...made any difference to how you've been anticipating this product?

If 3121.com had been spending the past few months giving us sample photos, snippets of the CD etc, would you have been more excited about the book/CD or has the lack of in-house, official promotion got you even more intrigued about how the CD will sound and what the full product will look like.

And if this was a new studio album that had been given the same treatment in terms of official, in-house promotion, would this be a more favourable way of anticipating the album because you knew so little about it, or would you rather have more and more hints from an official source and hear more from a new album before making the decision to buy it or not?

Personally, the one thing I feel about having a lack of official Prince net presence is that I've not 'peaked too soon' when it comes to my excitement and anticipation of the 21 Nights project. In fact, for the most part, I've often forgot about it and it's only now that it's a couple of weeks away (hopefully), that I'm thinking 'Ooh, it's coming out soon' and I'm starting to enjoy those exciting vibes of an imminent Prince project.

Also, I wonder whether the whole project will mean more to those who were at one or more of the 21 Nights shows, or if this book/CD will be appealing to all fans generally.
I know personally that the ONA Live set doesn't work so well with me because I wasn't at any of the shows, but for those who were there, it's the perfect souvenir even though it wasn't the Prince live CD that I believe most fans had been wanting for years.

But I'm digressing...

My main point here is whether or not Prince's lack of official internet presence makes any difference as to how excited you get about a new Prince product.
And I hope he's still not officially about online when the next studio release appears so that the newer fans can finally experience what some of us older fans used to have to experience in the pre-internet days when we relied on the music press and then the WB release schedules for info and anything in-between was an agonising, painful abyss of info... But by gum, it made the final product all the more sweeter for having to wait.

I had forgotten about it too until today when I was looking at the book release section of usatoday, and behold there it was. I went out to amazon to make sure my preorder was still there.

I miss the communication, being an old school fan I know of the abyss you speak of and yeah it was sweeter, but then I wasn't so cynical and tired then either.

No. I've been a Prince fan way back when there was no internet in the early 80's and believe me That was the best time for Prince in al ot of ways the internet has messed up everything for him and his fans.
[Edited 9/18/08 17:06pm]

Does anybody know it?

The internet is a source of advertisement...although it doesn't help to excite me about a product, it only helps to be aware that one will be released.

The music has always spoken for itself and been well worth the wait. If Prince is waiting for it's release, there must be a reason for the delay.

We will all be happy to be talking about the book and the cd when we have it.

Unless I see a thread about "21 Nights", I totally forget that it's supposed to come out one of these days.

RodeoSchro said:

same here i don't even know the new official release date. i figured
i'd wait and see the gazillion flaming threads about it pop up here and it
would be about time to pick up my copy then lol.

Dayclear said:

Correct.

Now, bring back the vinyl, damn it!!
[Edited 9/19/08 4:04am]

Dayclear said:

There it is right there. I couldn't have said it any better.

While I agree with the above statements to a point, I'll add that it's no longer the '80s and people are now spending less and less time reading print magazines, sitting in front of the telly, and/or listening to the radio airwaves. If Prince can't see the power of the internet as a huge marketing tool, then there are few people more stubborn than he!


.
[Edited 9/19/08 6:43am]

The problem is, if he still had 3121.com up and running, doing all this promotional stuff for 21 Nights, fans would STILL shit all over the project and the website. I think there would be more bitching about what Prince isn't doing with the site and more complaints about the book/CD than there are now and more silly questions/comments like "Why aren't there anymore pics?" or "This song sucks, I'm not buying that!" What good does it do to have something like that up that most people seem to think is shit anyway? Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

purplecam said:

All i keep thinking about was how people here were criticizing the hell out of the NPGMC. i agree that the forum was terrible and it had it's misses, but looking back, especially dealing with club member concert tickets and official news, it was a gem. now look.
[Edited 9/19/08 7:21am]

purplecam said:

i know what you mean. i'm not innocent myself since i used to complain quite
a bit about his old site. but only about all the teasers and the projects he
hinted at but consequently never materialised.

that was the only gripe i ever had. if he'd never promise anything or hint at
stuff and build up huge hype for something that later turned out to be quite
a lot of hot air. why not just put a new song up once it's ready instead of a
month long wait with spy reports about gigs, live performances and raves on
the song? put it up there, let people hear it and that's it. new music, you
can come to my site and buy it. there you have it.

it would be great if he had just one official site with just news, even if it
was only one bit of real news every two or three months.

plus a section where you could buy some new tunes once in a while or see some
live footage from recent shows.

90% of all big names have such a website. i don't really see why prince always
has to have people spy on the org and housequake etc to see what people say if
he's got news or new music on his site.

fuck that. he shouldn't even care. if he's happy with what he's doing that's
the only thing he should worry about. if he put new music on his website for
sale, why bother finding out what we say about it on the org, once we bought
it he knows we're interested.

he should make the whole things more of a one way street. no communication,
no tidbits about weird princeworld/speak. just real news and real music. the
people who care will get the news and buy the new music, and the people who
don't, well they never really mattered to him anyway.