

i already guessed it would take some time before anything major would
be happening with the site. however, this complete silence, broken by
the arrival of some stuff most fans already own (have owned for 10+ yrs)
has made me lose interest in the site completely.

there's nothing happening. not even a tiny bit of news. new promo pics
are posted on dr funkenberry, clips of his latest tv performances are
on youtube and the like and prince's new website remains static and an
eyesore at best.

to me, that's just rude, to make such bruha about it and then just not
do anything exciting or even nice with it for over 2 months now.

even the waiting page before the site was launched was more exciting
than the actual site. heck we even got "disco jellyfish" from that one.

probably more than enough nice things will show up for the remaining
10 months of this year's membership. and once the good stuff is on
there, i'll forget about this phase soon enough.

however, up until this point it's all rather weird and disappointing
to say the least.

It's one of the shittiest sites ever built. Amateurs could and have done better. It's a ripoff. And it's a bunch of passive-aggressive bullshit all thrown up on the web to make your experience as shitty as possible. Want to watch a video? Sit through this stupid exploding bomb and find some pathetic floating rock he's calling a universe and then scroll through some stupid twirling ball and try to find it.

What have I gotten for my $77 so far? Bitter. I have gotten bitter.
[Edited 6/4/09 11:47am]

IstenSzek said:

Honestly, guys. Backstreet Boys treat their fans like royalty in comparison to how Princey does it. Videos, interviews, public online chats, updates as to studio going-ons, a youtube channel, chances to personally ask questions via webcam, even updates on random-ass useless information. (Do we need to know about the growing legion of Backstreet Babies, who's eating nachos, and AJ's dry balls? No. Is it entertaining? You bet)

Not saying everyone should be Backstreet fans or anything. But honestly, when a friggin boyband is that open and gracious with the freebies (most of which you don't need a fan club membership to access, btw) it just highlights even more what a douche nozzle Prince is towards the people who paid for his houses and fancy designer gear.

meow85 said:

but i didn't expect any of that from prince. i've been a fan since jan 1988
and the last thing i expected, or even wanted, from this website was to get
up close and personal with prince.

i don't need to know his personal shit and i don't want to. plus, all that
other shit is of very little consequence to anyone.

it would be ultra cool to see him work in the studio, but that would also
take away a lot of the mystique and from all we know about prince, that is
never going to happen. he won't even put a webcam in his studio. and that
isn't what i expected or hoped for.

what i did expect was more music. more unseen stuff. more updates or at
least some news or teasers to upcoming stuff. and i wasn't even expecting
to get any of that for free. if he'd put up new music, i figured we would
simply have to pay for it in a retail store kind of section.

but when you ask the "support" team all you get as an answer is "there r
no current plans for a store". same reply to every other question people
ask. "no current plans".

the site as it is now almost seems completely abandoned. it's as if they
threw "the undertaker" on there just to put people off the scent.

IstenSzek said:

THE BAD
It's a very unprofessional website. It feels like something that was developed in the 90s when flash technology was becoming all the rage and folks where creating all these strange graphics just because they could. But it doesn't have any standard menus, it's confusing to navigate, and it requires you to answer some obscure ass questions to login? How the hell do you grow your fanbase doing that shit?

The only thing fans got, and let's be honest, what I'm referring to as a fan is somebody who already had all those videos (the vast majority of us) and boots, is a single track "The Morning After", which I happen to really like, but not love. So for $77 bucks, most folks here got one song they couldn't have obtained if they waited a few days and paid $11 bucks at Target. You non-USA folks were fucked actually

Ramping up to lotusflow3r, we heard all sorts of things that I think most folks just assumed were going to materialize... Well, maybe not most folks. We kind of know better now . But, when you're told Prince has recorded every performance he's ever done live and such craziness, you just kind of assume a small part of that material will be available on lotusflow3r. It, of course, wasn't.

The site has a bit of time to surprise us, and Prince loves to surprise. But, for most of us who've walked down this road before, it feels all too familiar. It's like road house garden on a grand scale.

Prince just has a terrible business model when it comes to creating a relationship with his fans. It's bizaar that radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are so far ahead of him in this regard.

Lotusflow3r doesn't have a store, it doesn't have standard menus, it doesn't have a biography of the artist, it doesn't have forums, and it doesn't have an easy way to voice your opinion on the site--in short, it's very unprofessional. The flashy embellishments were only mildly amusing the first 10 minutes you surf around it. It's as if Prince threw a new coat of paint on the same rickety old house.



THE GOOD

DRM-free mp3s are nice. The ability to chose between lossless and regular mp3s is a great touch too.

The possibility that there will be exclusive album releases through the website only is another good touch. Though the exclusive album releases on NPGMC aren't exactly in heavy rotation in my mp3 player

Having a website at all to download music is another good touch. Not everyone lives in America, or a place where albums are distributed and readily available around the corner. Being able to download them is a great thing. I don't think the 3 albums were worth $77 dollars. But maybe he'll be offering more albums in the $77 umbrella as time goes on. Maybe he'll charge a small fee? Who knows with Prince.

At least he released something new this year. Last year, I was starting to suspect Prince was truly taking time off to "study the word" as claimed and we'd not see anything for years, only to have him resurface and pull some crazy Cat Stevens shit.

Imago said:

honestly, something 1 dimensional with only 3 links would be a million
times better than this gaudy shit "universe".

main page, link to store, link to news, link to online ticket service.

there. put that in your glossy high heeled boots and smoke it, prince.

meow85 said:

I totally agree. Now, in 2004 I paid and ended up getting amazing seats at two shows, and it was worth the $25 or whatever I paid at NPGMC. But that was only 25, and it was still a gamble.

I would be pissed if I had paid $77 for a handful of youtube videos. On another website you'd have huge archives of material to go through for your $77.

I knew better (considering I am broke!) and am glad I didn't. But I'm also disappointed as a fan that this website appears to be so lame, thus far. It's only June, I suppose. Maybe something will happen.

IstenSzek said:

His little lotusflow3r universe with 3 floating worlds may be alot of fun for some folks. But it should be a 'menu option' titled 'explore lotusflow3r' or something like that.

I think most folks want news updates or to shop around.


The primary reason I started coming to the org was I didn't want to navigate through silly hallways and such in NPGMC/L41A just to get to news and updates. Plus the news on the org isn't just propaganda.


How long do you think lotusflow3r will last?

3121 lasted only as long as that project. I assume lotusflow3r will die once he comes up with something else. Another chance to pay $77 bucks for a lifetime membership

IstenSzek said:

But the thing is, from the looks of things those who paid the $77 aren't getting much of anything. Fans of other performers get much of the same stuff Prince fans paid for but didn't receive, and they get it for free.

If the site wasn't ready, it shouldn't have been launched. And they certainly should not have charged for it.

NDRU said:

I too paid the $25 in '04, but I got nothing for it since he never toured in my area. Believe me, I was pissed. I wasn't living in the city at the time, but close enough to it. Vancouver's a major city with several different venues.
[Edited 6/4/09 12:23pm]

Ugot2shakesumthin said:

yep, and 'glob'??!

So you guys just got one track and the undertaker video? So when you say videos are you guys just referring to the Undertaker? I really appreciate all of the responses to this thread.

jaimestarr79 said:

There are 50 images / videos. So maybe around 25 vids? Some original vids included are Uptown and Controversy, a lot are updated versions such as Jay Leno 1999 etc. (haven't bothered watching those type of vids yet). I assume it's what he feels is appropriate these days, but I think he's trying to give people a little of what they want as well as keeping within the beliefs he holds now. I love the Creep vid, I know we've all seen it, but it's a much better quality than I've seen before. I have to admit though, I don't go on very often, I kind of forget about it, and haven't even made it past the first 10 mins of the Undertaker - oops!! I'm still waiting for my T-shirt, although I got a very nice reply when I asked support about sizes etc. It seems like a bit of a dark and uninhabited galaxy at the moment.... waiting... waiting for some action, an explosion maybe!!! Oh, and was really hoping for some good footage from the O2 shows / Indigo2 ...
[Edited 6/4/09 12:57pm]

meow85 said:

That's very kind of you ...

meow85 said:

absolutely. they blundered, yet again

I hear they are working on some incredible things for it come next march!

Some really amazing things, but you have to renew your membership early to take advantage of the early bird premiums!

Membership may be doubled next year for new members because of added functionality, so act now to take advantage of this, because the special $77. pricing wont last long!


[Edited 6/4/09 13:34pm]

I can get outta here and go somewhere peaceful to hear his music. That's cool enough for me.There will be more stuff added later and I get emails whenever he's doing something.
[Edited 6/4/09 14:54pm]