So let's see: Arcade Fire release a DVD, available in regular (single DVD) and limited edition (extra dvd + beautiful package).

Or you can skip the hardcopy medium and just get one of the three available downloads (300 MB / 900 MB / 2.5 GB). Oh, and if you buy the DVD, you can DL the version of your choice anyway.

http://www.miroir-noir.com/

BTW Just like Wendy & Lisa they also use TopSpin.com .

Trent Reznor is already endorsing it: http://twitter.com/trent_...1457210157 . FYI: Trent has 224,900 followers on Twitter.

Meanwhile Prince's site still thinks it's 1999. Oh, I forget: Prince has an exclusive deal with Target, so he cannot sell his CD to his fans who happen to live outside of the US, for instance. And the free T-Shirt? $7 shipping fee if you live outside the US.

Have they ever given away free CDs at concerts? Just wondering.

That sounds very good. However, it ain't gonna change shit. Prince is what Prince does. If somebody doesn't agree with his practices then i'm guessing they just won't pay. Yourself, for instance. You enlightened us all that the new webpage would be a crock before it opened. With the problems that occured around the opening days, I'm sure you didn't hand him your money. I imagine you are pretty happy about that, too. And rightly so. It's just a case of horses for courses. What works for Trent doesn't work for Prince. The power lies with the consumer. Buy it or leave it.

I saw them in concert, Prince trumps them any minute of the day

Close2u said:

You're missing the point. Trent Twitters!

Close2u said:

This is the only response diehard Prince fans are able to conjure in defense of his ridiculous treatment of his fanbase.

He's definitely on the right track offering WAV downloads and MP3s (which are DRM-free by nature).

Reznor is lightyears ahead of anyone as far as distribution and how he treats his fans. I can picture Trent logging into his own site and making posts/changes/uploads/etc. himself. I'm sure he does.

I cannot picture Prince doing the same thing.

CJBabyDaddy said:

Funniest post of the week!

RodeoSchro said:

NIN gave away a whole album online (The Slip) as well as offering the first disc of a 4-disc set (Ghosts) for free. Even the 4-disc download was only $5.

NIN has even cooperated with HydrogenAudio.org when it was discovered that a few of the Hi-Def tracks they posted weren't actually Hi-Def. Trent apologized and reposted the tracks himself.

Not saying NIN is the greatest band in the world -- but right now, they are the greatest on the Internet.

PurpleKnight said:

Maybe there is an Arcade Fan site for u to debate that

PurpleKnight said:

Ridiculous treatment...C'mon!

Prince fans have had access to thousands of songs, dozens of albums, hundreds of live performances at very reasonable (below market) prices, free or inexpensive cd's and creative access (Paisley Park, Vegas, LA). I do not believe I have been mistreated and I have always made my own specific consumer decisions. There may be other artists who have done the Internet thing better, but truthfully, as a Prince fan would you trade in his thirty years of creativity for Trent Reznor or Arcade Fire? In Princeworld it is not always going to be about machine-precision assembly-line business sense. He is a true indie-alternative artist.

i'm a prince fanatic, but even I can't justify P's actions compared to NIN and Arcade fire. especially NIN - trent is a trailblazer. P was on the right track in the late 90s and definitely paved the way for others, but he's gone backwards.

there's such a disconnect with prince, whereas us NIN fans feel like we are a part of what trent is doing.

if prince treated us the way trent treats his fans, the heavens would open up.

I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is. Why are people on this "Prince" forum always bringing up what other artists are doing and using it to complain about the way that Prince does business? It's great for NIN fans that Trent Reznor does what he does, but it has nothing to do with Prince. Prince has been the same guy(pretty much) for like 30 years. We as fans all know who and what he is, and we choose to deal with him or not. Nothing that NIN or Arcade Fire is doing on the internet makes me want to swear off Prince in exchange for them, so why are people always comparing?

Se7en said:

That's cool.

Prince gave away Planet Earth in a newspaper.

drhodes777 said:

NIN and Arcade Fire can give away their entire catalogues for free and I still wouldn't take them. Just not my style of music.

I'm tired of complainers. People need to chill. Everything Prince gives you is a choice. Make it or not. Come along or not.

Just don't whine.

P.S.: My comments were at the whiners, not at drhodes. I agree with drhodes.

.
[Edited 4/5/09 10:26am]

CJBabyDaddy said:

That's where I saw it 2...

RodeoSchro said:

the difference is that Prince was paid for that deal. There's nothing wrong with what Prince did. In fact it was clever.

But it's certainly not the same thing as NIN giving away albums to their fans. NIN also promotes remixing of their material and 'fan' versions. Their community is extremely devout and interactive. Prince doesn't even come close to Trent Reznor as far as reaching out to his fans.

Sure, Prince had his 'celebration' days, where folks where invited to his "It's a Small World" spectacles and religious sermons, etc. etc. But, NIN is consistently more in touch with their fan base than Prince. There's just no real comparison there.

drhodes777 said:

I agree.

That being said, Prince (and his PR reps) can no longer claim he's pioneering in his internet-based enterprise. His current web presence is a reversal from earlier attempts that earned him (rightfully) that Webby award.

Personally, because of my inner FAM, boredome, and a complete lack of anything better to do, I joined lotusflow3r.

My first response (and overall lasting impression) was/is this:

1) It feels like a website from the 90s when Flash technology was just starting to overtake animated gifs on websites. Folks back then were more interested in showing a lot of flash then in functionality of their webpages.

2) There are no standard menus, making it amateurish in feel. Where do you "contact" the company or web administrator if you have an issue? Where do you search for merchandise to buy? You have to hunt down via their "Universe" like a little puzzle or game instead of being presented no-bullshit , standard, menus to do so. There's just no excuse for that. There's going to be a lot of folks who want to explore the little Universe, but can't they add that as a menu option to allow fans who like poking around to do that? Most people would rather just go in, download what they need, and get the hell out.

3) The website takes into absolutely no consideration the speed and power of the user's internet connection or machine. It's flashy interface (see afore mentioned item #1) can slow many computers down. It certainly makes it impossible to surf it on an iPhone or comparible phone device.

4) Why wasn't this thing test driven before it was launched?

5) For $77 dollars, launch day should have contained more material on the site than it did. Prince has so much vault material, it almost makes the lack of material on the website appalling.

Things I did like about the site:
1) It's not as ugly as l41A.com or npgmc.com
2) The mp3s you download don't have DRM so you can import them into any music player of your choice. THAT IS A HUGE improvement.
3) It works well in FireFox


Overall, Prince missed the mark again with this site. It's obviously designed for fans as is evident of the membership fee, the strange puzzle to open an account, the ridiculous interface, and the complete lack of standard 'contact' options to voice complaints and recommendations. The genius behind this is that Prince can shut down lotusflow3r at any time on his fans. The overall general public will not notice, and he can do this again in the future if he were so inclined.

I am absolutely confident Trent Reznor would never do that to his fans or the general public.
[Edited 4/5/09 13:03pm]

Bart you make good points about some things but this one I disagree with you.

jdcxc said:

Only Prince could get away with writing defamatory songs about his fans (Pearls B4 the Swine, F.U.N.K.), threatening sites dedicated to him with lawsuits for showing his pictures (heaven forbid), and charging obscene prices for substandard services rendered. That is the point. Prince makes it as hard as possible to be a devout follower.

Close2u said:

Is that supposed to be some sort of retort?

Purpleknight put the shoe on the other foot for a moment.

Yes ,listen to Pearls or F.U.N.K. or even No More Candy 4 U.

The main critics he has is the fanbase.

Regardless to what the man does the fanbase will bitch,moan,and complain about whatever. Then you throw in the witchhunt crew from the Crystal Ball fiasco. He is dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't.

I see on this site after every album is released ... "it does not sound like _____. Or ,".... why can't he make music like _____".

The main complainers now are people who have been getting the cow for free and now they are having to pay for the cow i.e videos,downloads,likenesses,etc.

Don't you (and other likeminded individuals) think that he should have the right to market his likness to his monetary gain ?

Se7en said:

I don't think giving stuff away automatically = good
Trent does treat his fans better which is good.
But rather, he HAS to hustle to make a buck, Prince could coast and offer terrible service, terrible website, terrible music and you guys (me too) will still buy it.

case closed.
[Edited 4/5/09 12:38pm]

i want to say so many things right now but i'll just restrain myself and only
say:

1. i'll wait until next year march and see what my membership of lotusflower
will have produced in actual downloaded music.

2. i will in the meantime enjoy these other artists' websites and all those
cool things they have on offer.

3. all the while i will feel slightly disappointed in prince because he can
trump all of them if he'd only want to. the material he could release and
the ease with which it could be done if incredible. instead, prince has a
website that you can't even get into without solving a puzzle. o.m.g. sigh.

Se7en said:

Just out of pure curiousity - Has giving away free albums helped NIN's career overall? In the long run, as far as financially, does that help Trent?

I am really curious about these practices. It might boost concert ticket sales in the short-run, but in the long-run does it help? Or have we not seen the long-run yet?

berniejobs said:

NIN has been doing it for at least the last 5 years now, giving away music in one form or another. It builds strong fan loyalty, and generates alot of buzz over his recordings.

Giving a way music doesn't financially help anybody. However, bands like NIN, radiohead, and several indie artists, have turned the "tour to promote album" model on it's head and now resort to a "release album to promote tour" model which seems to be alot more lucrative, especially for bands that are able to selllout shows. NIN was the headlining act at Lalapalooza in Chicago last year, and their shows are legendary.

Giving away albums to promote live shows only works, of course, if you make money of the shows. For NIN, this is no problem.

why is 'prince is a better musician' always the counter-argument to comparisons of his business practices with those of other artists?

the quality of prince's music and the depth of his talent are completely irrelevant to this thread.

Why can't Bart be as clued-in as someone with free will and common sense who hasn't spent the last 15 years complaining about what an asshole Prince is?
With every new Prince release, Bart leads the charge with "Why can't Prince be like so and so"? You're as predictable as you claim Prince is clueless.
Why can't you accept the fact that you pretty much disagree with everything Prince does. Everyone else has.
I mean, criticism is one thing. Obsession is unhealthy.

shygirl said:

hey dude i'm casual. i only post at the prince forum twenty or thirty times a day.

theoretically if bart posted a positive message after the release of every album he would seem less "obsessed" to members of prince forums.