Finally, I have the results to the Unofficial Prince Website Survey that I started a few weeks ago.

As most readers will know, I started the survey in response to a discussion during the first Spreecast of the year, where Dr. Funkenberry indicated that Prince was looking to create a new website and was interested in getting his fans' feedback. Of course, since then, he has launched http://20pr1nc3.com/ , although presumably there is a lot more to come.

The survey asked 18 questions of Prince fans, all of them optional, aimed at determining exactly what they wanted to see in a new official Prince website. Almost 600 fans responded, with varying numbers responding to each question (see "About the Survey", soon to be at the end of my flurry of posts for more details).

Enough of the pre-amble - on with the findings!

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who participated in the survey! I ended up with over 120 pages of information to go through and there were some very clear messages being re-iterated both in the stats and in the comments. I will attempt to list the highlights here, then below you'll find a question-by-question analysis.

• First of all, Prince fans DO want a new website. The most important elements of a new site for fans are news, a shopfront (for digital and physical music and merchandise) and concert tickets (ideally reserved seating or pre-sale opportunities).

• Almost everyone wants free membership, but most would be willing to pay up to $50 a year (or potentially a $5 monthly subscription), depending on what was offered.

• The majority of fans want to see a full website, complete with shopfront, run by paid professionals with help and/or input from fans (ideally the professionals would also be fans).

• Most fans would happily contribute to a crowdfunding campaign (in lieu of a membership fee), providing the rewards on offer were worth it.

• Based on their experiences on other artists’ websites, fans value high quality music formats (including CD and vinyl), interaction with the artist, band members and others (eg. Sound techs), concert ticket specials and tour updates.

• They also want the website to be clear, simple, easy to use, accessible and quick to load.

• Whilst individuals do still feel jaded, the majority of lotusflow3r.com members are still excited and enthusiastic about a new website.

• More than 70% of Prince fans watch music videos on YouTube at least once a week.

• 56% buy physical music products (CD, vinyl) from record stores at least once a month.

• 35% buy digital music from iTunes at least once a month.

• 69% of fans rarely or never download music illegally.

• If Prince had an online store where you could buy music digitally, 94% of fans would buy it there.

• 92% of fans would be more likely to buy music from this site if there was a loyalty program in place.

Over and over, in the comments, fans re-iterated their desire to buy Prince’s music from him, many stating that the only reason they bought or downloaded bootlegs was because they had no way of purchasing the music legally.

In summary, the survey suggests that the best sort of site for Prince fans would be a simple, easy to use, clean layout that includes a shopfront for selling digital and physical music and video (live and studio tracks, both new and old), a section for news, some kind of interaction with people from Prince’s world and somewhere that offered pre-sale or other ticketing opportunities.

The rest of the results will be posted below, for those interested in all the details (well, almost 4000 words' worth, anyway) including a sample of comments near the end.

If anyone from Paisley Park reads this and is interested in the full set of results (121 pages in PDF format), please contact me and I will be delighted to share this with you, as well as access to the survey site where further analysis and filtering of the data can be done.

Question by Question

Q1. How interested are you in seeing Prince start a new website

Overall, respondents were very keen on seeing a new official website. Over 75% of fans were interested to some degree in any sort of site, regardless of the type.

The response “Where Do I Sign Up” dominated the results for all options, with the lowest still being 28% keen on a website with discussion forums, right up to 59% being most excited about the “free membership” option. In terms of content, a website for news, information and a shopfront was the most popular, with 57% ready to sign up.

Not surprisingly, over 96% were at least somewhat interested in free membership and even more (97%) wanted a shopfront.

Perhaps a reflection on discussion forums in their current state, fans were actually marginally more in favour of a paid membership site than they were on having forums on the official site.

Q2. Thinking about what you would want from a new Prince website, how important are the following elements?

This was a very surprising dead heat between “Prince music (digital) for purchase” and “Prince music (physical) for purchase”, and was the first glimpse into how much Prince fans still want CDs and vinyl – a theme that was recurring throughout the entire survey.

A whopping 74% thought it crucial to have physical music products for sale. A slightly higher number (75%) saw it as crucial to have digital downloads for sale, but this lead was lost across the other options, with 4% not interested at all in downloading files (as opposed to 3% having no interest in physical products).

