MKevon said:

From http://www.futureofmusic....ctcrit.cfm :

Artists gets royalties on maximum of 10 songs = $0.56 per album total

Under the statute, an album with 12 songs would earn $.90. Under this clause, the maximum royalties payable would be $0.56. If the maximum is exceeded (by using a cover song or a producer demanding a higher rate), the artist is held responsible for that excess.




Bullshit. The MAIN reason for many to join the club is the CDs, since it's impossible to know if you're going to be able to use the "opportunities" to go to the concerts, soundchecks, and aftershows.

No album review?

35 minutes is not too short. Parade and Dirty Mind were very short - did they suffer as a result? Don't think so!!!

Saxjedi said:

Yeah, but did you pay $25 each for Parade & Dirty Mind? Don't think so!!!

IrishEcho said:

What if there are more than 4 releases? Are you going to come back and remember your claim as 100 dollars is only for 4 cds,not any extras like soundcheck etc and other assorted music...if he gives more out? I will be here waiting and watching for it.

rdhull said:

If that's how you want to spend your time, feel free.

Most would join a club thinkining that joining is some sort of a bargain. We've already learned that exclusivity is a washout. As is quality, as no single song here can compare with songs released during Prince's mid 1980s artistic peak, we are getting bottom shelf material. Still, most joined the club after having read guarantees of receiving "at least four new Prince CDs as part of membership." Yet, half the songs on this release were released last year. New?

Soundchecks & aftershows did not take place everywhere, & incidentally, cost an additional $125-$150 and were advertised as perks/bonuses. They weren't for everyone. Now, if Prince decides he wants only his European fanbase to receive a 5th bonus live CD,say, because he decides not to tour Europe, how upset would you be? Everyone is going to complain about something.

Prince promoted Emancipation as "a lot of bang for your buck." And it was. With a record company, he gave fans 3 hours of music for $25 (and now $7). How times have changed! Inflation? I don't think so.

What Prince should have done with his music club idea was this:

-- Have a "Concert Club", in which for an annual fee of $10.00, you could buy your concert tickets thru the npg music club a day or two before anyone else can...thus guaranteeing you a great seat without the hassles of scalpers or standing in line for 5 hours waiting for TicketMaster to open(we all know that scalpers are gonna tack on FAR more than a measly $10 to the best seats in the house...and even being "first" at TicketMaster doesn't guarantee you great seats...)...

In addition to early ticket sales, your $10.00 fee would allow you to sit in on any sound checks at any concerts you attend...the $10.00 fee would be valid for one year. I think almost all of us would have no problem paying an additional $10 bucks to the cost of a concert ticket if it gave us guaranteed great seats and sound check entry...not to mention that it's a one-time-only fee, so we don't have to pay an additional $10 if we attend more than one show on the tour.

-- Have an "Afterpart/Aftershow Club", in which for a $15.00 annual fee, you can have guaranteed admittance to any aftershow of any concert you attend. Since the cost of admittance into an aftershow usually runs around $20 or more anyway, it would be like buying your ticket to an aftershow early and at a discount of $5 bucks to boot...with the added bonus of being able to get into any other aftershow of a concert you attended without paying the cover charge at the club...

-- Have a "Music Club", in which for a $80.00 annual fee, you'll recieve 4 new CDs from Prince within the next 12 months...most of the music would be exclusive to club members(thus raising the CDs value...those "Supercute" CD singles went for, what, $40 or more on Ebay??), with maybe one of the CDs making its way to retail stores eventually somewhere down the road...Since the price of a new CD in stores usually runs around $16-$17 bucks, it would only be around $3 dollars extra per CD you'd be paying(maybe for shipping and handling costs)...besides, with gas prices as they are now, you'd probably use more than $3 bucks on gas just driving to and from the record store anyway, so having them delivered to your doorstep wouldn't be such a bad idea. And maybe just to get people to part with $80.00 up front, he could say that you might even get a 5th CD for your $80 bucks, depending on how things go...


I think that, if Prince had done it this way, those prices would have been reasonable to charge, don't you??...

And if he wanted, he could offer a "complete club package" which includes all of the above clubs for one annual fee...Let's see...taking each club's price and adding them together, it would come out to be $105.00 annually, so that's what he could charge for the "Full Package" of all the club benefits combined...Hell, even knock it down $5 bucks to an even $100.00 annually, thus offering a slight discount as an incentive to buy the complete package up front...maybe even throw in some extra "perks" at the annual celebration as an extra incentive to buy the full deal...

Yeah...$100 for the guaranteed great seats, entry into sound checks, entry into after parties, perks at the Celebration, and at least 4 new CDs(and possibly more) from Prince sounds like a reasonable price...







...well, looky here...
[This message was edited Wed May 15 12:07:57 PDT 2002 by wellbeyond]

BartVanHemelen said:

So when the technology allowing for 7-hour CDs becomes mainstream that's what artists should start churning out?

If I as an artist created a 30, 35, 40, or 45-minute CD, and I think it's a perfectly finished work of art, I'll be damned if I let anyone ruin the thing by forcing me into adding more songs just to meet some type of arbitrary limit.

What’s next? Perhaps we can force novelists into writing books no smaller than 500 pages. That 300-page nonsense is a complete waste of money and an obvious attempt on the part of the writer to cheat his or her fans. Never mind if the story is perfectly told at 300 pages, you must add more pages so some addicted fan feels he is getting his money’s worth.

This is exactly the type of shit that has not only led to mediocre Prince albums, but thousands upon thousands of bloated albums of the 90s.

Hell, if you have 80 minutes of top-shelf material like Prince had with "SOTT" or 70 minutes like Prince had with "1999", that's terrific, and also quite rare for any artist. But if you only have 35 minutes of material for a given project, please don’t pad it out just to make every goddamn album “full”.

Try to make the album as great as possible, not as full as possible.

And people, don’t change the subject to how Prince’s club could be better. I know damn well that the NPGMC could be VASTLY better than it is. But forcing works of art to meet some kind of arbitrary limit is the last thing wrong with Prince’s club. This type of freedom is one of the few things that are right about what he’s doing.