Call me old fashioned, but I like a CD booklet and packaging on my thangs. It's a shame that I've missed out on a lot of Prince music which is available only via MP3, but it's just a pain in the ass to get my hands on - downloading, burning, trying to get these things to work on a Mac...

Sometimes I wonder if Prince is ahead of his time a bit too much - I can see that this may be the way to do things in the future, and I guess someone needs to do it the clunky way first so others that follow later on will be able to do this without alienating fans...?

mattperry said:

So my question: Prince releasing things via download only - Ahead of his time, or just a bit annnoying?

It's definately a bit ahead of it's time at this point. But somebody's gotta do it! Honestly... Somebody has to kick down the proverbial door. If nobody does it first nobody will ever follow. I think that, regardless of the inconvenience involved, the consistancy of the NPGMC's existance (not necessarily it's ability to sell media) is what makes it not only viable, but inspirational. Just the fact that it continues to function and thrive gives hope to other independant musicians that they can also find ways to support some kind of a career doing what they love without selling their souls. It's bound to take time. But I honestly believe that the club is just the begining of something much larger.

The only thing that bothers me is the lack of choice in media. Part of the art in a Prince recording is the production. This production is not faithfully replicated via the mp3 format. For me it would be a dream come true if a better quality format were available - even at higher prices (to compensate for bandwidth usage) it would be well worth it!

In the end it's always worth it, in my book, to support Prince in whatever he does. That's part of the experience!

All the best...
[Edited 10/5/05 22:35pm]

Frankly cd's are lame compared to LP's when it comes to artwork and etc. But that's another era.

It's nice to have that extra crap, but frankly it just gets stored away after a while. It's all about the tunes for me. I do like what they did with SST in posting up official cd artwork for folks who want it.