Scott could have set up away better customer service-no matter how little content he was getting from Prince-who ultimately has to take the blame cuz its all his ride-he's steering-if he decides to drive straight into a ditch-its not like ANYBODY is gonna say dont or you can't do that

whatever.....his next projects gonna be massive

in the torrent world

Scott could have set up away better customer service-no matter how little content he was getting from Prince-who ultimately has to take the blame cuz its all his ride-he's steering-if he decides to drive straight into a ditch-its not like ANYBODY is gonna say dont or you can't do that

whatever.....his next projects gonna be massive

in the torrent world

Last year, a Los Angeleno named Scott Addison Clay was invited into Prince’s inner sanctum –literally. Clay recalls the pop singer leading him through “the catacombs of his insanely gargantuan basement.” The tour led into a cavernous room, where a man sat at a drum set. A woman picked up a bass, Prince strapped on a guitar and a private concert ensued. Clay said, “It was the most bizarre thing. I remember thinking, do we clap?”

These and other scenes that resemble a Dave Chappelle sketch come to life, including 2 a.m. pancakes and deafening listening sessions in a room lined with thick white fur (“It was like polar bears had laid down for him”), were all part of a run-up to the launch of Prince’s latest, greatest Web portal.

Clay and his team were from the marketing firm Cimarron Group, which develops interactive games and such for Hollywood films like “Twilight.” 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.

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.

A representative for Prince did not respond to request for comment.

The episode should serve as a warning to the growing number of artists experimenting with newfangled fan clubs and members-only content sites: feed the beast — feed it often and well — or suffer blowback from your most vocal fans.

Things in LotusFlow3r land boiled over last week when some members noticed that their credit cards had been charged an additional $77 — an automatic renewal of their memberships. Making matters worse, many of these members had previously contacted the site’s administrators to say they hadn’t gotten their money’s worth, and they wanted out when their year was up.

Prince fan sites lit up.

“So far I have paid another $77 for a floating jellyfish which vanishes when you click on it. Well done Prince. Nothing like treating your fans like royalty,” wrote OperatingThetan. Desire2006 added, “It looks like the [Better Business Bureau] will have 2 re-open its ‘Prince’ case file again!!!!!”

To his credit, the singer was a Web pioneer, having released an album online back in 1997 following his ugly contract dispute with Warner Bros. But his track record with online fan clubs has been spotty. In 2006, he abruptly shuttered his New Power Generation Music Club with the message, “In its current 4m there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go.”

Last week, some fans seemed to blame themselves for getting roped in. “I signed up again, knowing full well what happened to his past Web sites,” wrote IstenSzek.

Prince fan Steven Anthony, who was erroneously charged and then refunded, called attention to the fracas — and got a lot of hate from diehard Prince fans — with a scathing open letter to the singer on his blog. Anthony says he was “lucky” to get what he did out of his membership, including a T-shirt and access to tickets for a concert at Paisley Park in Minnesota. But Anthony still feels burned by the LotusFlow3r experience. He says, “I don’t really like Prince that much as a person right now, but I still support his work.”

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.

As for the unauthorized credit card charges, Clay said that he didn’t realize that their billing service had activated the automatic renewals. When he and his team saw the charges adding up -– and heard from irate members — they halted the process. He said “a few hundred” members had to be refunded.

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. About a month ago, Prince relayed the order for the site to be shut down. Now Clay is in the process of handing over LotusFlow3r.com files to a new Prince representative who Clay describes as “me 2.0.”

He and his team were paid for their work, he said, but they never had a written contract. Looking back on an experience for which Prince fans “praised and reviled me, in equal measure,” Clay said, “it was a wild year.”

True.

Scott could have set up away better customer service-no matter how little content he was getting from Prince-who ultimately has to take the blame cuz its all his ride-he's steering-if he decides to drive straight into a ditch-its not like ANYBODY is gonna say dont or you can't do that

whatever.....his next projects gonna be massive

in the torrent world

He got paid ...so he didn't care Clay is a blagger...the WSJ interview makes that clear...

Mr Clay, i think it's poor business to blame a popstar for an error that was down to poor web design and bad business pratice, good business is based on trust and open communication.

The billing error that most Prince fans are upset about had nothing to do with Prince as he does not design websites or employee billing agents for e-commerce applications.

Prince is a musician, as a web designer you should know that you need to have alll your content at the start of the project not in the middle and not after the website has been launched.

Testing the website is also good business pratice.

Shame on you sir.

Prince, give me a call. I'll make your new site and it will be WAY better than any site you've had before.

Be careful what you wish for. That's would be an express train from Fanville to Hater Town for sure.

Also, if anyone's interested, you can read Scott Addison Clay's professional bio here. If you think Prince just hired some hack who didn't know the first thing about building a website, think again.

Yeah right...he paid a Web Design to Design a crappy site ...Yeah...ok?



All he had to do was return an email with an answer or test his website out ?



pleaszzzzz

The Smashing Pumpkins are currently releasing an album via the web, track by track as they are created. How would that be possible? Do they have shit web designers or designers that are competent and able to deal with output they trust is coming?

The operative words there being "trust is coming". How could a web site designed to provide creative output ever start off with all the content if the artist is still creating? Unless the initial content was all that was ever planned...

There is plenty of blame to go on BOTH sides of this nightmare.

He got paid ...so he didn't care Clay is a blagger...the WSJ interview makes that clear...

Mr Clay, i think it's poor business to blame a popstar for an error that was down to poor web design and bad business pratice, good business is based on trust and open communication.

The billing error that most Prince fans are upset about had nothing to do with Prince as he does not design websites or employee billing agents for e-commerce applications.

Prince is a musician, as a web designer you should know that you need to have alll your content at the start of the project not in the middle and not after the website has been launched.

Testing the website is also good business pratice.

Shame on you sir.

Sorry are TSP indie, or have they got a machine behind them .....?

This answers the "content coming" question !