I´m getting tired of waiting. Didn´t they say in january or something that the first cd would arrive within the first three months? If they´re counting from february, then the three months are up in about two weeks. I doubt they will make it. We´ll probably get four cd´s with a bunch of boring live tracks at the end of december... What do you think?

hey Prince, now you got all your money from the die hard fans, how about releasing them in stores aswell, cos u just know that some npgmc members will buy them there too if u release them a week or so before posting the members theirs.

Prince being the slavemaster now would rather collect all of your $$$ up front to press CDs that have already been completed for months. Pretend he gathered $100 from approximately 5000 "friends" from across the globe, well even in a savings account he's looking at $500,000 of your monies sitting in an account gathering $20,000 or so in annual interest. Now that truly is being number one in the bank!!!

It would have been nice if the first CD had been shipped out immediately to members. An instant reward for joining and, surely, good publicity - when non-members heard about how great (hopefully) the CD was, they'd be more eager to join.

Vibrator said:

No

They're not counting from February.I think you you got your expectations up unnecessarily. The only official NPGMC statement has been that the 4CDs will be shipped during 2002. Since then, Prince has commented at soundchecks that at least one CD is approaching the time of being ready for shipping - but if it ships soon, then great. He's under no obligation to ship until towards the end of the club membership.

Haystack said:

Good point. But maybe that´s just it - the CDs are NOT great. If he knows the CDs aren´t all that good, then I can understand why he would wait. Because if the word spreads that they´re bad, nobody else will join. Oh well, let´s hope I´m wrong...

Vibrator said:

I think what is happening is sort of a Catch-22. Prince is touring to promote The Rainbow Children AND the NPGMC. But he's using the NPGMC to promote the tour, by offering soundchecks and afterparty access. He is trying to get people into the tours, and he is promoting Xenophobia at the concerts.

Anyway, my point is: I think he wanted to finally put out a live CD, so maybe he is waiting until he gets the "ultimate" version of the ONA tour. Then I think he'll ship Xenophobia and One Night Alone Live together.

Just a comment: I bought the U2 "Live from Boston" DVD and on it they actually admit that it's NOT the best version of the concert --- it's just the only one they taped. Maybe Prince IS trying to get the perfect version on Audio as well as Video (for a DVD???)

JimmyNothing said:

Xenophobia? Where did you get that title from? Is it official? If so, what else do you know about that cd?

Anyway, I think you´re right about the catch 22 situation. I´ve had similar thoughts myself.

Vibrator said:

Yeah, that's all we need. The CD comes out and it doesn't live up to "SOMEONE'S" expectations. Then we all have to see posts for a month about how they got screwed by joining the club! I can see it now... "the CDs aren't 'good'"... "I wasted my money"... etc.

I think the problem is that Prince is so prolific that the fans get used to getting so much music to the point where we can't absorb it all and truly appreciate what we have. I think some people would actually be happier if we only got ONE cd a year with 10 songs on it, released only in stores. Would some of you be happy then? As Prince fans, I think we take A LOT of things for granted - which is unfortunate.

Vibrator said:

You haven't been paying attention, have you?

Thoughts from a NPGMC member:
The longer NPG takes to release the first cd just makes that much smaller the amount of time to get the other three out.
NPG should try to get the first one out before the postal rates go up.
Wouldn't be surprised if NPG mails 2 cds out at once - to save on mailing & to speed things up.
Do you think they have a timetable or just winging it as they go along?

I do believe NPGMC have a rough timetable. I also think that we will get the first CD very soon, but with Prince on the road at the moment it may slow things down a little. Chances are that the first CD sent will be "One Night Alone", a studio album of solo piano tracks.

On the flyers given out at the concerts it also mentions that the CD's that will be made available to club members will be;

One Night Alone
Xenophobia
The Very Best Of
Last December

I emailed the NPGMC quite a while back to find out more about these CD's, and this is what they said:
(paraphrased by me)

These CD's are what's currently in the pipeline. That's not to say though that they ARE the 4 CD's that we will recieve as NPGMC members. Some of them may just be made available to buy though the members only retail section, and Prince himself has the final say on which will be sent, which will be sold, and also MAY decide not to release one or more of them at all. Prince is also at liberty to change the tracklisting of any of the above CD's (or to add or take away tracks at the last minute), which is why NPGMC will not issue tracklists until the CD's are pressed and are ready to ship.

"These CD's are what's currently in the pipeline. That's not to say though that they ARE the 4 CD's that we will recieve as NPGMC members. Some of them may just be made available to buy though the members only retail section, and Prince himself has the final say on which will be sent, which will be sold, and also MAY decide not to release one or more of them at all. Prince is also at liberty to change the tracklisting of any of the above CD's (or to add or take away tracks at the last minute), which is why NPGMC will not issue tracklists until the CD's are pressed and are ready to ship."


