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Printable Low numbers joined, so Prince gave up on it pretty early.
He should have added new content, and we'd have all joined! Easy. I don't think you can blame the designers for the fundamental problem with the site, lack of content!! If Prince refused to reply to the designers' emails, how could they have a customer service? What would they have said? All they could have done is blame Prince (their boss!), or made excuses, which would have helped no one! | |
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MacDaddy said: NeoGeo24bit said: Here's some free business advice for Prince.
Open an official Twitter account so you can update fans on new music releases, concerts, or whatever is on your mind. Ask prince.org to post the link for Prince's official Twitter account on the main page. In three months Prince will have 200,000+ followers. Tell those followers when a new album is being released. The album will go top 5, probably number one. Everyone is happy. That's a nice idea, but it will not appeal to Prince, I think. Twitter is mainly used by celebs as a way to get 'closer to fans'. That's probably the last thing he wants. true | |
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james said: Low numbers joined, so Prince gave up on it pretty early.
He should have added new content, and we'd have all joined! Easy. I don't think you can blame the designers for the fundamental problem with the site, lack of content!! If Prince refused to reply to the designers' emails, how could they have a customer service? What would they have said? All they could have done is blame Prince (their boss!), or made excuses, which would have helped no one! Well said. P should think of membership as a long term project i.e. to be built up over years and NOT in 1 big hit. The bottom line is that P is the boss and the buck stops with him. I am undergoing a big I.T. project i.e ripping out an old system and putting a great 1 in place to drive my business forward, if it fucks up do you think my staff will blame the I.T. company I have chosen?. Not a chance, I am the 1 one who shopped around, did the demos, negotiated the price and will monitor every stage of the process upto and and well beyond implmenation. This is on top of everything else I have on the go. So whilst Clay etc may well be held responsible who's the idiot that lost control of the rpoject, had stupid expecations of membership and failed to deliver content? . Please do not make excuses, P has done great business in the past, namely the muiscology project but has failed on a grand scale with one. | |
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No prince fans should kiss his ass as a businessman. his track record proves himself a poor one. Love the art, tolerate the artist.
When Prince left Warners an exec was quoted as saying he now felt sorry for the people who would have to put up with him. and thats us. dont get me wrong, i love him. lol. shane | |
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funkyhead said: james said: Low numbers joined, so Prince gave up on it pretty early.
He should have added new content, and we'd have all joined! Easy. I don't think you can blame the designers for the fundamental problem with the site, lack of content!! If Prince refused to reply to the designers' emails, how could they have a customer service? What would they have said? All they could have done is blame Prince (their boss!), or made excuses, which would have helped no one! Well said. P should think of membership as a long term project i.e. to be built up over years and NOT in 1 big hit. The bottom line is that P is the boss and the buck stops with him. I am undergoing a big I.T. project i.e ripping out an old system and putting a great 1 in place to drive my business forward, if it fucks up do you think my staff will blame the I.T. company I have chosen?. Not a chance, I am the 1 one who shopped around, did the demos, negotiated the price and will monitor every stage of the process upto and and well beyond implmenation. This is on top of everything else I have on the go. So whilst Clay etc may well be held responsible who's the idiot that lost control of the rpoject, had stupid expecations of membership and failed to deliver content? . Please do not make excuses, P has done great business in the past, namely the muiscology project but has failed on a grand scale with one. Prince has failed on a grand scale with much more than one business venture directly involving the fans. someone may make a list. its a long one. shane | |
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NeoGeo24bit said: Here's some free business advice for Prince.
Open an official Twitter account so you can update fans on new music releases, concerts, or whatever is on your mind. Ask prince.org to post the link for Prince's official Twitter account on the main page. In three months Prince will have 200,000+ followers. Tell those followers when a new album is being released. The album will go top 5, probably number one. Everyone is happy. I.o.w.: COMMUNICATION. Exactly one of the things lacking. In the site, during the Montreux thing, etc, etc, etc. Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill... If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry. | |
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james said: Low numbers joined, so Prince gave up on it pretty early.
He should have added new content, and we'd have all joined! Easy. I don't think you can blame the designers for the fundamental problem with the site, lack of content!! If Prince refused to reply to the designers' emails, how could they have a customer service? What would they have said? All they could have done is blame Prince (their boss!), or made excuses, which would have helped no one! You're right. Like many I was waiting to see what happened with the site before blindly giving over me cash. I knoew P wasn't the most intelligent of people but this is just stupid. | |
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squirrelgrease said: I've read every post in this thread and I think the Fam reactions have fucked with my serotonin receptors. Now please excuse me as I'm off to carve a
 in my forehead.Mwahahahahahaaaaa!!!!! 
"...because no-one gets there alone." - "...I like the floor. It's the only thing that seems real." | |
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Oh Jesus, I'm in the article.
At least I wasn't too rude. | |
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4bjb said: ...as a matter of fact I am contemplating starting a fansite for Prince/Bria lovers only!!!!
Feel free. Nothing worse than a sycophant. Well there are worse things obviously. | |
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The worst part is that Prince fails to comment. This speaks volumes. And let's face it, he's over fifty years old. There may be no such thing as time to him but that doesn't mean it isn't time to grow up. | |
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Mars23 said: agathos said: whats the problem with lotusflow3r?
I subscribed, got 3 wonderful albums, 1 t-shirt, a lot of other material, old videos, some live shots, etc. It was a cool experience. If Prince does such a site with same amount of stuff again: I will subscribe... I really dont understand all the bashing... the second charge cant be the problem... some technician made a mistake, so what? Here's one of the problems: Ultimately, the site, which is set to debut before the Target street date, will have to thrive apart from those first three albums. Clay says future plans for Lotus flow3r.com include a hybrid documentary-music video. But the deal-sealer, he concedes, is the potential for streaming live, VIP-only concerts from Prince's Los Angeles mansion. "There could be a live chat going on with members watching a concert, and Prince could actually play requests," Clay says. He also claims a colleague has organized 10 albums of old Prince music never released in any form. Should there exist an all-tuba record Prince recorded half out of his mind back in 1988, now he's got a place to let it toot—if only he can commit to digitizing all his diamonds and pearls.
Which part of which galaxy did you find those in? EXACTLY. That right there is the problem. Plus, 'Lotusflow3r' being $10 at Target for American subscribers. With the 'net version having just one extra track with the removal of 'Crimson & Clover'. The majority of the videos were either old or seen. I probably got around 10 clips that were new to me. These were excellent, but were hardly extensive. 'Lots of other material' - what other material do you have lots of? Three acoustic songs? A song you couldn't download? Then we have perhaps the best of Prince's latest output 'In A Large Room with No Light' being streamed via other sites. The exclusive Montreaux videos released on youtube. That is the problem for some. I enjoyed it for the first 3-4 months. Before it failed to live up to its promises. I still love Prince, but I'm not blind. Nor as a consumer should I be afraid to voice opinions regarding the service. I hope Prince and his next team find our views here constructive in offering a better experience. | |
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Efan said: Once wooed by the Purple One, Clay found himself frozen out not long after the LotusFlow3r launch. He says at one point he was peppering Prince with so many e-mails about the site and its future that the singer called Clay and told him to cut it out.
I found this part in particular very infuriating. It shows exactly how little Prince regards his fans. ----- Dude was not a fan. He was an employee. I hope everyone takes note of this comment. "Clay declined to say how many paying members the site did attract, but he speculated that the number was a disappointment to Prince." I believed from the beginning that he was not going to get that many people to fork over the $77.00 and without enought members the business was not going to be profitable or worth his time. This is the main reason I took a wait and see attitude and did not join. | |
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OperatingThetan said: Oh Jesus, I'm in the article.
At least I wasn't too rude.
You're a star! | |
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not enough members = prince no longer interested.
sadly the people who did sign up had to suffer for it. this is the same thing that went down with his other websites, at least imo. he has these big ideas and dreams about his 'new' fanbase since 2004, who will flock to his site, at least 200,000 strong. in the end, he's probably roped in between 20 and 30 thousand people for this site. is that anyone's fault? yup, it's his own. regular people could not even sign up to the site if they wanted to, due to that super lame puzzle at the start. normal, basic site with easy access for everyone, free of charge, and a retail section with some unreleased albums, live shows and dvd's to sell, all waiting and ready from day 1. that would have made people pull out their credit cards and order, order, order stuff. no one wants all that style and fluff over actual music. prince has been in the music biz for 30 years and he still doesn't seem to know what his fans want when they visit his sites: MUSIC. instead we get mindgames, and bear the brunt of his disappointment in seeing yet another membership drive halt at 25,000. and true love lives on lollipops and crisps | |
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IstenSzek said: normal, basic site with easy access for everyone, free of charge, and a retail section with some unreleased albums, live shows and dvd's to sell, all waiting and ready from day 1. that would have made people pull out their credit cards and order, order, order stuff. 
