It's free to hate and expensive to love..... but worth $77

catpark said:

Prince expenses fall under the category of "entertainment" expenses. Those types of expenses should be the first to be cut or eliminated when times get rough. You can also budget for these types of things. Save $1 a day for 77 days and you have the money to afford it.

now ppl lets not take all this Prince site to seriously its for entertainment value only and should be seen as that, its not life or death situation. if u can afford it fine, if u cant so what...all its just an entertainment activity.

If u can't afford $77... I would advise u to get a Job... ASAP

2elijah said:

Bastard.

freedomequality said:

squirrelgrease said:

Really? Tsk..tsk..behave
[Edited 3/14/09 19:26pm]

Anxiety said:

As an graphic designer and 3d artist, Im not impressed with the latest cover. It's a a fake 3d plane done all in Photoshop! Why couldn't all or most of this be done in Maya, Cinema 4D or Max? Where's the Z-depth??? It looks very pre-1980. A collage of pics superimposed? Give me a break! Get a real artist to this design!!
[Edited 3/14/09 19:49pm]

PEJ said:

LoL ... I was there when I paid the $25. Maybe you paid $100.

YESSSS!!!'ve been waiting for this for such a looooong time!!!!

Go PRINCE!!!!!

Sdldawn said:

I can agree with that. I hate Prince's feminine covers and also think that has hurt him from a comercial standpoint. Lovesexy, Planet Earth, Oh my goodness New Power Soul!!!

I can also see the comparison to Sign of the Times cover although its obviously very different interms of color and feel

Do you know how many people I have talked to who weren't necessarily Prince fans but loved a song that they heard from those records but went to buy it didn't because of those covers. The covers often make the entire package more accessible. Both the Lotusflow3r and MPLSound covers IMO remove that from the equation.

dothejump said:

Maybe so I was going a bit far and I was expressing my personal thoughts! Interesting that you mentioned Africa. I have some friends that work for the Dept of Edu and are educating Africa about AIDS to prevent the spread. I'm not going to write a book for - so I digress!

Back to the LF3.com site. It's simple, many of us are not broke. We are simply shifting entertainment money into charitable causes this year. The times are unprecedented.

I will keep some entertainment money. How it stands for now. With the info we have. I would not spend $77 on a web site when I can get the same music it contains for $12 on cd from Target. I thank Prince for making the 3cds available for $12 at Target. Think about that. If more vault material is included, I would go with the new web site and cut out a concert or some movies.

As for Prince and charity. I know he has given much through the years. I know he often gives and is silent about giving. It still doesn't justify me giving his $77 for what I can gain at Target for $12. We will see. If the deal is sweeter I will be in, if not I will be able to get 3cds at Target. What worriesome is where that hearts of some of the fans are. TyphoonTip made some good points. Well anyways peace..and hope the deal will get sweeter cuz it's not like the majority of us would turn away more brand new Prince music.

GNS said:

I know I know!

I wonder what else I've missed out on!
[Edited 3/14/09 22:39pm]

Okay I've read through most of this and this is what I have to say to Mr Scot Ad Clay of the website:


PLEASE TELL PEOPLE THE MINIMUM OF WHAT THEY WILL GET FOR $77

Some fans have kids, school, other stuff that 77 bucks can cover gas for a week going to work. This aint like fun times and if I'm gonna spend my money on a website, I'd like to know the MINIMUM I will get.

Everything else is gravy. But if its $77 and up to the whim of Prince, then you don't have me because streaming videos is not what I want.

I want presale tickets, downloads (maybe the first 3 free) and pictures of PRINCE! in Wallpaper or whatever.

That would be the minimum and I think a righteous price.

Otherwise if I'm gonna flush $77 duckets down the poop chute, I'd rather spend it in lottery tickets if its all going to be a gamble.

I wonder if Prince himself designed the covers for the CDs... I give him so much credit for venturing into other fields.

Also I read he has taken up photography as a hobby.... how cute is that?

salaciousV said:

yeah presale tickets and downloads better be ligit cuz then your kids can just catch a bus to school so you spend on less gas and catch a concert and some songs

PEJ said:

Too funny PEJ.

PEJ said:

Fuck the kids they can take the bus if I can get a presale ticket!

ps. I aint got kids, but I do got bills! I just think that MOST other websites do advertise what you get for your membership fee. Not letting us know wouldnt be cool, that way we can make an educated choice!

