From the latest Billboard in which Prince re=entered the charts due to Target's low price shows sales just shy of 400 K.

Not too bad. Plus no hits to mention.

Pretty good seller in this day and age.

Susan Boyle agrees.

still not sure if that means 400,000 x 3 cd's=1.2 million cd's sold,

or

400,000 / 3 cd's in package= 130,000 actual packages sold

Sign of the times, mess with your money
Save it all, before it's too late.

BlackAdder7 said:

It's the former. 1 entire package x 400,000.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I personally think lotusflow3r was a commercial success.

Prince is over 25 years into his career and managing to sell that many albums from a single retailer. That's pretty impressive.

Moreover, I would imagine his overseas sales and lotusfailure sales are pretty impressive too.

I do get the sense he's probably moved on to a new project though. We'll probably be hearing rumors about that any week now

Imago said:

Co-sign....

It is a success....
The first week numbers were quite high and sales of 400000 are good these days.
Especially for a record without a video, radio single or a hit record.....
And the people who own the record are much higher....imo
Nowadays many just download an album somewhere....for free....not ok, but that`s the way it is....

Purple Rain... 18 million copies...

it sure has gone downhill for Prince record sales.

Lotusflower is the launching pad for Prince's next project

thedance said:

He's not counting records, he is counting his depreciating dollars.
He's Mr. Number 1 at the bank. (as he used to say, but nowadays that's not so en vogue anymore?)

check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/w...iscography

would i be right in saying worst selling record since Rainbow Children?

last 3 records charted in at least 8 countries

this one only 2?

yikes

colorblu said:

excellent...

japanrocks said:

I think lotus has only been officially released in USA and France, so charting in more than 2 countries would be quite some achievement.

TheEnglishGent said:

it was here in Japan as well

thedance said:

He isnt gonna do Purple Rain numbers again , any more than Mike could have done Thriller numbers. The planets have to be aligned just right for certain shit to happen. That said, I think Lotus was a success as well. Especially since as mentioned before there was no radio support , no video and limited distribution. I cant think of anyone else who came out in the 70s that could achieve the same.

PS - he had no guest spots either , which sadly is essential these days , especially in Black music(you have to have T Pain , Kanye West , Lil Wayne etc etc). Albums today are more compilations than expressions of one artist.

udo said:

-----
Good lord people he is 50 years old, not sticking with one genre of music, not signed to a major label and getting no radio play but still selling records and some of you still see failure.

At this point anyone who thinks this needs to get off the purple boat because your just being a hater or are just clueless.

jayquan said:

Jayquan, you make excellent points here. I don't know where the people who are criticizing the LF sales are living, but NO ONE is selling PR numbers anymore. The industry has changed, largely due to technology. Even today's biggest artists who have megahype machines behind them are barely going platinum, except for a select few country, rock and mainstream rap artists whose audiences tend to buy rather than share or bootleg their music.

Prince is 30+ years into his career, and is doing very well in my opinion. Additionally, he's probably making more money now than he did off PR. So, his pockets are still fat. Folks need to fall back and stop being so negative. I'm happy for him, and I will keep buying his music whether others do or not.
[Edited 12/6/09 10:30am]

jayquan said:

Psh well hey AC/DC's Black Ice had numbers reaching their 1981 For Those About To Rock album

You can't deny or excuse the poorly undeserved sales of Lotus Flower

400k is an OuTSTANDING number for Prince...
Imagine if he had kept the promotion up and he had a big corp pushing the singles..

i think its a great album.... i really dont listen to mplsound too much.. but put 'no more candy 4 u' and dance 4 me on lotusflower and im thrilled.

chocolate box almost does it for me.. i love the music.. but i hate the chorus and i really hate q-tip's rap .....

ps - that is more than mariah's album sold!

In the end, it's the bottom line. That means you can pretty much add a "0" to the amount of sales and figure how much $ he made by not being with a major label...

jayquan said:

Some on this thread need 2 b reminded that LF was an INDEPENDENTLY released cd, which means no support from any major record label. Plus bear in mind that the top selling CD of 2009 has sold in between 2 to 3 million copies (backed by a major label). A lot of that is due to I-Tunes, filesharing (both legal and illegal), among other things. So comparisons to PR, Thriller, Like a Virgin, Born In the USA are simply ludicrous. Springsteen's "Working on a Dream" barely sold ove 500,000 with support of both a major label and a lengthy tour. Madonna's in the same boat with latest.

Get this, according to Soundscan, LF is the third top selling independently released CD of 2009 behind Wide Open by Jason Aldean, a country artist who's heavily back by radio in that genre and thr rock supergroup Chickenfoot (which includes members of Van Halen) with their self-titled release.

not bad?

400,000 is excellent for these days, especially with relatively little promo or single radioplay.

Tori Amos only just got over 300,000 for Abnormally Attracted To Sin, and she has a hugely dedicates fan base + tried very hard this time to get her name out there. (imo)

thedance said:

Prince made more $ with Lotus.
Go figure.

Graycap23 said:

is that true?...how so?

JesusFreak said:

Black Ice had a worldwide release , and was released on Columbia Records.

BlackAdder7 said:

Im sure it is. Prince has a much smaller camp these days , didnt have to recoup anything to a label as there were no vids , radio play etc etc. Selling 400,000 independent , and most of those sales being between 10 -13 a pop. Thats big money.....

So he has failed in your opinion because he don't sell em like he used to. But I bet he is sitting pretty financially. I say "Go head Prince" cause he is making something while others are using the labels and touring and he is just chilling enjoying life going to football games and fashion shows.

Graycap23 said:

At the end of the day, all that matter's is what IMPACT it has had on culture.
It means nothing that P gained more money. Infact that just shines a light on selfishness.

jayquan said:

well whose fault was that for not getting a machine behind it

For Those About To Rock sold 4 million in the US , while Black Ice sold half that.Purple Rain sold well over 10 million units.That was his Thriller (that had a great movie attached to it). If he wanted the "machine" behind it , im sure he could have gotten it. But in both financial and artistic freedom respects why should he? The question would then be if Black Ice was only in Target with no videos , radio play etc etc would they have moved the same amount of units. Of course not. Its a moot point dude.
[Edited 12/6/09 19:04pm]