Listening to the new album was quite an experience for me, listeniong to it and hanging on this forum, living the exitement and everything.. no jewelcase with artwork could replace that

Look, the album is the same album whether you hear it on March 21 or March 6. It's finished. It's not like magic pretty colored twinkles are appearing around all those pressed CDs right now, using some kind of David Copperfield trickery to make them better or worse over the course of the next 14 days.

skywalker said:

You probably waited until you got married to have sex, didn't you? Not that I'm judging.

The devil will have your souls if you listen to it early.

2freaky4church1 said:

How do you think I got it in the first place?

2freaky4church1 said:

souls? i'm not too interested in souls, really

skywalker said:

I'm with you.

I agree there's nothing like going to store 2 get a cd from your fav. artist. it just ruins the experince imo. i dont even like to read reviews.i dont want to know anything about the songs.

Im with you Skywalker. I have no desire to listen to it until its official release date. I could give a shit less who listens to it early. Its up to them. They will still buy it if its good and the Purple ticket thing. Ill just spend more time avoiding threads that spoil it for me. For some folks, the excitement of getting it illegally and early outweighs the anticipation of getting it on an official release date. I dont want to lose the excitement of opening it after leaving the store and jamming to it on the way home. To each his/her own. Wish it hadnt leaked but Im still pumped.

i don't have a car. i can't give it a spin on my way home because i don't have a discman either.

prince held listening parties all across the globe. if he invited you would you have declined the invite and refrained from listening? i doubt it. you would have listened to it BEFORE its release date. i suppose you'll say "that's different" and indeed it is. but its "different" for every one of us who chose to listen early.

i'm still gonna be at reckless records on 31 march buying that shit up. i'm still gonna buy a copy for my brother. i'm still gonna be excited by the (bad) photos inside the thing.

i don't believe in santa. i haven't since i was 7. i'm a big boy now. i can listen to music before its official release date and still enjoy it after the release date. plus, i get to brag about having the new prince cd before most others do. ok, maybe i'm not such a grown up after all.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

I didnt see u

only thing is now in 2 weeks a whole new wave of ridiculous threads....all crushed together in a thread

The only way it'll be ruined is if it'll keep you from opening the one/ones you bought. What if a purple ticket is in there?

Are you 12 years old?

Ok, so I downloaded 3121 burnt it to a CD and listened to it on my stereo. I don't get much out of looking at Prince unless he's performing live and I couldn't give a monkeys who he thanks in the liner notes.I don't quite understand how the experience of listening to the music for the first time is worse because I listened to it earlier. You are right that you only get one first time and mine was yesterday. It was great, how would it have been better in 2 weeks time?

I'll still buy the CD but now I don't have to go to the bother of heading to the shop on the morning of release and can just order the cheapest one online.

origmnd said:

Care to share some of that wisdom you so desperately want to impart on how we should do things differently when that happens then Sherlock?

Org note us, cuz we're all ears.

First off, hearing it for the first time now or in 2 weeks or 2 weeks after that, makes no difference. You only hear it for the first time once, however you hear it.

I definately would want to hear it in good quality the first time. But the argument that mp3s are terrible sound quality just doesn't wash with me these days. The difference between CDs and mp3s is barely audible if at all when it comes to rock/pop music and if the mp3s have been encoded properly at a high bitrate.

If you want to hear them on speakers for the first time, fair enough, you might have to go through the hassle of burning them onto discs.

But the world is turning over to mp3 players and that is how the majority now hear albums for the first time - most people that buy 3121 on disc are probably going to convert it to mp3s as soon as they get it anyway!

The joys of the internet , now we get to hear everyone moaning about how rubbish the album is 2 weeks before its even out , way to ruin a purple high , and nope I still havent d'led it , I'm gonna wait and try not to read too many of the threads on the album until then .

I'm happy to wait. Not only am I not prepared to download a potentially poor quality but definitely illegal copy of the album, but I'd rather have the whole CD package in my hands on the day and treat it as more of a special thing. I'm all for legal downloading of music but do feel that it cheapens the whole experience somewhat when you don't have a physical "product" at the end of it.

Besides all of this, I've been disappointed by too many Prince albums in the past when I've got excited about their imminent release, so I'm happy to let the fuss die down and hear it when Prince wants me to, then make my own mind up.

metalorange said:

I've got my compy hooked to my hifi.. nothing hard about it. Actually, i'm wondering why people still insist on using those crappy pc-speakers.. lol.. they always sound crappy.

Well i'll be waiting until it's released...

This is Prince's own fault. Why put out a single in Dec 2005 for an album coming out in march 2006 and then put out a video for a second song (Don't he know that people can make audio MP3s out of that?) that won't come out as a single until after the album comes out? On top of that, he does all of these listening partys almost a month before the album drops. Yeah I downloaded the whole album, but that don't mean i still won't buy it. I'm a person who likes completeness when it comes to Prince's albums and that don't include CD-Rs.

FunkiestWhiteBoy said:

Ask your parents. lol

NouveauDance said:

Are you Michael Jackson?

is skywalker always this crazy, or just in this post?

skywalker said:

I was SOOO looking forward to leaving work last Friday at 5pm...then out of nowhere my boss told me I could leave early at 2pm...I said "No, then I won't have anything to look forward to at 5pm..."

...and back to 3121...if Prince would have made it available for download "early" for club members (music only, no artwork until release date), would you still feel the same? (He actually did this for Rainbow Children...did anybody make a decision to wait until the "real" CD was released before listening to it?)

What if the "official release date" was March 5, but for music only and for some reason you had to wait until March 21 for the artwork?

What if Prince invited you to one of these listening parties--would you decline because you wouldn't have the real CD in hand for your first listen?

Just curious of your mindset...to each his own...

If you chose to run to the record store on March 21st and experience it for the first time then ..thats great. I admire your will power. But to come on and say doing it your way is superior and dissing people for listening to it "early" is absurd.

I havent had that release day experience since The Symbol album days . I think Ive had early listens to some , many or all tracks from a new release ahead of time since .

Its 2006 , and technology has evolved where we are not crouched down in our tiny rooms listening to a hissing and poping b rate bootleg , like the picture you painted.

Im enjoying 3121 in all its glory now .

And yes I will buy the CD on 3/21 so Im not robbing the man.

:2cents: