we all know about the gambles that didn't pay off too well (B/W picture with virtually no music scenes, Rave, to an extent)...but what was the one thing that Prince did, (*excluding Purple Rain *), that paid off for him big time? I'll say it's a tie between 1. booking arena-sized venues for the Musicology Tour (mega-millions, high profile) and 2. the bundle package cd promotion (even if they didn't count towards sales, more people would have copies of his newest cd than most of his latest cd's combined)

maybe not dividends in money but certainly his break from any kind of
contract payed off for him immensely.

he gets to do whatever he wishes to whenever he wishes to. he's got
his own music distribution channel set up on the internet (although
he could release some more music already lol)

he gets to negotiate one off deals and retain ownership of his cds.

although it cost him a lot of time and effort, I would say that right
now he's happier than he's been in ages. he seems truly content at
this point in time.

and that's good for him. biggest pay off imo.

IstenSzek said:

can't argue with that

back in 84 he made a movie called Purple Rain

4nowneway said:

did you or did you not see the bit in the original post that said *excluding purple rain*??? or did you just choose to ignore it?

softandwet said:

i wasn't gonna say it

Musicology, the album and especially the tour, was definitely something that could have gone belly-up but Prince made it work with excellent promotion and marketing and a great hook (this is the last time he is going to play these songs live ever...we promise).

Trying to think of another gamble that worked out, financially if not neccessarily artistically. Batdance was kind of a risky single that turned out huge but hell it was about Batman and everything remotely related to Batman was solid gold that summer. Putting the bat logo on that album was freaking brilliant and I'm sure there were a couple of thousand people who bought it and went "oh man, this is a Prince album...I didn't know what it was."

Releasing Gett Off as a single and that freaky video could have bombed in that oh so lame time period for music, 1991, but instead it created wonderful buzz for Diamonds and Pearls so that worked out.

I just figured it out...a big gamble that worked out very well financially. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World single. Debuting it during Miss America and having that video contest that he did was brilliant. Getting it independently released through Bellmark and really pushing it on radio made the song a huge sucess and that was his last Top 10 hit. That gamble definitely worked.

GottaLetitgo said:

Can I borrow your pen? I need to co-sign all of that!