Ice Magazine, the new cd-releases publication has a short article on its website offering up its opinion of NPGMC. http://www.icemagazine.co...d_170.shtm

[Article... but please visit site as well]
Prince’s online music club (www.npgonlineltd.com) has captured press attention for eliminating record companies from the artist’s relationship with fans, but not for the music it offers. NPG Music Club launched in February of this year, and members pay for online access to Prince songs, videos and a monthly, hour-long streaming radio show. A free section woos prospective members, who pay either $7.77 month-to-month or a $100 annual premium fee that adds VIP access to concerts and snail-mailed CDs.

For now, Prince’s technology is a bit immature. The club claims to support Windows 95 users, but we had trouble taking them up on that. And while the club’s special music player is built on a beta version of Apple QuickTime Java code, the club doesn’t support Apple Macintosh users. Everything seems to work acceptably on Windows 98 and Windows 2000 PCs, though Java apps in general tend to dominate and slow PCs.

When we checked in, Prince’s free section gave exclusive access to a new, downloadable single, "U Make My Son Shine/When Will We B Paid." Another download, "Cybersingle," was also available through Real.com. But the free section offered mostly one to two-minute clips of studio cuts, some available on unauthorized releases. The tunes are decent, particularly "Y Should [eye] Do That When [eye] Can Do This," but the site was stingy with recording details and ultimately frustrating without guarantees of ever offering whole versions.

We dropped $7.77 on a one-month membership and found a new song, "When [eye] Lay My Hand On U," three live performances recorded in 1995 ("We March," "Vicki Waiting" and "Letitgo"), video of a live performance of "Controversy/Mutiny" from last year, and "Transmissions," a 51-minute webcast. Other new songs were embedded within 35-minute promotional videos.

Though fans have paid a price for failed experiments, not all of Prince’s assays cost something. The artist released a free song using controversial file-sharing service Napster on April 6. "The Work: Pt. 1" is the first track from a forthcoming album, The Rainbow Children, scheduled for release later this year. The track is easily accessible using Napster’s software, on Napster’s Web site and through the NPG Music Club.

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