laurarichardson said:

Exactly!

where is ANYthing that proves it sold 3 million? is dr. evil prince's new publicist?

Anx said:

The success is if people LIKED the cd or not. It seems most liked the cd.

Graycap23 said:

you really ARE press secretary for the bush administration, aren't you?

3121 was definitely not a flop.

I don't think so.LOVE 3121-great album!

Not just a flop a MAJOR flop.

Yes, debuting at number one was nice, but we're talking about an album that was hyped as, yet again, a 'return to form' and it POSSIBLY went Gold? Wow...

-How many non-Prince fans know a track off this album?
-Even fewer own it.
-Platinum used to be the mark of success for Prince, and 2x at least didn't hurt to prove the point.

FLOPPED like a dead fish hitting the pavement and has about as much flavor.

Anx said:

Please.....PLEASE do NOT associate me with those Bush people. P L E A S E.

If u sell 500,000 copies of a cd, and make $3-$5 per sale, is that a Flop?
I think NOT.

Almost every person i know has a copy of the album. yes, some people like it, some don't. personally i feel it is one of his better albums. numbers don't lie. i hear it in every club i go to.

I'm not saying it was a flop but it did not sell 3 million worldwide like everyone here is claiming. I keep track of the world charts sales and there is no way Prince sold 3 million. He more or less sold over a million.

WoW What a Hot Button Topic

jayaredee said:

It is amazing how people choose to believe what it suits them to believe. Even the American sales figures are open to question since no one seems to know whether they count the records shipped or the records sold.
btw, what happened to your avatar?

whoknows said:

That goes for you too. I'm sorry, but Prince did not sell 3 million of 3121. Fact. Sales are rounded off, but Prince's album didn't even ship 3 million worldwide so how it sold 3 million is beyond me.
But if it makes eveyone happy or think that bigger sales make a better record than you can all continue to make up sales figures for Prince.

The promotion and "business" around the album was certainly substandard and seems to have quietly fizzled and died, for sure. So, the "flop" in my mind is yet another 1-album deal with a major label who probably won't re-up with a similar deal again. So, that makes what...four major labels if you count Emancipation, Rave, Musicology and 3121? And of those, which were somewhat amicable? Probably Emanciption (not his fault EMI went under) and Musicology, but that would have been just as successful as an independent release, honestly, with the large tour that accompanied it. It's certainly been hit-and-miss, although all probably profitable for Prince. It just seems like everything disappeared off the face of the earth in Prince-world and, just four months after his last release, we're all wondering what's next.

What happened with Tamar may have been for the best -- there's certainly not too much talk about missing her album or people making trips to the store expecting to find it and having it not be there.

1 man's trash
Is another man's gold
1 woman's letting go
Is another woman's hold
If u keep up with the count
U lose track of your SOUL

Graycap23 said:

Good point Gray, Alot of my friends (who think P died in '89) got the CD and loved it. I'm a diehard an found it middle of the road for my tastes.

Time will tell !


live4luvandluvwillive4u

silverchild said:

Sold poorly in the UK, one of his strongest and biggest fanbases. It got to Number 9. Ok, that doesn't sound like a flop, I'll admit, but the next week it dropped out of the Top 30 here.

Graycap23 said:

I remember Prince saying something very similar to that in 1998, when he was misreleasing stuff through his malfunctioning website.

3121 was a major record company release with all the marketing muscle behind it such an association can afford, and .... well, none of the singles made the Top 20, none of the videos got heavy rotation, Prince didn't go on tour, so the album sold a lot on initial release but had no commercial legs and is now a goner.

I disagree

Compare it's sales to those of other artists in Prince' category (age, race, genre, etc.)

Hell while you're at it, compare it to album sales this year in general
It's probably not one of the top selling albums of the yearm, but albums don't
seem to be selling that well anymore anyway

skywalker said:

Rockability said:

idiocy

So 3121 is/was a flop, huh?

I'm willing to wager that there are thousands of artists out there that would sell their souls to be able to flop like that!

I heard it did quite well in Canada.

SexyBeautifulOne said:

well that's only because Prince's age and condition. He's older and has had time to devlop a belly.

So maybe 3121 was a belly-flop.

MickG said:

lol!

Im sorry - but with that title tune on there - it just cant fail - I loved that song the first time I heard it - and it blew me away - thats an acheivement for me!!!

Wall said:

I hate to say it, but he does have a point. Not a total failure, but not exactly the huge, big as Purple Rain comeback some media were hyping.
It's in a lot of sales already for a cheap price. Not a good sign.

3121 wasn't a flop, but it was a major disppointment. Once upon a time, Prince was hungry and composed music for survival. After survival was no longer an issue, he switched focus to fulfilling his artistic potential. Musical actualization! Nothing particularly wrong with that. Hollywood celebrities do it all the time. Many of them star in summer blockbusters to justify their indie/art projects. Wherein lies the problem with Prince. He thumbs his nose up at commercialism. He doesn't give a damn about making money. It's all about art with him now. That's fine if most people were receptive to artistic experimentation. But that's just not the case! Prince needs to hit the public with a commercial album first before his more artistic endeavors. Once he does that, then he could release whatever the hell he wants....