Reminiscing the days, 15 years ago now, that Prince was already looking for ways to deliver his music straight to his public without any middlemen, his latest website endeavour is again looking to be an overall painful experience. As if it's a curse.

How could Prince create a website that on the one hand would be profitable and acceptable for him and on the other, would meet the demands of most of his fans and the general public?

I imagine an easy to navigate, sober looking website, accessable to all for the main part. There you find news, fan polls, regular free streams and downloads, pictures, artwork and other free things to share.

Then there would be a part where you have to register and can acces music you pay for. Either for download, or for order on CD. No acces fee, but a safe and easy to use system to pay per download or ordered CD. Price per downloaded song only 50 cts and 5$ per album, making it very attractive for the customer to download large amounts. No anti-copying measures, except for a tracking system to find leakers to unauthorised websites, which users can then be banned. Printed CD's would be 5-10$ max, double CD's 10 - 15$. No middlemen, no nonsense: artist and fans profit.

There would be a section with the latest material and a section with all albums since Emancipation up untill Planet Earth and other officially released Prince/NPG records material. Last but not least, there would be a section of unreleased material, bootlegs and outtakes.

With excellent delivery and customer service such a website could be a great succes.

-
[Edited 5/7/09 15:43pm]

So like many are unhappy with the new website but nobody has got any ideas?

I am happy to see that the 3 albums were available thru his website. P reached number# 2 on the charts his 1st week. Matter of fact, I "prefer" getting the albums from him directly then a traditional record company or deal. He showed with Crystal Ball he could be successful doing it.

& about the website, I think it's "cool" we have a new website.

Here you go. I am pleased that you are happy Purplelove7, and I hope many others are too.

There have been quite a few I noticed however who say they don't enjoy the new site and feel they paid $77 for the downloads and a T-shirt they didn't get yet.

I am sure more will follow but it seems like the website has already gone the wa of many of those before.

i think the web site should have offered a take-away product that amounted to more than just one exclusive song, as opposed to the 11.99 product people could buy at target. in other words, maybe a 4th disc, even if it was an e.p., with either more exclusive songs, or remixes, or vault tracks, or SOMEthing that people could burn to a CD or load on their iPods.

i mean, we don't even have an option to look at the lyrics unless we have the site pulled up. can we haz liner notes PDF plz???

but to answer the original question: how should prince sell his records?

well, i think the way he sold his latest one, via target, was pretty slick. i am not in the least bit mad at him about how he handled that. good show.

the web site, however, i'm inclined to think is a big FAIL. how could it have worked? well, i offered one idea above. and if that's unrealistic, then i'd say the price could have been brought down significantly. they could have made a year's membership $31.21 and still made a tidy profit. give away the t-shirts for free the first week, then offer them at an additional price after that, along with other lotusflow3r swag. fans love swag.

i think for the general public that probably doesn't give a damn about prince's web site but would probably plunk down 12 bucks for three CDs of his new music, the way he's selling his new album is kinda phenomenal. and i'd be inclined to agree with them.

i think for the diehard fans who have been waiting for an official fan site presence for a few years now, to pay $77 for a rarely-updated site with precious little exclusive content and one song's worth of exclusive downloadable music could be considered a frustration at best. and i'd be inclined to agree with that too.

Several at a time.

Anxiety said:

Precisely this.

I think this Target deal has been a huge success. I hope he does that again.

maybe I'll even buy a copy next time.

Anxiety said:

Tremolina said:

microchips in the MP3's? good luck with that.no matter what he did, there'd be ways round it secconds later. Prince isn't the FBI or MI5.

Anxiety said:

That would be solution #1 for every record to come. And I personally do not dislike the free cd in the magazine à la Planet Earth two years ago. Mark: I'm not from UK but I appreciated that idea. But that could be done in a restricted area (UK only, US only, Italy only, etc...). Or mix the ways: free cd in mag in the UK, Target only cd in the US and import in the rest of the world.
I mean, we've seen it all, right? We're ready 4 everything now.

One album or so per year in stores (if he feels like it)

Numerous other Albums online in multiple formats - Hard copy, MP3 and Flac.

over the years since i have to use someone elses computer to buy lotusflow3r or purchase sunday news papers,buy imports or get it from the man(e.g.sony etc etc)i would like him to use labels again.maybe instead of one album deals he could try two or three album deals as long as he has creative controls over the material.thank god im getting my own pc at the end of the year.im sick of this nonscence.

Above all else, I prefer actual CDs over downloads. He should continue this Target distribution model - it works.

2 Prince albums at a time is fine by me.

Online: he should have a free website and rely on downloads to pay the bills. The site should be simple, straightforward layout that anyone can use (on any computer) and have his own iTunes-like download section. He had this already with the Musicology Store, so why not again?

Se7en said:

Yeah, that. The Musicology store was the top of the releasing of Prince's music.
The best instrument ever.

NEW POWER GENERATION MUSIC CLUB, those were the days of freedom.

Anxiety said:

Thanks for your input. Would you agree too that a website offering low priced downloads and CD's of his official work since Emancipation, as well as bootlegs/unreleased material for the fans, would be the best way to sell his music (apart from also a record store deal with target)?


--
[Edited 5/8/09 7:21am]

Marrk said:

Well, he has the right to do that when users agree to it. It's better than making sure files can't be copied or self destruct adfter a while. Plus, since those who put his work on file sharing sites are not his best friends, it's not unreasonable to try and figure out who those people are.

Tremolina said:

Not a curse. Prince has spread himself 2 thin and rather than hire the right people in the right places, he continues on this lone Wolfe mission that gets results that are less than optimal.

Sophianestesia said:

Would you also like a website with downloads and CD's of his work since Emancipation as well as unreleased material?

OperatingThetan said:

Like all? And including unreleased material?

Sophianestesia said:

What did the Musicology store have to offer?

Graycap23 said:

Right, as if it's a curse.

Tremolina said:

lol.....

Personally i would like to see one album released the conventional way every 18 months with a big label support and promotion a lead single would be nice!!!!

This album should be recently recorded material

Online maybe 4 cds worth a year made up of stuff in the vault and stuff that didnt make the latest conventional release this should be priced at the usual cd rate

Tremolina said:

i don't see how it could hurt.

Anxiety said:

OK, but do you WANT it?

Tremolina said:

well, i have all his official work since emancipation, but for younger/newer fans, i'd rather it be out there for them than not. but it needs to be affordable. just because emancipation was a 3CD set doesn't mean it should have a 3CD price. after all, it wound up in bargain bins for close to nothing before it went out of print. cheaper prices on some of these albums would give newer fans an incentive to check out some of the older stuff, especially cheap priced download albums where the gratification is more instant than ordering a cd.

as for downloads of unreleased material, sure! bring it on! i always looked forward to whatever scraps we got in the musicology store on NPGMC. it was rarely anything earth-shattering, but it was almost always something fun and it was SOMEthing, ya know?

Anxiety said:

I hear ya!

Anxiety said:

I disagree with this. This almost twists the arm of folks who are "diehards" to purchase from the website, rather than getting it at Target. One exclusive song if fine, but a whole disk? That would kind of suck for those who didn't want to join the website for whatever the reason. Sure you don't have to have it but most would want it. I think adding a 4th disk to the web-set would have just added to the theme of him "forcing fans to join the web-site.

Sign back up with WB and let them do it.