News about Prince was a close third, with 73% of respondents believing that to be a crucial element of an official site.

Interactions between fans was seen as the least important, with 19% listing it as crucial, 31% saying it was somewhat important and 22% stating it wasn’t important at all. The comments indicated that forums, groups, Facebook and Twitter already have that interaction covered.

From the comments, some of the key elements that fans want to see are:

• Music for sale and/or download – ideally physical CD/DVD/vinyl or at least lossless (eg. FLAC) format
• Concert tickets; Be it pre-sale, sale, priority booking, soundchecks, VIP packages – you name it, someone wanted it.
• Communication with/from Prince and the NPG
• News – including new music, tours, aftershows, etc…
• Prince radio (some kind of sanctioned streaming service playing Prince & associated artists)
• Some connection to Facebook – either with an FB connect or with an associated FB page
• Multi-lingual (eg. French)
• Local distributors (ie. Per continent)
• Streaming shows (presumably live, though it wasn’t stated)

Throughout the entire survey, the desire for music for sale (particularly in physical – or at least lossless – form) and priority access for concert tickets was overwhelming.

Q3. Thinking about an official site, how do you feel about fans being involved in running it?

The ‘middle of the road’ option dominated this question, with almost all configurations being found “somewhat comfortable” by between 30% and 45% of respondents. The exceptions were a full site (including shopfront), completely managed by fans, which over 50% of fans were either not at all comfortable, or not really comfortable with, and a full site (including shopfront), managed by paid professionals with help from fans, which over 80% of fans were either somewhat, or very comfortable with (39% and 42% respectively).

The comments reflected a similar desire, suggesting that input is needed from both professionals and fans. One comment suggested “paid professionals that are fans especially in the loop.”

Q4. Crowdfunding is a way for individuals to pledge money to help fund an idea or a project and to receive rewards for doing so – often unique, money-can’t-buy items and opportunities. It is being used more and more these days, not just for small-time artists and companies, but on a larger scale as well. Would you consider contributing to any kind of crowdfunding or similar campaign in order to fund a new Prince website?

20% of respondents were absolutely happy to contribute to such a campaign. A further 65% were open to the idea of crowdfunding, depending on the rewards, leaving 15% who were either not in a position to assist financially, did not believe that crowdfunding should be used by someone at Prince’s level, or who felt too burned by previous websites to pledge money up front.

Q5. What are your favourite artists websites at the moment?

The intention with this question was to get an idea of who was “doing it right” in the eyes of Prince fans. The main responses were for Pearl Jam, David Bowie, Beyonce, U2 and Madonna.

Many fiercely loyal fans interpreted the question a little differently and cast another vote for Prince.org " />

Q6. Thinking about your other favourite artist (or similar) websites, what do you like most about them? (The websites, not the artists " />)

The answers here basically reflect what fans want to see in an official Prince site – high quality music for sale, interaction with the artist, concert ticket specials and opportunities and tour updates.

Other things mentioned were ease of use and the clarity of the navigation, that everything is there, it’s “not too gadgety”, the accessibility and speed of the site and great connectivity to community and officials like sound engineers.

Q7. What (if any) paid memberships to Prince websites have you had in the past?

70% of respondents were previously a member of Lotusflow3r.com, whilst 88% were a member of npgmusicclub.com

Interestingly, when I applied a filter to the entire survey, looking only at the responses by those who were a member of Lotusflow3r.com, I found that overall, they were more keen on a new website, less put off by the idea of a paid membership and more willing to pay upwards of $50 (and even over $100) than the average across all survey respondents.

Despite this, the comments were more reflective of what we see on forums, with people quite jaded and concerned that any further website ventures by Prince would go the same way as Lotusflow3r.

Q8. If a Prince website required paid membership (which gave you access to the full site, with news, information, discussion and shopfront), how much would you consider spending for an annual membership?

First of all, 20% of respondents said they would not sign up to another paid membership site.

23% would invest up to $20, whilst a further 23% would pay up to (14%) and potentially over (9%) $100.

A measly 6% put $77 as their limit.

The winner overall though was somewhere in the middle, with 28% of respondents willing to pay up to $50 for an annual membership.

Most comments stated that it would depend on what was being offered for the paid membership (with unreleased music/video and pre-sale opportunities topping most wishlists). Others suggested a small monthly charge ($5-10) similar to Spotify, as well as suggestions for having two levels – ie. Free membership and premium membership.

Q9. How do you acquire your music and how often?

For me, this was the biggest surprise.

Starting with the least surprising news, 38% use YouTube (or similar) daily, with more than 70% of fans using it at least once a week to watch music videos.

However, in terms of actually purchasing music, the clear winner was the wrecka stow, with 40% of fans buying music at a record store monthly, 12% buying weekly and 4% buying music daily.

29% of Prince fans never download music on iTunes and 36% rarely do so, meaning that, whilst 56% of fans are buying physical music products at least every month, 65% rarely or never visit the iTunes store.

Other sources mentioned in the comments were Amazon, eBay and discogs.

According to the survey, illegal downloading is not as prevalent as you might think amongst Prince fans. 69% of fans rarely or never download music illegally. On the other hand, 6% do so daily, 9% do so weekly and 16% indulge around once a month.

Many comments reflected what is often mentioned on forums – that if music from Prince’s official back catalogue was available somewhere to purchase (in high quality), they would not download them illegally.

Q10. Being really honest here about your behaviour in the majority of cases, if Prince had an online store where you could buy music digitally, what would you do?

88% would buy the music to show their support for Prince.

6% would buy the music because they were unsure/uncomfortable about obtaining it for free.

Of the other 6% who would still obtain the music illegally, a third of them would do so because they couldn’t afford to spend money on buying the music.

More than half of the 67 comments for this question were around wanting a physical CD, record or DVD/blu ray and wondering why this wasn’t even an option. Whilst my intention was to determine what people’s behaviour was when exactly the same product was available somewhere online for instant, free download (ie. Only available with a file), it was still very valuable to see again how keen the Prince fan community is for physical music and video products.

Q11. If there were some kind of loyalty program on Prince’s site, whereby you earned points for buying music that could then be redeemed for physical products and money-can’t-buy opportunities such as pre-sales, entry to sound checks and limited edition merchandise, would you be more inclined to buy music from the site?

92% would be more inclined to buy music from the site if there was a loyalty program in place, although within that number, 20% say that it would depend on what was being offered.

8% would not be more inclined to buy. The most prevalent accompanying comments were that they would buy the music regardless of a rewards program, and that they saw a loyalty program as potentially being unfair to those who couldn't afford to clock up lots of points, potentially even by buying multiple copies of the same products.

Q12. I identify as a…

37% of respondents identify as a female, with 63% identifying as a male.

Q13. Since I was born, the earth has rotated around the sun…

59% of respondents have seen the sun whiz by between 35 and 55 times.

17% have seen it between 18 and 35 times.

A mere 1% haven’t even seen it 18 times yet, and 1.5% are most familiar with it, having watched it fly by between 55 and 75 times.

5% have lost count and 16% reminded me that time is a trick

Q14. I became a Prince fan…

Almost 50% of respondents became fans between 1980 and 1985, and 78% were a fan by 1990.

Prince picked up 11% more by 1995, and a further 11% by 2010.

3 survey respondents became fans sometime between 2011 and now (welcome, newbies!! )

Q15. What online forums do you currently use to discuss Prince?

Not surprisingly, Prince.org took this one out, with 64% being orgers (lurkers and posters alike, according to the comments). Its only real competitor was Facebook, where 60% of fans gather. 39% use Twitter to keep in touch with other fans and to get purple news instantly. 14% frequent The Dawn Experience, 12% visit Princefams and 8% assured me that I wouldn’t know them.

10% said that they don’t use online forums at all to discuss Prince. In the comments section, there was a strong showing for Schkopi and Dr. Funkenberry, as well as multiple mentions of Housequake, Peach & Black Podcast, PrinceVault, Prince.web.de, Suzy’s Soul Sanctuary and ‘Til The Dawn.

Q16. Thinking back on all the online forums you’ve discussed Prince in, what are your favourites and why?

Many people listed unofficial sites as their favourites – most notably Prince.org and Housequake. The org seems most loved because it is “real”, in that fans can say whatever they like and there is little to no censorship, whereas Housequake’s praise came mainly for its professionalism, up-to-date news and ample resources (including knowledgeable and helpful members).

Regarding the official sites, npgmc was mentioned a lot, because it had latest news, special concert and tour opportunities (pre-sales, sound checks, etc…) and good site interaction.

For both official and unofficial sites, the friendships formed often determined respondents’ favourite haunts.

Q17. What is the most important thing you’d like to share with anyone putting together another Prince site?

Out of a perfect total of 319 comments (truly) for this question, these are areas that people touched on again and again:

• Keep it simple – clean, easy to use, adhering to web standards
• Keep it going – a long term commitment, not a passing interest
• Let us buy music
• Lossy and lossless options
• Physical CDs and vinyl
• Videos as well – streaming, plus DVD/Blu ray for sale
• Old and new music, live and studio tracks, released and previously unreleased
• Make concert tickets available through the site
• Pre-sales, VIP specials, premium seats reserved for members
• Access to soundchecks and aftershows
• Promise less, deliver more
• Official Prince merchandise for sale through an online store
• Dedicated YouTube channel – subscriptions earn money for Prince, let new and old fans watch videos from all Prince eras
• Reasonable membership fee
• Consider a free option (access) and a premium option (bonuses)
• Consider a monthly fee ($5-10 depending on perks) rather than yearly/lifetime

I’ve pulled out a sample of the comments to give you an idea of what people are saying;

“It should all be about the music and video. Old and New stuff. I would spend an entire paycheck.”

“So tired of hunting for music out of print..buying used copies. Much of my LP collection & several cds were lost in a move. I would love to legitimately replace what i am missing or give a new cd to a future fan!”

“The NPGMC perks, from what I've heard, were incredible. Advance ticket sales, priority location at venues, access to sound checks, access to new music etc. NPGMC sounds like the greatest 'fan club' in music history. I'd sign up for it in a heartbeat if it existed today.”

“The main reason so many Prince fans trade his music underground is because there's no way to buy most of it from him. Why not sell it to us?”

“…We want musical enlightenment, entertainment and a place to escape to. I love you Prince, but you're not my daddy; so please stop spanking my hand every time I ask for historical live DVDs like Parade Tour, Lovesexy Tour, Purple Rain Tour, Nude Tour or Act I & II…”

“We fans will pay for prince music and memorabilia let us.”

“…Prince's whole body of work (including Time/Sheila E albums etc) should be available in loss less formats, and vinyl, with LOTS of items from the vaults. Video and concert footage should be present and accounted for. There should also not be the looming threat that it could all vanish off the web tomorrow.”

“There will always be bootlegging but at least give us the chance to buy the music legally.”

“MUSIC. I want to buy CDs. If I can't I will buy digital copies. Sell it to me!!”

Q18. Is there anything you’d like to add?

This is probably a good place for me to mention how much I love Prince fans. I loved them before, but this survey just made me love them even more

Apart from over 100 pages of comments overall, so many eloquent answers and intelligent suggestions, not to mention how much love was expressed for Prince (even though, sadly, he’ll probably never read them – though I’m sure the love was felt), this question garnered some beautiful responses. Lots of “Thank you”, “Peace & Be Wild”, “May U Live 2 C The Dawn“, “God Bless” and, of course, “I love you Prince!”

Amongst lovely sentiments, there were some final thoughts, which for the most part re-enforced what had already emerged throughout the survey. Here’s a sample:

“Prince Concerts are like no other. so many people have never had the opportunity to see him live, and some concerts I would love to re-live myself if it were available on dvd or cd. What better way to show my sons, as well as other young people today why this man is so special?”

“Prince should have one of the best websites out there. He is a musical genius and icon in the world. His website should reflect that. I really don't want to feel taken advantage of or cheated and let down anymore by a Prince website!”

“Recent advances in technology allow gigs to be recorded and released within days or even at the venue after the show (e.g. concertlive.co.uk). I'd happily pay £20 for a double or triple CD of the gig I'd just seen.”

