Prince to Open Up Vaults for New Web Site

http://www.spinner.com/20...-web-site/

Ever wondered what it'd be like to reside in the head of Prince? Well, the Purple One's new Web site, LotusFlow3r.com, gives fans a glimpse and, as you'd imagine, it is mind-blowing. Spinner visited the office of the LotusFlow3r's developer, Scott Addison Clay, for a sneak preview of the intricate site, which was largely inspired by the popular video game Myst.

Like the game, LotusFlow3r offers an intricate maze of worlds to delve into, all with ridiculous 3-D graphics that conjure up some images of the classic animated film 'Heavy Metal.' And once into the Prince galaxy, the riches are numerous. For starters, fans will be able to hear and download all three of his 2009 new albums, 'LotusFlow3r,' 'MPLSound' -- which features online replicas of the Minneapolis skyline and Prince's favorite guitar, Sonny -- and 'Elixir,' a collaboration between Prince and his newest protegée, Bria Valente, prior to any physical release.

But the real treasure for Prince devotees is in the archive. According to Clay, Prince has filmed almost every one of his concerts since the 'Purple Rain' days, and to prove it, he had Spinner click on a video link inside Prince's virtual head, where we discovered a performance of 'Break It Down' from last year's Coachella show.

LotusFlow3r, which will launch sometime this month, will be a paid subscription site (Clay is speculating that the initial cost for a year will be $77), and to give fans their money's worth, Prince will continue to roll out content on a regular basis, including live video clips and possible full-length concerts, as well as unreleased music. According to Clay, Prince has copious amounts of never-issued material, which Clay and his team are in the process now of cataloging.

In essence, it's a true one-stop shop. This is not surprising, following the Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails paradigms of self-released music, which Clay says he talked about with Prince back in September at their first meeting. Clay has already had calls from other artists interested in following the example of LotusFlow3r, and he admits the Purple One is trying to entice some of his big-name friends into his galaxy.

Come on, these websites are not the most trustworthy sources.

@ Break It Down

dothejump said:

this story's been repeated on at least a couple of different web sites today. if it's bogus, someone really did a good job of putting one over on us all...and i'm sure i'll be hearing allll about it when i get the "remove that thread!!!" request in my email.

till then, i see nothing untrustworthy in the story...other than the stupid "break it down" song title gaffe.

TheQuest said:

So this explains what i been saying all along why Prince been trying like hell 2 get his images, videos...etc off the net....So he can present it 2 us in the right way....God Bless him...

Anxiety said:

I told y'all the site reminded me of Myst last month...nobody ever listens to me.

babynoz said:

NPGMC reminded me of myst. hell, L4OA reminded me of myst. the "interactive" CD ROM video game reminded me of myst.

notice a pattern?

babynoz said:

What's Myst?

Anxiety said:

Naaah, all of those were missing the spooky sound effects.

2elijah said:

It's the only video game I ever liked.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

That one report stated it first.

babynoz said:

but they all had the fantasy-realism paint-y looking style like myst, and you had to rummage around in an environment like myst. i think prince needs to move on to the sims or something.

babynoz said:

Ok, gotcha!

Anxiety said:

Ewww...

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[Edited 7/7/09 2:52am]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

even if every site on the internet offered his complete back catalog for free download he could still present it however he wanted to on his own site.

SWEET!!!