As the official release date draws near for ONA live to retail many are wondering if the Crystal Ball fiasco will happen again. Well honestly I think its gonna happen to some people, im not really sure how many members NPG has but I have heard its around 15-20,000. Thats alot of CDS to sent out in the course of 3 weeks. Im not sure who is putting it ONA live for him to stores, it might be Redline again, which is owned by best buy, they did TRC and it was a success for them even though it moved about 150,000 according to soundscan which by industry terms is a bomb but when u have no promotion no video costs it was a profitable venture for both of them. Im sure the ONA box will be very scarce in stores since alot of people get it for free through the club so any label will be hesitant into buying alot of a CD that is being given to an artists fan base unless there will be something in the Retail version that is not in the NPG version.

Obviously everyone is hoping for a DVD of this tour, I think a DVD with the retail version would be great but would force Members to buy it again so its not really fair. However he should put something inside the box about a DVD in order to get new members. However with the third year of NPG around the corner i would caution PRINCE not to promise or hint about other cds, its obvious that many cannot handle that idea. I for one was happy with year 2 of NPG because i hate downloading stuff, it never comes out good and takes too much time. I liked this deal mainly for the ticket option and afterparty. I live in NYC so I got to see the soundcheck the show and afterparty all from dead center 3rd row for 150 bucks. Normally i would have paid 300 plus to ticlet agency to sit that close, trust me Ive done it more than once, ive seen Prince 41 times, and at least 15 i paid agency prices, I would much rather give 100 plus to Prince then 300 to an agency. But i do understand peoples problems if they didnt get a show in their area. But i think for next year PRINCE should have whatever ready to go. Put together a couple of Vault CDS and maybe a DVD and have a new song to download every month, this way its a combo of both NPG years. Well its an idea...

is there even an "official" release date to retail for this set? I've seen much speculation about it but nothing official.