http://www.prefixmag.com/...-lo/26915/

March 16, 2009 8:34 p.m. by Ethan Stanislawski

Prince's coolness has taken something of a hit lately . The sexually androgynous pop superstar of the 1980s angered many of his fans—queer or otherwise–when he expressed his support for Proposition 8 . He then announced he was trying some music industry experimentation by releasing all 3 of his albums.. at the end of the month for $11.98 exclusively at Target. The novelty of the cheap price came at the cost of infuriating independent music stores across the country, especially those in Minneapolis that Prince would regularly frequent not that long ago.



In another move that will baffle many fans who had previously assumed Prince's coolness was untouchable, Prince will be offering digital downloads of all 3 albums—LotusFlow3r, MPLSound, and Elixir as well as a year's worth of exclusive videos, news, behind-the-scenes footage and other tidbits directly on the internet. The catch? The package costs a whopping $77.

The bizarre move comes at a time when No Doubt announced it would be giving its entire back catalog for just $15 extra if you buy a ticket to see their show live. In terms of pricing models, it's not exactly encouraging for Prince when No Doubt is giving you 8 albums and a concert ticket for less than Prince is charging for 3 albums and a handful of media.

My guess is he's on the far side of the downward slope of the Laffer Curve here.


The $77 one-year subscription package will be available at lotusflow3r.com. Just to put that in perspective, a one-year subscription to Vanity Fair now costs $12.



[Newsweek]

Posted in: PRINCE
[Edited 3/17/09 10:47am]
[Edited 3/17/09 10:49am]

prince didn't express support of prop 8.

i live in MPLS and i go to indy wrecka stows and i haven't heard anyone complaining about the new albums being exclusively on sale at target.

sounds like someone has an ax to grind.

as a cash-poor fan, I will not spend the $77 for this nonsense. I have turned from a die-hard fan to a casual listener (though I am a die-hard fan of his pre-2000 stuff). I'm sure he won't miss my business, anyways. If the 3 albums are crap like his last 2 albums, they will just be expensive coasters.

kenlacam said:

-----
So don’t that is your choice but got to know how you sound bitching about the cost of anything these days. If you don’t want to pay the 77.00 then don’t. I swear some of you act as if we do not live in a capitalist society. Did you expect the content on the site to be free? Realize that the content on YOUTUBE is free because until recently Goggle was not paying for any of it.

Laura Veney

Anxiety said:

....sure sounds like it.
[Edited 3/17/09 12:33pm]

2elijah said:

The Looney Tune might be a member of this place.

what a slanderous "article"

Honestly, the only way I would pay that amount of money is if his entire Music Video library was up to watch.
I hate going to like 500 different sites jut to see his videos!
Does anyone know if his music videos will be on Lotusflow3r.com?

Anxiety said:

I know this may sound strange but im curious Aslan....

R there many P fans in MPLS?
and have u ever seen him..like driving around?

This article isn't slanderous by any sense of the word. It's honest and it's reality. Prince thinks he's created a thirst for his old footage that he won't allow on the internet, but he's taken himself too far into the abyss for anyone other than hardcore fans to care. Most artists give away amazing footage on youtube and sell very cheaply their recordings via the internet. IE: Nine Inch Nails & Radiohead. If he was smart he would saturate the internet with all his old footage and recordings and let people who don't know his music(like the younger generation) see what his body of work looks like. If people could actually see the kind of history this man has made his story would be a lot different. Instead he is catering once again to the hardcore fans only and for that he will get nothing but a glorified fan club that will just burn out in 6 months and after the year is up, people won't care anymore. Unless he's so hard up for cash he needs the quick jolt of a few thousand dollars to carry him through the winter? I seriously doubt it. The move seems so shady, pathetic and sad.

All of the bitching and moaning is tired people.

Either you will buy or you won't.

It's that simple.

Fuck all of these other tired,bum ass acts who are just trying to get people to hear what they do. Prince is a well established legend who can demand whatever price he wants and will get a significant number of people to pay his price.

Prince made his music and he can sell it for whatever price he wants to. If the demand is low then the price will go down but if 1000 fans pay then he made $77,000 in clear money. I bet that he will have at least 10,000 fans pay the $77 dollars for the music which will net him $770,000. Do you think he will make that much for a cheaper price which most of you will share with the entire world by filesharing?

Let the man make his money and be at peace.

mschirmer said:

i won't say if i think it's slanderous or not, but i will say that i think it blows certain facts out of proportion for the sake of painting an ugly picture. i'm all for bitching about prince, but let's bitch about valid things and let's keep it in the land of the real.

mulefunk said it best

-LEGEND-

so to all the haters and cheap f-ers, click on the orb that leads to nowhere while the rest of us join prince on the other side, for he has given us the gift of music - a thousand times over

muleFunk said:

This is a good point ...maybe the fear of illegal copying is setting the price of this website and he suspects this is going to happen and the webmasters can't do anything to stop it....

It always amazes me how people expect music to be darn near free. Americans pay more than $77 every month for cable TV. That amount for a one year subscription and the albums is a bargin. I paid the $100 for the NPG Music Club and it was probably worth 3 times that amount when I factored in the free aftershows and front row concert seats that I was able to buy along with the monthly downloads. I seem to recall downloading an entire album, Xpectation, for free back then.

Prince's work is worth money and he deserves to be paid for it. I have always backed him on his right to be paid for all of the material that he produces.

LondonStyle said:

My exact thoughts. For each paid subscription there will 3-4 more people getting the same content free. The 'loss' of revenue is made up by charging more.

Brofie said:

You're going to attract negative attention...

Bring it on!

Very good point about the piracy though. I was never a member of the npgmc but have to say that if I wanted the material released through that place I'd know where to get it. How long will it take before the three new albums are on the Torrent sites in a multitude of sound formats? No more than 24 hours I'm reckoning.

muleFunk said:

Co-sign !

Anxiety said:

I agree, enough with the media rubbish! Find something real to print!