Looking at the numbers of Billboard (see different thread), it seems that the millions of Americans who watched it could not be enticed to go to a record store to buy 3121 after all... If he appeared for commercial purposes only, then it was a waste (but will keep him in the spotlight - good for future tours)

I think Prince must be disappointed with the album sales, after clearly trying hard to have a commercial sound on 3121. And so must be Universal...

But hey, it still is a cool record

There was a slight rise in buying figures, but nothing major. The other artists that appeared got much higher figures, but then they appeared for a whole show not just a short appearance. Still, I imagine Universal was disappointed it didn't promote the album more.

I wonder if 3121 not being on iTunes is the reason it didn't create more sales. Perhaps people would have been more inclined to buy 3121 if they could have downloaded it from iTunes versus having to go to the store to buy it. Just a thought.

I wonder if he's past the point of being instantly-recognizable to the general public. To come on a show with no pre-announcement, and with no introduction, and to play two album tracks, may have left some viewers thinking "who is this guy?" - unless they were blown away by him, or read some of the newspaper reviews the next day, they may not have even realized it was Prince.

At least on The Brits when he appeared unannounced, he followed the two unknown songs with Purple Rain and Let's Go Crazy - songs that the 'general public' recognize and like.

PurpleCharm said:

Yes it would have helped alot. Songs that appear on Idol take huge jumps on itunes the days after the show.


Well,lets do the math . He was selling just under 8,000 copies a week before the performance. This week he is back down to 7,500. The two weeks in between he sold 13,000 and 11,000 copies. So the American Idol gig netted him about 8,000 extra sales over two weeks. a drop in the bucket
[Edited 6/15/06 6:09am]

booyah said:

I agree with that. His name just wasn't used enough to lodge in peoples' brains. But it also didn't help that the 2 songs he sang were such steaming piles of shit.

newpower99 said:

Any clue why 3121 isn't on iTunes?

itunes would definitely help

and it shot up 71% the following week, which is pretty decent

not huge but decent

PurpleCharm said:

Its either the decision of the record company or Prince himself to not make it available on itunes. Since its so illogical my bet its him.

Itunes takes a cut from hosting the files. Perhaps Prince feels the cut is too big when he can make a bigger cut from physical sales of the CD. Perhaps he wants to squeeze everything he can out of physical CDs and then finally will put up the album on Itunes. In a similar wayy, I expect he agreed not to put the album up for download on the npgmc so that Universal could get their maximum cut out of the physical CD.

And he was honored as 'Web Visionary'

PANDURITO said: