i want to join the prince fan club and icant find the flipping site to do so. where do i go?

www.npgmusicclub.com

It costs $25 to join, so have your credit card ready!!!

Right now theres no real new music to download, but u can join in all the quasi-religious/spiritual banter that goes on in there!!

furfur1982 said:

This link should take you straight to the joining page.

http://www.npgmusicclub.com/join.html

Once you go to the site Haystack provided, click on the "Get a Taste" button towards the bottom of the screen (you'll have to scroll down) to hear the funky little commercial jingle (I've always liked these for some reason, going back to 2 Whom It May Concern)...you have to have Flash to watch it, and to access most areas of the club. They do have an HTML version, but as anyone who uses it can testify, most things take weeks or months to get posted there, and some never do - so having Flash makes sure you don't miss any of the features.



Okaaay, let's look at this statement. Ever-changing? When was the last time the "MUSICOLOGY" room changed? I'm sure somebody knows...and I'm also pretty sure that it was around May of 2003 at the latest. "KNOWLEDGE?" There was "content" (a handful of essays on the music business and spirituality) put up in there sometime in the spring of 2003, again almost a year ago, and it has never been updated. It CERTAINLY is anything but ever-changing (in my opinion.

Please keep in mind that if you ever read any of the commentaries on Prince's former free website (www.love4oneanother.com) or whatever else he had (there were a couple variations, I think), then you've already read all of these commentaries. Anyway, I actually enjoyed reading some of these back in 1998, but even then it wasn't anything I personally would want to pay for.

The "REFLECTION" room is updated...gotta give 'em props there. I'm not sure why they're so totally vague on this membership application as to what these rooms actually are. You've probably heard by now that "REFLECTION" is a pool with a little player that comes up and plays streaming 96 kbps mono versions of classic Prince songs, throwing some related musicians in the mix.

There have been a few genuinely exciting songs put up in this room (again, in my opinion) like Holly Rock, Alexa De Paris, and the full-length Let's Go Crazy. With the exception of Holly Rock, I had these already but they are great underrated songs...and many hardcore fans have never heard the 12" of their favorite songs - and in most cases, the 12" is actually the original, unedited song. Which brings up another point...

If there is a song that says "fuck" or "bitch" or "ass" (I think...they're not consistent with that one) or a few other words, they are bleeped out - well, not bleeped out exactly, more like blanked out. It's a sloppy, lazy hack job and it makes you wonder where the $25 membership fee is going exactly (see the thread about the nixed Undertaker DVD).

They update this section much more frequently than any other section of the site...although it is much less than weekly (despite their claims otherwise)..I know someone on here has a list of all the songs and when they were released, right? Count the number of groups of songs and divide the number of weeks from the club's opening until now. I'd be surprised if it works out to a bi-weekly update average, but I could be wrong.



I think that by "engaging transmissions from the next stage of the New Power Generation," they mean the ludicrously named "U Tell Us" - it's much more a case of "We Tell U." It's essentially your basic template discussion board, with little to no extras (unlike the Org, for example). There are 9 moderators, all called PaisleyParkX, with X being 1-9. Not particularly imaginative, I know. Nobody really knows who any of them are, except #9 (I should say that #9 is the only moderator whose identity I am aware of...it's quite likely that some members know much more.)

These moderators are essentially your link to all news and site-related activities, so it's best to get on their good side right away. They tend to be quite hostile if they feel that someone is attacking their boss. Seriously, you'd be amazed at some of the mean arrogance that has been displayed in the name of "Love4OneAnother." Again, in my opinion. It's best not to question their authority, because they can at any time kick you out permanently without a refund. Then how will you get those good Prince tickets?

These moderators are the only way club members will find out about concert dates, or how to buy tickets, or when a CD might be released...so essentially you've PAID for these moderators...they're essentially customer service representatives, but for some reason they act much more like prophets of some sort. Disciples. Apostles. And a lot of the people who post in there are the blind masses, eager for words of, ahem, wisdom. But I digress. I apologize.

