i think "diamonds & pearls" had very good promotion. good, strong videos,
lots of airplay (probably due to $ invested?), a solid tour and a great,
strong image/style for the era.

the batman album was promoted hugely because of it's connection to the
film but as a prince album it's promotion was not all that, eventho he
did tour and there were a few good singles on the album.

Purple Rain

NouveauDance said:

skywalker said:

I don't think Batman was promoted well. Single wise, yes, but P didn't do that many television appearances to promote it here in the US.

I would say PR and 1999 were his best promoted early albums.

In recent years, I would say Musicology and 3121 were promoted very well.

I think this is one of Prince's weakest areas. The examples of great promotion are far outweighed by missed opportunities and a Prince's apparent inability to keep up interest in a project beyond it's initial launch.

'1999' is also am example of good promotion - Strong singles, almost all with simple but memorable promo videos with an overall theme and look, and a long tour.

Emancipation had a TON of promotional materials. Too bad the label went under before they could be used.

daPrettyman said:

You might be right. WB pushed that album and it was tethered to the Batmania of 1989. Prince didn't do many appearances...but he didn't really have to. The promotion machine that is/was Batman took care of everything.


As far as new albums go, I think Lotusflow3r was promoted well initially.
[Edited 1/26/10 9:35am]

Diamonds & Pearls was very well promoted. Prince went on MTV's music awards. Then he tore Arsenio's stage from the floor up and toured extensively (while working on the forthcoming symbol album). He worked his ass off on that one.



Emancipation was also promoted to hell and back... Prince. did. interviews. Lots. of. them.

But by then, he was trying to promote an expensive 3-CD set to an non-receptive audience. So regardless of the promotion, Emancipation wasn't going to do well.

How well did it do? I have pictures of Prince receiving mutliplatinum awards for it. I know there was some kind of technicality because it was 3 discs, however, Prince got his $$$$$ from it, no?

skywalker said:

Compared to the level of promotion that went into it and the effort prince put into it, it didn't do well. It received no radio airplay and none of the singles did well.

It was lukewarm in correlation to the promotional effort. He was on Oprah. He did interviews with Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Bryant Gumble, etc. etc.

It didn't do well in luie of that. But yes, Prince got his money for it. He just didn't get the massive hit I think he was expecting. I heard it somewhere that he originally planned to have 10 singles from the album? Can someone confirm this?

Eighties: Purple Rain (Movie, single choices, video's)

Nineties: Diamonds and Pearls (Single choices, video's)

00's: Musicology (TV-performances, video's, Tour)

Definately Diamonds and Pearls! There were more outlets for promotion by 1991 also.
You couldnt go to a music store without seeing Prince w=either on posters or stand ups, or both. Single after single, video after video. The man was everywhere!

the "Prince" lp had good promotion.he needed a big seller and got 1
1999 was great promo
purple rain obviously
batman..again obviously
diamonds and pearls was great promo
musicology was the best promo however

TheVoid said:

actually he said "there are least 18 singles,so the record is gonna go up & down the charts 4 a long time" This was in response 2 Bryant Gumbell asking Prince if he was upset that the album debuted high but sank like a stone pretty quickly.

Purple Rain, hands down

First the single ('When Doves Cry'), then the movie, then the album, and finally the tour. It all worked 2gether, what more can I say.

I'd say it was The Gold Experience, a tour to promote it, all the tv appearances. Granted, as soon as it was released he was bored of it, but it was a good year of promoting.

I always the the reason Emancipation didn't do well, wasn't because so much of the promotion...Prince did his share with interviews and the Jam of the Year tour. But a combo of lousy singles released and the label going belly up did that one in. Also I always thought the death of his new baby but a cloud over the whole thing...a very tough thing to go through and somehow be excited by a record. But, Sleep Around was begging to be a single with a great dance mix and video. as was In This Bed I Scream, and I always though White Mansion could've been a hit.

1999, PR, D&P, and Musicology all had class A promotion from both the label and Prince.

#1 Purple Rain

as far as promo thru videos I think Parade, the best visuals from any album, all 4 videos were 5 stars

Batman had some good promo/videos

Prince never allowed much I think in pushing albums

I remember in the 80's Janet would drop like 6 singles from an album of 9-10 songs and videos for all, Madonna was very good at promoting her albums, Michael J as well

As much as I liked the songs he picked for singles from Emancipation I always thought they were poor choices for the general listener. He needs some objectivity w/n his camp, plain & simple.

TheChief said:

The best? I sure did like the VH1 special (what was it called?). It was pretty good leading up to it (they even released a physical single during the time when record companies were starting to step away from that, and it didn't chart too badly).

I agree with most of the answers here. "Purple Rain", "Diamonds and Pearls", "Musicology" and to an extent "3121", which I was really psyched for that one..."Black Sweat" was an awesome proper first single ("Te Amo Corazon" was more of a teaser single...I rarely even think about it).

Even though it wasn't asked here, I think the most surprisingly badly promoted album was "Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic". Lame first video (good song, but certainly not a hit), no real follow up (at least I don't remember one), any promo appearances other than an MTV interview? I know it was always meant as a one off with Artista, but I think he expected the type of hype that came with "Musicology" and it just didn't happen. Also, after "Lotusflow3r, MPLSound, Elixir" dropped, there was nothing from Target or him, really! I saw it for $4.99 at Target (even though I think the paper had it for $9.99...it definitely did not perform even at what Target expected. Considering what AC/DC did, I think they expected numbers around there. At the end of the day, though, I guess it is more about the music for Prince. As long as it is available for those that want it....better a Target exclusive then a high priced membership.
[Edited 1/27/10 14:50pm]

Purple Rain.

TheChief said:

The Gold Experience was his biggest blunder imo outside of not touring the states for Sign o the Times. He promotes the crap out of it a year early when it wasn't available...it eventually makes it to the public and he abandons the whole project. Endorphinmanchine would been a kick ass first single with a smokin video followed up with Shhh, 319, and maybe Shy. But what did we get? I Hate U with no video ( I think one might have eventually made it out...but I never saw it)...and Gold. It was all over by the end of 95. By that time he was already talking about Emancipation. It was frustrating to watch such a killer record flounder like that.

I'd have to say Diamonds and Pearls. I personally loved it, but would have to say it was the first time Prince gave in to what was going on at the time with music (rap)! He was doing mini concerts all over the place, i.e Warner Bros. parking lot, music industry conventions, Arsenio. Two singles released before the cd came out. Lots of singles and videos. He dropped the ball though by not touring the US (just like he did with SOTT). I'd say he was well over it by then though, considering they symbol cd was pretty much done when he took the tour to Europe.

I'm gonna go with Diamonds and pearls, Purple rain.....