{{{http://www.startribune.co...24821.html and http://www.startribune.co...24793.html

First one:
Prince uses Web to aim directly at hardcore fans
Chris Riemenschneider
Star Tribune

Published Jun 24, 2002
Prince defines the title of his current weeklong celebration, "Xenophobia," as the fear of outsiders. Fittingly, Friday's opening event at his Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen was aimed at insiders: fans who pay $100 a year to belong to his Internet music club.}}}

The artist formerly known as The Artist is foremost among a number of high-profile musicians, from fading veterans such as David Bowie to contemporary stars including Dave Matthews, who are bypassing the conventional channels of the music business and marketing themselves directly to fans via the Web.

Prince's New Power Generation Music Club, online at http://www.npgmusicclub.com , exclusively sells his latest CDs and best concert seats. Only NPG members who bought a $250 pass are guaranteed entrance to his "Xenophobia" concerts, which continue through Thursday.

Many industry insiders and fans admire his efforts to work outside the corporate music world. They also wonder whether Prince, who hasn't had a Top 10 hit since 1994, might be further alienating mainstream audiences.

"If all he is doing is singing to the choir with [NPG], he can't really expect to generate a younger or wider audience," said Bob Merlis, former vice president of publicity at Warner Bros. Records, Prince's label for nearly two decades. "And if he doesn't keep the diehard fans happy, then he really might be in trouble."

E.M. Leonard, an NPG member from Des Moines, certainly wasn't pleased about waiting in line for three hours Friday outside Paisley Park.

"I wonder if he has become completely out of touch with working-class fans, thinking we can afford $250 and a week off work," he said.

Leonard had opted instead to buy a $110 ticket to a concert scheduled Friday at the Historic Orpheum Theatre. But that show, and another scheduled Wednesday, were moved late last week to Paisley, and Orpheum tickets were not being honored.

Still, plenty of passholders weren't complaining. "You learn to expect the unexpected from Prince, which sometimes can be a hassle but also keeps it interesting," said George Davis of Cincinnati.

On the independent fan site, Prince.org, many gripe about the expense of "Xenophobia" and glitches with NPG. "For the longest time, he's had a reputation of not being able to do anything right business-wise or fan-wise," said the site's cofounder, Ben Margolin. "It's actually gotten a little better" with the NPG club. [I won't go so far as to say I was misquoted, but I think my tone was overall quite positive, and that's not really reflected here. That's OK, though, we all know how reporters are -Ben]

Perks set Prince apart

Internet music clubs are becoming commonplace. No longer are they just kitschy cliques that cater to teenage fanatics. Veteran acts such as Sting and Aerosmith have some of the most active online communities. Bowie was the first to heavily market his music online.

Most of these clubs, however, cost about $30 to join and do not offer the exclusive perks that Prince does. On his recent "One Nite Alone" tour, venues frequently were more than half-filled with NPG members, who often got to sit in on sound checks and question-and-answer sessions with Prince.

At a recent New York concert, celebrities including comedian Chris Rock were seated behind NPG members. Prince told spectators in the balcony: "You could be down here if you'd joined."

He won't disclose how many members his club has. Outsiders guess anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000. (Prince, who has kept the news media at bay since announcing his had become a Jehovah's Witness last year, declined to be interviewed, and he won't allow business associates to talk either.)

About 1,000 "Xenophobia" passes were sold to members from around the world who are allowed to roam Paisley Park during the day and get to hear Prince and various guests perform each night. On Friday, fans sat in a studio with Prince record producer Femi Jiya to hear a new live CD, and paid $5 to pose for photos on the motorcycle from the movie "Graffiti Bridge."

"Lots of artists are doing [ticket] pre-sales and other activities through their Internet club, but nobody is doing it to the extent that he is," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert trade publication.

Prince's approach to touring is unique in two ways: He often announces shows only two weeks in advance, partly to thwart ticket scalpers. Also, he avoids working with corporate giants such as Clear Channel.

"It all seems to be working well at the theater-size venues that he's playing in," Bongiovanni said, citing sellouts in most cities. "But I'm not sure if he could make it work in bigger venues."