Alexandernvrmind said:

I'm not a huge fan of the photoshop covers, but I do think that these are creative and I think they bring imagination. He has bad some really bad photoshop covers (ona piano front cover.. oh my) but these seem to mold to the overall experience that he is trying to create.

LondonStyle said:

Madonna's ICON fanclub charges $45 per year. Pre-sales still exist, but if U buy a fanclub membership today, U don't qualify 4 pre-sale until the next tour which could be a few years away. Furthermore, each ICON member can only buy 4 pre-sale tickets total 4 any given tour. This process weeds out most of the scalpers, although some clever ones have bought multiple memberships and hold out until a new tour gets announced. Interestingly, being in the ICON fanclub doesn't guarantee that U'll get a seat or even a good seat! Also, there are no price discounts on concert seats, so the usual Ticketmaster service charges are all in place. This can be very frustrating 4 Madonna fans as they often don't feel their membership does enough 4 them. Many threaten 2 leave and bitch about it ad nauseum on the ICON message boards.

I hope that Prince goes back 2 the format used 4 NPGMC. Advance ticket sales and downloads were easy 2 access and made NPGMCers feel special. I loved that club (Musicology period) and I think he should've just killed the difficult-2-moderate message board rather than the whole thing. After all, we could all express ourselves on HQ and on here. I'm holding out hope 4 this new project until March 29th, but judging from the un-fresh MPLSOUND and ELIXER cover art, my hopes are fading that the contents of lotusflow3r.com won't be riddled with this type of photoshop collage.

realm said:

realm said:

Come on. You can't be serious. Do you really think that you don't get anything extra for 77 USD?

realm said:

Exactly. You can get the 3 cd's for an extreme low price so why are people complaining that they charge more money for the website. Be happy that they don't ask a lot for the cd's too.

L4OATheOriginal said:

So then go and post after someone that used the word non-fan and hater.

There does seem to be a little bit of confusion over how much the various incarnations of the npgmc have cost over the years...

The first time Prince charged a fee was for the 2001 version of the npgmc (you could still access the official website for free without any login). The NPGMC monthly downloads as I recall had 2 options, a normal membership or a premium membership (where you got slightly more downloads) not sure of the prices though (as I did not join this year at all), can anyone recall accurately?

In 2002 the price was definitely $100 for one year. monthly downloads ceased and instead included in the price was the ONA piano and voice CD, and the ONA live CD boxset. You got a username and login to access concert ticket pre-sales. NPGMC members got the front blocks of seating and access to the soundchecks for the One Nite Alone tour. After a lot of hoo-har about the 4CDs thing we also got sent links to download Xpectation and 1 C-Note Track (although links were shared and we got all four). The website itself did not have anything fancy in terms of content and was not updated that much as I recall.

In 2003 the price changed again to $25. No downloads or cds were included in the price. The site was revamped to a more graphical click around the rooms style with low bitrate streaming songs in some rooms. I seem to recall that Reflection was offered as a free mp3 download near the beginning of the year. Pre-sales were offered again (the US benefitted mainly from it this time for the Musicology tour). in 2004 existing members did not have to pay again and the $25 membership was mooted as a "lifetime" one. We eventually got a Musicology store download area where we paid a pretty low members price ($0.77 or about £0.40 at the time for individual DRM licenced WMA and WMV tracks and videos). 2005 was a quiet year. 2006 was the 3121 year, purple ticket etc and then Prince went off to Vegas etc and the club closed.

Is that about right?

funkteer said:

i seriously hope u read the thread that someone posted from aussie land ...its says it all

L4OATheOriginal said:

Cheers.

Ymaginatif said:

The bird is looks like a stork.

Ymaginatif said:

Is that bird a STORK?

LondonStyle said:

$12 for 3 CD's is a steal.

As for the $77 subscription fee, let's not over-react, and wait til he shows us what we get. The $100 for the NPGMC was definitely money well spent and Prince is obviously aware of the current economic conditions (based on last week's email). Give the man a chance to roll it out.

- JD

MadeUpName said:

HQ no longer exists, but anyway, presale concert tickets and downloads was what I enjoyed about the npgmc when it existed. Hopefully members to the new site will be offered pre-sale concert tickets.
[Edited 3/15/09 9:27am]

Erika2k8 said: