I know this isn't what most people will agree with, but I think that Prince should launch a new website very soon. However with the goal of the new site being to repair his relationship with his fan base.

In this day and age and with the Prince community being so plugged in online, Prince HAS TO have a serious online presence to properly promote his music to his hard core fans.

Not a million dollar site with a bunch of flash stuff we can't figure out, but a FREE site with no extra frills. One with a forum not unlike here or Housequake, and videos and Jam of the Week stuff is put up often. Not necessarily crazy unreleased albums or anything, but an occasional track like the Love acoustic version is treasured by us fans. And I know this is going to sound Kooky, but I think that Prince should post stuff twitter style. Not enough to ruin the mystique, but imagine how awesome it would be if you got up in the morning and read that Prince had just posted "Recording today" or "Vegan pancakes and hot tub= the perfect weekend" or "I'm so Funky I had to hit the Showers Twice!" I think this would actually be a cheap, fun, quirky way for him to endear himself to his hardcore fans again.

I feel like the problem with LotusFlow3r was that people payed for content that didn't end up materializing, and they payed for MP3s, when in this days and age people just rip what they want and don't necessarily pay for it. Right or wrong that's the way the music business works nowadays.

I think that Prince should continue to sell his albums at the $10-$15 price mark. Just enough where you figure you might as well buy it as opposed to just find it on the Pirate bay. But on his website continue to sell $35-$50 expanded edition stuff (think in the vein of the 21 nights book with a disc, or the One Nite Alone Longbox). Things that you can't just get off Lime Wire, but special edition physical objects that compliment the album you're listening to. And, just for me Prince, sell some online B sides like you did with Musicology (Prince and the Band and Turn me Loose please )

I no multi-million dollar businessman, but a cheap website with some free content and semi consistent updates could be a good start to mending things. No?

Unless it is done with complete FOCUS and ATTENTION by PRINCE, with the ultimate in texture meaning a full out itinerary of what will happen on the site and made to be more than fair to the hard core base fans.....I consider myself done with PRINCE and his websites.
His lack of FOCUS was the problem to begin with and because of that the fans $77.00 went down the tubes as well....not to mention interest.
Right now....would you give PRINCE another $77.00 after what he did with your first more than generous offering???

Well, if Prince were to have any sort of site with a membership fee, the only way I'd pay is if I knew what I was getting ahead of time. Like I said in another post, one of the big problems with LF is you had to pay to go any further than the cliff, and there was no way to find out what the site had to offer until after you've paid. Horribly flawed concept.

However, if I remember correctly, the original NPGMC had premium memberships that you paid for a year in advance and then a pay-as-you-go monthly option. And you only forked over the credit card info for the monthly after you saw the new content for the month. This at least gave Prince motivation to add content to the site monthly. He'd want the monthly subscriber's money. If he did a "here's what new this month" kind of deal, I'd be game. Another "pay upfront and hope for the best" scheme, not likely.

Wasn't this JUST brought up like DAYS ago?????

ernestsewell said:

Sorry

A new Prince website should have plenty of updated content. I know, it's like asking for Obama to walk on water.

These threads are funny, when just over a year ago, we had this: http://prince.org/msg/13/296442

ernestsewell said:

Yeah, that's some funny stuff people posted back then.
Look what Graycap said



A year later even Graycap claimed he would sue to get his 77$ back. What a prophecy huh?!

I'll build Prince a new site. And it would be amazing.

I might just build it anyway.

Militant said:

I'd be there for that!

I really wish there was one big website for Prince stuff. I know there are smaller sites for things.

A full official discography (downloadable in PDF and updated monthly or yearly as needed)
A full bootleg guide (downloadable in PDF and updated monthly or yearly as needed)
A full calender of past events (downloadable in PDF and updated monthly or yearly as needed)
A full recording session chronicle (as we've seen in the back of DMSR, etc)
Fan picture gallery (which is legal because Federal Law states whoever took the picture owns it - if that weren't true like Prince thinks, rags and paparazzi wouldn't have a job)

ernestsewell said:

It is something I have considered for a while. We'll see. I certainly couldn't do it on my own (content wise), so if you were up for helping out then that would definitely be cool.

You seem to like PDF's a lot! LOL

But agreed, all of those things would be very cool.

well personally I agree with this prince should make a fan site that is free to acces to the public but if you want merchandise it is for sale like any other musician where the site is free and the merchandise is not....and would have all of his music released on the site in segments like manic Mondays he adds a music video, trippy Tuesdays he adds a picture,wacky Wednesday he adds a new update, thumpin Thursdays he adds a album of the week, and funky Friday he has sales on merchandise..... that would be neat and for those who join his free site they get a complimentary copy of any of his older material.....that's neat.


I think that npgmc even tho I wasn't a member was cool because it was so in-expensive and it was revolutionary for the time it started and then it died like that.... and then 3121.com idk about that never got to get on that because my computer had a bad graphics card..... and I'm not paying $77 for a website that has practically nothing new and his people cheat others out of their prince stuff


but all in all I think it would boost his popularity if he had a free website because it's prince for crying out loud and he would make more money when all those people viewed the site

and he would still have priority seats for members
[Edited 4/6/10 21:18pm]
[Edited 4/6/10 21:21pm]
[Edited 4/6/10 21:32pm]

Militant said:

It'd be a task for sure, and it would take time. But it's doable.

The PDF thing is just so fans can download the information for their own reference instead of cutting and pasting from a website. The PDFs can be updated as needed by the webmaster(s), and update notices posted on the News section or whatever.

I think the only thing that could ever work is to have his own sort of itunes store, similar in use and vision, with loads of new and previously unreleased content, at a very fair price, easy to download, with no drm or any membership agreements involved. Just sell it already.

However, I gather that this will never happen and that if it ever had a chance of happening, it is too late for that.

Tremolina said:

Everyone said things changed when Prince changed his name to a symbol. I don't agree with that. It's when he became Prince2.0 that he really changed. And this new upgrade of Prince really doesn't care about releasing that stuff

erik319 said:

Yeah, well if he doesn't release it, bootleggers will, as ever.

But yeah I remember 1994, the name change, Exodus and the Gold experience. Too bad it was all a load of shit.

t do you guys think of my ideas?

Wildboy said:

Just don't bother, no-one's interested in cing flogged out videos of yesteryear. Re-hashed songs, the latest little darling clutchin desperately to a hobbit in heels.

ernestsewell said:

You guys do realize that the moment you launch that website, he'll send the Websheriff to get you ???
Even if he has no legal ground to stand on, he'll harass you with lawyers and cease and decist letters.

What you're trying to reproduce is an Uptown Magazine online and look what happened to them....

LittleSister said:

No he wouldn't. There's a line about what you can and can't put online. There are still a good handful of sites that exist out there, and are updated regularly. Even Dawnation.com has survived for 10 years or more. Putting up information about release dates, lyrics (I'm a member of the DTT, and we're been around for quite a long while), or even discussing bootlegs are all legal options for anyone to post. We do all that here on prince.org and it's never been shut down.

I've already been hounded personally by Prince's people in the past. I'm not scared of facing him again. And this talked-about site would be fine if the guidelines were followed. Just like they are here. Uptown also published photos that Prince felt he had a right to. What Prince doesn't realize is that he doesn't own a photo of himself - not all of them. Federal Law states whoever takes the pictures, own it (unless the subject has bought the rights to the photo from the original photographer). It's why you can't go to Walmart and make a copy of your Olan Mills family portraits. Hell, if the subject of a photo automatically owned the rights to it, paparazzi would be out of a job.

ernest, there is indeed a line about what you can and can't put online, but it's not like you said. That the DTT still exists is not a matter of law but of tolerance by Prince, which can be deemed quite a miracle considering his clear stand against any unauthorised reproductions and publications of his work. Same with the pictures. You are right that Prince doesn't own most of the pics that exists of him and can't take action based on that, but that's about it. There is still somebody else owning those pics and merely citing the name of the photographer or the source isn't enough in any and all cases.

discussing bootlegs by the way falls under the umbrella of freedom of speech. there is no reproduction or publishing going on when people merely talk about it.

same with making databases full of concert dates.

People can claim whatever they want but the only site that has always respected Prince's intellectual property rights the most is the org.

Housequake for example was blatantly infringing on his copyrights with all the videos they put up there. He had every right to take that site down and sue the owner for massive copyright infringement.

ernestsewell said:

I know that and you know that and we perfectly know that he has not legal ground to sue. But you know what, he still does. ! I'm pretty certain his legal advisors have explained in detail to him and he still ordered them to write those letters. He's using bully techniques to scare the living hell out of ordinary fans that don't have the finances to hire an expensive lawyer.

That has been the reality of the last ten years. He didn't sue YouTube and threaten to take them down, no he went after Housequake, that was totally run by volunteers and had no other goal than inform, unite Prince fans and glorify Prince without any financial gain. Even after closing the video and photo section, he kept harassing them for a stupid banner with his picture in it. Meanwhile all the glamour and gossip magazines featured him posing for their pictures on the catwalk.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it - hell, I would even do it myself if I had the time for it.

But you should be prepared that he might strike at any moment and you would not be able to appeal to reason or logic, because those are talents that he just doesn't possess.

Tremolina said:

Are you american?
And/or brainwashed?
Since when is posting a lowres video infringement?
Are we forgetting about the fair use?
Are we forgetting the promotional effects?
Are we forgetting who hosts the videos?
Puhlease don't act like the way things are now is the REAl way things should be. The (C) lobby has gone wayyyy tooo far.

Tremolina said:

You're off base on this one.

Prince didn't take the site down. Aaron did. He was tired of being HARASSED by Prince's people. Let me hone that statement down.... PRINCE IS A BULLY.

He had no right to take it down. The videos were protected under the Fair Use Act. Same goes for the people actually hosting the videos. As Udo stated, some low resolution video doesn't infringe on anyone's copyright. No one is trying to make money off of it, or claim it as their own, or sample it. You think Prince goes after news websites who use a clip of his video? What about a college professor who might use a snip of a Prince movie to prove a point about something? (God knows what that'd be, but still.) You think Prince is asking for money from Brown or whatever for that?

People don't understand copyright and fair use, so we have statements like "he had every right..."

ernestsewell said:

Sorry ernest, but I know copyright law very well. Unless it were just snippets of videos, they didn't have a right to use them. But they were completely copying entire videos right? Without permission that is NOT fair use. Whether they were low resolution, or whether they had any commercial intent or not, doesn't matter then, because they copied the videos completely and made them available to thousands of people without his permission.

Compare it to the youtube baby. That WAS fair use because the video wasn't intended to make the song Let's go crazy song available to the public, like Housquake did, but merely to share the images of her baby dancing to it. Moreover the song wasn't copied completely but was merely a 30 second snippet and could not be heard in good quality.

Those are ALL the factors to be considered before the use of a work can be considered a fair use. Except for the lack of the intent to profit and the low quality, Housequake didn't meet those requirements.

You are right tho' that Housequake shut itself down. I wasn't trying to say Prince did, only that if he had wanted to, he would have had every right to do it and sue him for massive copyright infringement.

-
[Edited 4/10/10 14:33pm]

Tremolina said:

"Fair use...allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work"