Small sales, big profit?

Prince started opening up to fans when he closed himself off to the record-label conglomerates. Claiming mistreatment and unfair pay, he broke with Warner Bros. in 1995.

Subsequent one-album deals with EMI and Arista resulted in meager sales. Except for last year's "The Very Best of" collection -- which Prince denounced because he said it profited Warner and not him -- none of his albums in the past half-decade has gone gold (500,000 copies sold).

"The Rainbow Children," released in November with independent distribution from Best Buy-affiliated Redline Entertainment, earned scant radio play and has sold about 130,000, according to Nielsens/SoundScan. Prince's spokesperson would not say how many copies were sold online.

Merlis said Prince did make money from last year's hits CD, but agreed that he might earn more by releasing albums on his own.

"The hits had stopped coming for him, and there comes a certain point of diminishing returns for artists like Prince, when they get infinitely higher profits [by releasing CDs independently]," Merlis said.

Fans at Paisley Park over the weekend seemed to think Prince is on the right career path.

"The music industry is just interested in producing the next Britney Spears; it doesn't care about a real musician like Prince," said Jon Pickard, an NPG member from Reading, England. "That's fine, too. That means there's more of him for us who do care."

-- Chris Riemenschneider is at chrisr@startribune.com .

Second one:
The critic joins the club for $100. What does he get?



Published Jun 24, 2002
My credit card was charged $100 on May 22. An "emale" came the same day confirming my membership as a "fam" (not a "fan"). The message promised, "NPGMC is destined 2 become ur #1 source 4 funk."

That's how I got into Prince's New Power Generation Music Club, online at http://www.npgmusicclub.com. I'm still wondering what I'm going to get out of it.

The site advertises that four CDs will be mailed upon joining. One CD, "One Nite Alone," featuring Prince solo on piano, already has been mailed to members, the site says. I joined too late -- aside from one song made available for download, I still have not received any music.

I e-mailed a club representative asking if an error was made. Her response: "I have keyed a replacement order for your CD." No other details were provided. That was June 12, and still no CD. (The next shipment of "One Nite Alone" won't be mailed out for several months, I learned later after contacting a Prince spokesperson.)

Other perks of membership also have been disappointing. Only three items have been available as "Xclusive" members-only merchandise: a $15 coffee mug, $20 mouse pad and a $20 re-mixed version of Prince's 1999 CD for Arista, "Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic."

The chat room -- a principal part of other fan sites -- only features "approved" messages, nothing gossipy or negative.

However, e-mailed updates on Prince's "Xenophobia" celebration have been terrifically up-to-the-minute, if not always accurate. A group alert about the change of venue for last Friday's concert from the Historic Orpheum Theatre to Paisley Park said that tickets would be honored at Paisley. Not true.

In any case, being an NPG Music Club member did not help me get better seats. I would have had to pay an extra $250 to get a "Xenophobia" pass.

-- Chris Riemenschneider

I'm curious to see how the whole "orpheum tickets" situation will be handled in the end.
By now people have paid for the show, it was cancelled and they haven't received anything back, right?
The NPGMC surely has to take care of the whole thing.

calldapplwondery83 said:

...interesting! do U think that NPGMC got the monies from ticketmaster N the Orpheum Theatre? do U honestly believe that it went straight 2 Prince? again,...interesting!

That second article was some bad publicity the the npgmc.

It was not undeserved either. He should not have to wait months for the first CD that everyone else has.

The one good thing about the article was the fact that I wasn't even aware that the Rave CD sold on NPGMC was full of remixes and "Beautiful Strange". The fact that it's not sold to the general public makes me feel like a valued club member. It's just another thing I needed to justify the price of joining. I'm definitely going to use this "members only" privelege. I just got done ordering mine.

yeah eye ordered mine not 2 long ago.. its ok, nothing special.. thats probably cause eye downloaded most all b4 it even came out.. u blame me? hell it forever to come out>> but eye bought it anyway>> anyway it was cool:)