Looking back at Prince's career, it seems he has never desired to be mainstream, commercial success. Some people say that Prince only cares about money but that seems furthest from the truth. What's your thoughts?

NONSENSE said:

of course,hes releasing his newest albums through internet and doesn't have a Myspace (which would have significantly upped the numbers)
he doesnt seem to hung up on advertising either

He wants something..or there wouldn't be any shows on Leno,Ellen and what he's doing overseas.And he wouldnt have done that Target deal either.I'm sure they gave him a hometown hookup or something on that deal.Trying to get in his head is useless these days.I dont know what he want.Makes me think of his song "High", its all about hearing him on the radio, yet he does nothing to try and make that happen.

He does nothing because commercial success isn't important to Prince. He's more concerned about the art of music. If Prince were concerned about commercial success he would have released another mainstream rock album after PR. If you've watched his career evolve a lot of what he's done has been against commericialism and it's worked for him.
[Edited 8/17/09 4:32am]
[Edited 8/17/09 4:33am]

Like with most things Prince-related, it is not that black and white.

Prince has moments in his career where he is most definitely chasing mainstream success (and financial gain).

But he also has the luxury of the earnings he has made combined with his amazing musical talent, allowing him to indulge his more idealistic side over fairly long periods every now and again.

I think it can be argued that he certainly was not chasing fame in quite the same way as some of today's music acts do but it resulted nonetheless (partly timing, partly talent).

We could go on for hours here but it definitely is not true to say that commercial success is not important to him. Of course it is.