For last week's concert (about the 7th or 8th in the last year)there was about 48 hours between the time the moderators posted about the concert and the actual concert itself. Although that's a bit extreme and not exactly the norm, it's quite rare to have more than a week or so notice. So as one of the moderators said, make sure you check all of the different forums every day to see if there's anything new and of interest to you. It's a much smaller and less active community than the Org, so you will start to see the same thread over and over again, with no comments. I'm not gonna lie to you - it can get depressing. In my opinion.

There's also a chat room which some people seem to use and enjoy. I've been in there a few times and I can't say that I haven't had some interesting experiences. No complaints there (except for the fact that they don't let me log in AT ALL anymore, despite the fact that their attorney told the BBB that my membership is active).



You do get first dibs on seats...often there is something that makes the deal a bit less sweet...like the price. Pretty expensive tickets. $60 is by FAR the cheapest single ticket that club members can buy to be part of the club experience at the concert. (In my opinion, well worth it...I'm sure not drowning in cash, but I'll make sure I have enough for 2 primo seats when Prince comes into my town!)

The retail room is an absolute fucking joke. You might get some use out of it, because chances are you don't have the "Rave" remix CD, which you should definitely get. It's fantastic. In my opinion. Other than that, there are doggie t-shirts, baby bibs and clothes, ballcaps, tank tops for extremely anorexic women...and what else is in there? Can anyone help me out? A few musical items but nothing you can't buy in the store or elsewhere on the 'net for cheaper.



I'm not sure why they hype up the DVD anymore on here, because you can get the whole thing for around $13 at retailers all over the place. The same exact version. So why would you want to watch clips from that on your computer?

There have been a couple cool video updates (I think total they've shown maybe 6 or 7 videos since last March, not all of them Prince)...the most recent being "Thieves in the Temple" (the full version!!) back in...August? Was it that long ago? I know it's been a while.

So...that's how you join, yo,



Oh yeah...read the Club Membership CONtract carefully. There have been instances of the club revoking member's accounts with no explanation given, and upon inquiry the NPGMC lawyers start quoting the Membership CONtract. So make sure you go over it very closely before clicking on the button. Prince was right about CONtracts all along. I always agreed with him on that one.

Um, there was also one 3-minute mp3 (Reflection, we think it was called...there was absolutely no information given about it) released for download last March - about a year ago - that in my opinion is a great song. Some people agreed, and some said it was lackluster. A few months ago, they announced a 7-cd set of previously-unreleased-on-CD material!!! People who didn't have the music were extremely excited, and some of the people who had already paid top dollar for this music complained...as they have every right to do in a free society (just like Prince does). Nobody knows, but some speculate that for this reason Prince cancelled the release of this set...so a couple months after announcing

it as

and using a Flash ad that literally came up every single time you went to the club, they announced that there were "manufacturing problems" and that it was on hold "indefinitely"...but they reassured people on the message boards that it would come out eventually, and patience would be rewarded with some words on toast. (Or something like that, I forget exactly what they said.)

However, many of the most "in-the-know" members have since spread the fact among the lower rings of the NPGMC caste system that this set has indeed been permanently axed, to "make way for new music." What will that be? When? Who knows.

Will you have to be a member of NPGMC to get a copy? Fuck no.

Will the NPGMC copy be different in some small way to make it a collector's item? Fuck no.

Will you get it first as a NPGMC member? You may possibly receive it as much as 2 weeks before official release, and you may receive it as much as a month after. Over the summer when NEWS was released they said that they weren't expecting such a huge demand, so who knows what will happen the next time. The shipping has greatly improved in the last 10 years, to the point where now you can pretty much be assured that you will either receive the actual product you ordered or eventually get the charge reversed on your credit card (crazily enough, that wasn't the case for years!).

So yeah, the club.