Very clearly spoken... Prince has ALL the freedom he can have and whining about it is no use.

You could better try to convince them that 25$ for 1 cd is a bit overpriced and tell them to release at least 5 or 6!!

Btw who gave this topic so many stars??

0 STARS!

The impression I got from talking to the NPGMC is that even though we are only guaranteed 4 CD's, but are MORE than likely to get at least 5. They also hinted that we might get the odd free single as well. One side note, it's also been mentioned that the CD "The Very Best Of " is a double album. So I'm confident that when we come to the end of year 2, it will have been well worth the money.

kaylef said:

"The Very Best Of "??? You got to be kidding? I can´t believe he would sell a greatest hits collection to people who almost for certain have bought all of his albums already???

And I can´t believe that one of the cd´s will be called "Last December"! Sure, he has shown a lack of creative imagination when it comes to titles before (Rave Un2...), but I don´t think he would recycle a title once more....or would he? Oh no.....I guess maybe he would...

And please, please don´t let "One Night Alone" be a simple live recording of one of the tour´s concerts! I want new material. I don´t want to pay for the same songs twice!

Here's a little clarification on the CD's...

One Night Alone - this is a studio album of New songs featuring just Prince & a piano. (much like The Truth was just Prince & a guitar)

The Very Best Of - this is a double album of the 'New Masters'. New versions of old Prince songs made while Prince was called , should also feature 3 or 4 previously unreleased songs as well.

Xenophobia - new semi-instrumental weird/jazz album featuring Candy Dulfer & Vanessa Mae on a couple of tracks.

Last December - no idea!... might be a live album, might just be a single of the Rainbow Children track (Nobody's saying).

Jesus F. Christ, people, most of you are so negative. Point is, you don't know what will happen or if you'll like the music yet--why dontcha wait until you actually have something to whine about? Are you this negative in your everyday lives?!?!

Thanks Kaylef, and Langebleu for summarising the "facts" as they stand now.

(hungry for information)

JimmyNothing said:

I was at all those U2 shows in Boston. I even got in the heart for one of them. They filmed at least 3 nights and took the best parts for the DVD. I also saw U2 after 9/11 and the shows did have more meaning and did get better I thought. I did notice someone at Prince's show in NYC with a digital camera filming the show and the aftershow too. But it was just one guy onstage with a handheld camera. Anyway I'm not holding my breath for anything. Would he count an ep or cd singles as a cd? Hope not. Until then I'll be listening to "silicon" until I fall asleep. 1,2, 3, zzzzz.

I'm feelng a bit pissed myself.
I renewed my subscription and exactly WHAT have we gotten in the past few month. (MEANING HE DOESN"T TOUR in your area)...
We've gotten jackshit.
The ONLY thing I have gotten so far outta my membership was the permission to download "Silicon" which I already got TWICE in the first year.
BRING on the CDS!!!!!

I didn't sign up for the new npgmc, but my membership doesn't expire until the end of September. I signed up to get the Rainbow Children, as I'm sure a lot of people did.

I think Prince is waiting until most memberships from nonrenewed people have expired so he won't have to send CDs to them.

.
[This message was edited Tue Apr 29 23:00:32 PDT 2003 by daysofwild]

SynthiaRose said:

SythiaRose, if you signed up for The Rainbow Children, then I think your membership might've expired with the rest of us at the end of January.

I know it is for one year, but remember he wanted to get us all on the same timeline? That's why he made the months prior to you joining available to you. Everybody's membership for Year One ended in January. Even your's I think.

Year Two started in February - I have a feeling that you're not a member anymore! Sorry if this is true - you should write NPGMC and make sure!

WITHOUT PREJUDICE:

Just wanted to revive this thread as I think it makes interesting reading.

(I couldn't help that this is in the wrong forum, it was in this one to start with)
_____
[This message was edited Wed Jan 15 15:56:45 PST 2003 by Haystack]

Haystack said:

Thanks Haystack. It makes interesting reading, what with the confusion evident over terms and conditions shown by some, whereas others appear to have had clear expectations of what membership meant.

It was also interesting reading NPGMCs reply to the early enquiry about the albums, referring to Prince's right within the terms and conditions to change the musical content that might be delivered.

It had already been reported (I think on prince.org, perhaps on alt.music.prince) that music for the Xenophobia, One Nite Alone and Last December albums had been copyrighted at the Library of Congress on February 18, 2002 (I was looking at the entries the other evening in fact) when tapes were lodged there. So there is music recorded for Last December sitting in a vault.

Vibrator said:

Spooky!