The online magazine Business 2.0 has published a story about selling music online.

Here's what's said about Prince:

Performers are closer to their audiences than any record company is, so shouldn't they be able to show record companies the way? Some have been trying to do so -- often with results as poor as those of the major labels. The Artist Once Again Known as Prince, no lover of major labels, is wrapping up the second year of a $100 annual service that sells his most devoted fans music either not available elsewhere or before it's available elsewhere.
One suspects it hasn't been a huge success (membership figures are said to be confidential). Much of the Purple One's insular work available through his service -- piano solos, extended jazz workouts, live leftovers -- would never be released by a major label in the current climate, and fan sites report that many of those who have signed up have been frustrated by the much punier offerings in year two, compared with what was available the first year. So as much as Prince would be thrilled to teach the major labels a lesson, he hasn't.

But given the steep price of his service, Prince appears to have assumed (the former glyph never responded to repeated e-mails) that the people most willing to pay for music on the Net are likely to be committed fans, not casual ones. That brings us to Phish, the reunited neohippie quartet from Vermont, which seems to have only obsessive fans. After a two-and-a-half-year sabbatical, the group returned to the stage with a sold-out New Year's Eve performance at Madison Square Garden. First thing Jan. 2, barely a day after the end of the long show, the band launched a new website, http://www.livephish.com/, where fans could, for a small fee ($14.95), download CD-quality files and create a homemade three-disc set of the complete show. A booklet and artwork for the CD labels were included. If you needed supplies like cases or blank CD-Rs, you could buy them via the "dry goods" section of the site. Everything a fan might need was right there. This, my friends, was the beginning of the future of legitimate digital distribution of pop tunes.

how old is this article? im just wonderin why they didn't comment on year 3 at all.

livephish - now that is a good business idea! Come on Prince it really ain't THAT hard to get this right!

Pearl Jam is doing this. Phish is doing this. Prince should be doing this.

since when is P trying to outsmart the industry,
He's just doing it his own way.

How he measures his success is so very different to what some of his fans perceive it to be.

some people don't write The Truth they write what PEOPLE (not people like us) want 2 read & not what should b said.

i am a HAPPY Year 3 Member & the More Memberships P has the more i'LL join & b a Member