But not anymore. Too late for that I am afraid. | |
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IstenSzek said: not enough members = prince no longer interested.
sadly the people who did sign up had to suffer for it. this is the same thing that went down with his other websites, at least imo. he has these big ideas and dreams about his 'new' fanbase since 2004, who will flock to his site, at least 200,000 strong. in the end, he's probably roped in between 20 and 30 thousand people for this site. is that anyone's fault? yup, it's his own. regular people could not even sign up to the site if they wanted to, due to that super lame puzzle at the start. normal, basic site with easy access for everyone, free of charge, and a retail section with some unreleased albums, live shows and dvd's to sell, all waiting and ready from day 1. that would have made people pull out their credit cards and order, order, order stuff. no one wants all that style and fluff over actual music. prince has been in the music biz for 30 years and he still doesn't seem to know what his fans want when they visit his sites: MUSIC. instead we get mindgames, and bear the brunt of his disappointment in seeing yet another membership drive halt at 25,000. So true. I simply can not understand why Prince himself does not recognise this | |
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The man doesn't need a website... just release some music the old fashion way.
Just like "Around The World In A Day" popped up one day in record stores  that way... nothing can go wrong and everyone is happy. Same goes for concert tickets... just advertise it... people will go... he really doesn't need a website for that stuff. It will only go wrong if he does have one.[Edited 4/3/10 5:30am] | |
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IstenSzek said: not enough members = prince no longer interested.
sadly the people who did sign up had to suffer for it. this is the same thing that went down with his other websites, at least imo. he has these big ideas and dreams about his 'new' fanbase since 2004, who will flock to his site, at least 200,000 strong. in the end, he's probably roped in between 20 and 30 thousand people for this site. is that anyone's fault? yup, it's his own. regular people could not even sign up to the site if they wanted to, due to that super lame puzzle at the start. normal, basic site with easy access for everyone, free of charge, and a retail section with some unreleased albums, live shows and dvd's to sell, all waiting and ready from day 1. that would have made people pull out their credit cards and order, order, order stuff. no one wants all that style and fluff over actual music. prince has been in the music biz for 30 years and he still doesn't seem to know what his fans want when they visit his sites: MUSIC. instead we get mindgames, and bear the brunt of his disappointment in seeing yet another membership drive halt at 25,000.  You're estimating too high.[Edited 4/3/10 5:37am] I knew from the start that I loved you with all my heart. | |
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If we assume the points raised in the article are true then two points are glaringly obvious to me where blame lies:
1) Clay was dismissed about a MONTH ago - plently of time to have ensured that no automatic renewals were activated to a site which clay KNEW was closing; albeit even temporarily. 2) As suspected, Prince likely was very disappointed with fan numbers accessing the site: Surely this issue was apparent a few weeks after the site went live: a good point at which Clay/ Prince should have been discussing the reason(s) for this: UNuser friendly mode of access and lack of content..? Prince surely is responsible for the lack of content/ ambiguity of the perceived 'gems' fans were expecting. | |
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IstenSzek said: not enough members = prince no longer interested.
sadly the people who did sign up had to suffer for it. this is the same thing that went down with his other websites, at least imo. he has these big ideas and dreams about his 'new' fanbase since 2004, who will flock to his site, at least 200,000 strong. in the end, he's probably roped in between 20 and 30 thousand people for this site. is that anyone's fault? yup, it's his own. regular people could not even sign up to the site if they wanted to, due to that super lame puzzle at the start. normal, basic site with easy access for everyone, free of charge, and a retail section with some unreleased albums, live shows and dvd's to sell, all waiting and ready from day 1. that would have made people pull out their credit cards and order, order, order stuff. no one wants all that style and fluff over actual music. prince has been in the music biz for 30 years and he still doesn't seem to know what his fans want when they visit his sites: MUSIC. instead we get mindgames, and bear the brunt of his disappointment in seeing yet another membership drive halt at 25,000. This hits the nail right on the head. I am a huge supporter of Prince/any musician's output and absolutely hate the download/file share market today that skirts artists getting paid. I could easily afford to subscribe to this site but didn't. The ONLY reason I did not was because I couldn't tell what the heck I was getting for my money. How hard is it to get that right? I could go on about the hows and whys but what's the point.... | |
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HatrinaHaterwitz said: And the moral of the story is...
Prince had recruited them to build a platform for his upcoming three-album release. The result, LotusFlow3r.com, resembled a galactic aquarium, featuring doodads like a rotating orb that played videos. The promise: fans who ponied up $77 for a year-long membership would receive the three new albums, plus an ensuing flow of exclusive content, like unreleased tracks and archival videos.
After the hyped launch of LotusFlow3r.com, Prince became an absentee landlord, Clay said. “We only got stuff in dribs and drabs.” Clay declined to say how many paying members the site did attract, but he speculated that the number was a disappointment to Prince. A year later, LotusFlow3r has gone dark, thousands of Prince’s fans are very annoyed and Clay has been dismissed from Prince’s kingdom almost as abruptly as he was invited in. You live and you learn. Well...some people do. The best part for me is that he was disappointed with the number of members.  | |
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lotusflower said: The man doesn't need a website... just release some music the old fashion way.
Just like "Around The World In A Day" popped up one day in record stores that way... nothing can go wrong and everyone is happy. Same goes for concert tickets... just advertise it... people will go... he really doesn't need a website for that stuff. It will only go wrong if he does have one.
[Edited 4/3/10 5:30am] I agree. Why does everyone "have" to go by way of new websites, galaxies and other beautiful strange ventures. I visit other artist's sites and get to see videos, pictures and am able to download their music without any problems. I good example is Lisa and Wendy and Norah Jones. Make is simple, make it free.."except the music".. and they will come... | |
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GetAwayFromMe said: HatrinaHaterwitz said: And the moral of the story is...
You live and you learn. Well...some people do. The best part for me is that he was disappointed with the number of members. do we have any idea on how many members lotusflow3r had? I really would like to know  | |
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laurarichardson said: Efan said: I found this part in particular very infuriating. It shows exactly how little Prince regards his fans. ----- Dude was not a fan. He was an employee. I hope everyone takes note of this comment. "Clay declined to say how many paying members the site did attract, but he speculated that the number was a disappointment to Prince." I believed from the beginning that he was not going to get that many people to fork over the $77.00 and without enought members the business was not going to be profitable or worth his time. This is the main reason I took a wait and see attitude and did not join. That's exactly my point. By not answering Clay's emails, Prince was punishing fans, not Clay. And by deciding the site wasn't worth his time, Prince was punishing fans. Your post further illustrates how greedy Prince is as well as how little he thinks of his fans. | |
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Hey, the dude sent Prince so many emails asking for new content that Prince actually called him up said said to stop.
What else do you think Clay could have done? | |
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lotusflower said: GetAwayFromMe said: The best part for me is that he was disappointed with the number of members. do we have any idea on how many members lotusflow3r had? I really would like to know someone posted a graph a while ago about the traffic to the site. there's some company/server/whatever that keeps track of how many original hits a site gets each day. peak traffic on lotusflower, as far as i can remember was 40,000 right near the launch. calculate how many people just had a look, based on hype and then decided against joining, either because it was too much money, or because they didn't know exactly what they would get, or simply because they couldn't even sign up due to that stupid riddle or whatever the hell that was. and true love lives on lollipops and crisps | |
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BartVanHemelen said: ...He and his team were paid for their work, he said, but they never had a written contract. And apparently Prince also neglected to have them sign non-disclosure agreements?! 
This is great stuff, thanks for bringing it to our attention! "I would say that Prince's top thirty percent is great. Of that thirty percent, I'll bet the public has heard twenty percent of it." - Susan Rogers, "Hunting for Prince's Vault", BBC, 2015 | |
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Militant said: Now Clay is in the process of handing over LotusFlow3r.com files to a new Prince representative who Clay describes as “me 2.0.”
New site! Yay! Have we not learned anything?  | |
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Lotus was doomed from jump.
On one hand you have Prince who we all know will drop any project for what is the "new" thing that pops up. On the other hand you have a fanbase that is spoiled and is not satisfied with anything he does. In all of the comments that have been made no mention has been made of this fact.We are all pissed at the lack of output that this site contained but how many people have bitched about the bootlegs that were made off the material from not only this site but the NPGMC site as well. I spent $100 for NPGMC and got all types of music, tickets, etc. only to see some of that material sold on ebay. Yes Prince was/is out of touch with the "fans" but what about the same fan that goes and buys bootlegged material and complains that they already have "that" material. If you were Prince would you release Roadhouse Garden online only to see it on ebay the next week? Prince needs to take responsibility for his actions and so do we. [Edited 4/3/10 9:27am] |
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