“I like the idea of a Prince site that exists primarily for info and new music. If Prince then decides to release stuff just for site members, great. Or to check out our thoughts on new material or future plans, also great. But I'd like to be able to buy top quality (as intended) downloads with the option of CD and even vinyl. If he'd like to offer first release on tix, even better…and of course info on aftershows would be brilliant. I'd pay a very small fee for the possibility of that. Just don't promise it. Don't even mention it. Just do it if you want to. Send emails to members to check website when such activity occurs…Keep it simple, be an artist and go with the flow and let someone else think about how to use a website to engage your fans via this medium. We'll then relish the times you surprise us with a flourish of an idea, whatever it may be.”

“I'm 21 and I've introduced the music of Prince to lots of friends of mine, and most of them really like it and even became fans themselves, buying CDs with my advice and waiting for their first Prince concert with me. A genuine website would be a great way for them to "make their own path" in Prince's universe.”

“I like the idea of Prince taking preorders and once it reaches an amount he is happy about payment for release it. Downloading will [not] go away but as long as someone is happy with how much they get paid for something, let it be.”

“Please make sure everything digital in music and videos is also available in a physical format. I don't mind paying a premium for that.”

“NPGMC was the best thing Prince did 4 his fans. Every month we had 4-5 new tracks, plus we had a new album that he released 2 the world. Being able to buy our tickets before the general public is also important, and also as a member having access 2 soundchecks and aftershows was a dream for us. Unfortunately it didn’t last. Put simply, most people I’ve spoken 2 want NPGMC back.”

“I LOVE PRINCE!”

“Peace and be wild!”

“Thank you for listening.”

About the survey (for the survey nerds)

I’m not an expert in surveys. Sure, I’ve taken plenty and I’ve got a limited background in maths and some statistics, but I’m the first to admit that this survey is the work of an amateur.

That said, I did attempt to get the most even spread of Prince fans I could, by sending it out (either directly or indirectly) via every fan forum I knew of, via Facebook and Twitter and via a mention of it in the Spreecast chat. Thank you to everyone who reposted it into other groups, pages and forums – it really made a difference.

Overall, there were 587 responses, including some unfinished surveys. All questions were optional, so different numbers of people answered each question, with the questions about other artist websites rating the lowest (288/255). The other questions received about 550 responses on average.

Generally, if the survey is completely random, 550 responses is enough to be confident that the answers are an accurate estimation of the general population within a 4% margin of error on either side. Where responses clearly favour one side (eg. 10% or 90%), the margin of error is much smaller and it’s much more likely that the figure is an accurate representation of the greater population.

Unfortunately, I don’t think any survey expert would conclude that my survey was “random” – for this we’d need to be ringing or emailing people out of the blue and asking a couple of questions to determine if they were likely to visit a Prince website and if so, then proceed with the survey. I think.

In any case, I accept that the survey was skewed in favour of the most loyal Prince fans, as they are the only ones that were likely to volunteer to take the survey.

So it’s not perfect, but it’s something and at the absolute least, offers some information about what nearly 600 of Prince’s most dedicated, active online fans would want from his new website.

It was a fun survey to take - thanks for putting it together. This forum is quite dead, unfortunately. I hope the results get noticed and shared and that they have positive impact.

Thanks for your efforts in conducting the survey.

Thanks for all your effort with this survey, and for sharing the detailed results with us!

I do hope that someone in Prince's camp reads this and makes use of it. The new website is great so far and looks promising for more available downloads in the future, and 20Pr1nc3.com will hopefully also reappear with some great things! (Maybe they are working on incorporating some of the results of the survey right now!)

Good survey...and as i thought, I'm just an average Prince fan!!!

Good to know

Thanks to everyone for their support! It was really fun and interesting to put together, and I'm trusting that it will have, or perhaps already is having, an impact on Prince's online presence this year.

Specifically, what I can tell you is that they ARE listening.

Chiquetet said:

kapo74 said:

Chiquetet said:

Specifically, what I can tell you is that they ARE listening.

That much is clear, but were you actually contacted?

Yes.