I see a lot of fans referring to the amount of money Prince could make doing this or that.

It's not the be all and end all though is it? Maybe he's happy with his lot.

It's not like he is going to do 'Glee', pay per song on a website for the unreleased material, release that material on physical CD's, or do remasters of his classic albums, boxsets or put out fresh DVD's.

I mean he just doesn't do these things, does he?

Should he listen to his fans and what they want, or carry on as he is?

be himself!

he does what he wants when he wants and not because some1 tells him to unless that person is LG

I think P is a musical ADD genuis. His attention doesn't allow him to think of long term plans. It appears he is more driven by what has his attention at that moment and money may not be super important at all times

i do think money pays a gig part in hs lfe but its not the be all and endf all..around the words in a day after purple rain is the definate showing of this.....i am pissed by he way....sorry...

[Edited 8/21/10 18:01pm]

DecaturStone said:

I think P is a musical ADD genuis. His attention doesn't allow him to think of long term plans. It appears he is more driven by what has his attention at that moment and money may not be super important at all times

He showed he didn't care about money. When all the top news stories was saying how he should cash in on the song "1999" . But that year came and went. Besides a 1999 remix single Prince did nothing. He could have made a fortune off of that song. It shows he an artist first.

Oh, he's money driven alright! The point that seems to get missed...on threads such as this...is his direction.

Which is...getting paid! Upfront...first and foremost!

If each and every single member of the Org put 100.00 into an escrow account that we...only as a group could utilize. We could get Prince to damn near anything we wanted.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

Oh, he's money driven alright! The point that seems to get missed...on threads such as this...is his direction.

Which is...getting paid! Upfront...first and foremost!

If each and every single member of the Org put 100.00 into an escrow account that we...only as a group could utilize. We could get Prince to damn near anything we wanted.

lmao at getting the org to collectively agree on something

seems to me that prince absolutely loves money and all the things it can buy him

when i want to feel rich i count all the things i have that money cant buy

Sherlock Holmes himself can see that this is the case with Prince.

Obsessed with money, nah, doubt it. I think he feels his genuis merits x number of dollars and doesn't budge from that number. I know plenty of people in real jobs that take the very same approach. It is his percieved self worth. Nothing wrong with that, but there are consequences for his approach. He now has to go through outside channels. His music goes largely unheard. Yes, we the diehards have everything we can get of Prince, but the average music listener, knows very little of his catelog - and that is a shame.

As some have said, he could have sold out many times in the past and still could if he wanted to. Alicia Keys asks his permission to record "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore" and he demands she play it to him and get his approval. She did, but it shows you, he won't let just anyone cover his material. It's not about the money. It's his music, he wants control of it.

I think Prince wants money to be able to dress like a pimp and create his art whenever/however he wants.

If you really look at his career choices, he could be more business savvy and be making a shit ton of money on merchandise/licensing of his image/music etc. However, he is pretty damn protective/respectful of his art...often much to his fans chagrin.

Bottom Line: I don't think Prince is any more money driven than you or me, and certainly less so than other individuals who are among the elite in their profession.

probably not.

[Edited 8/21/10 21:45pm]

I'm not sure really, because if he was after the money, he'd still be signed up at WB, he'd release 20TEN worldwide, he'd promote it, he'd be touring now, and he wouldn't bother about aftershows.

So that's why I wouldn't consider him money driven. On the other hand he's a total control freak when it comes do illegally downloading his music and watching videos on Youtube. He wants to be paid for every listen, so that feels a little odd for someone that isn't money driven.

IMO he should just focus on the music and let someone else look after his business plans. But we all know that's never going to happen

I think he's ABSOLUTELY obsessed with money but he is too dumb to realize he could get even much more with probably less effort by just pleasing his fans.

Prince is NOT money driven. If he were, u would not be getting 2 cd sets for $12.00 or

Concerts for $31.21.

Graycap23 said:

Prince is NOT money driven. If he were, u would not be getting 2 cd sets for $12.00 or

Concerts for $31.21.

Floating Jellyfish/Dead Link Lotus Websites for $77, and CASSETTE TAPES with 2 songs for $20. Many concerts for $150 or more. Yes he has had some cheap items, and some very value oriented items. He also has ripped off his die hard fans a time or two, because he knows we love him no matter what. I will be dambed if ANYONE thinks that Prince is NOT money driven. He is, he just doesn't focus on it all the time. When the tables are turned, it is odd that so many that have worked with him privately complain about not getting paid.

stillwaiting said:

Graycap23 said:

Prince is NOT money driven. If he were, u would not be getting 2 cd sets for $12.00 or

Concerts for $31.21.

Floating Jellyfish/Dead Link Lotus Websites for $77, and CASSETTE TAPES with 2 songs for $20. Many concerts for $150 or more. Yes he has had some cheap items, and some very value oriented items. He also has ripped off his die hard fans a time or two, because he knows we love him no matter what. I will be dambed if ANYONE thinks that Prince is NOT money driven. He is, he just doesn't focus on it all the time. When the tables are turned, it is odd that so many that have worked with him privately complain about not getting paid.

Has Prince made some bonehead business decisions? Absolutely........driven by money? I'd say no, just extremely bad execution.

To some extent he will be inevitabley money driven, how could he not be? He has a rather large studio that must cost a lot of money to manage what with the electric bills, staff wages etc.

He likes to live a luxury lifestyle travelling to exotic places, buying expensive things etc.

Recently has had to pay off lots of taxes and lawyer fees.

He knows his music is worth a lot of money and fans will pay anything to see him, and usually asks for an obsene amount of money upfront for distribution rights and perfomances...

Sometimes he can be a bit silly with his money, but the whole "prince the business man" is a whole other story!

However I think he is content with the money he makes because he has yet to release many DVDs and vault material that he knows will sell like hotcakes. The only way he will do that is if fan and public interest diminish so much to the extent of barely being paid for perfomances/distrubution rights to his new releases. And with a studio and record label to run, tours to fund, he will be forced to release old material in that situation. He will literally have to be on the verge of bankrupcy before those old gems will be prized unwillingly from his claws... after all, the only reason he agreed to officially release the black album in the 90s was to help get him out his WB contract. So we know that he is not above with-holding material if it is going to benefit him in a very positive way

[Edited 8/22/10 18:06pm]

Now if we could only motivate him to have a Prince concert without cover songs, and without over-bearing female backing vocalists. Anything for one last amazing tour like SOTT, One Nite Alone, Lovesexy, Parade, Controversy, even Musicology. He seems to be re-hashing the last few years live. Only a few shows like that Nokia one, the Paris 2009 have really seemed to be that uplifting. He has to have an exciting tour to even generate interest in his unreleased material...Most fans here talk about how great he is live, and how awful he is in the studio. Either I have it backwards, or the masses do. I think Musicololgy, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotus Flow3r, and 20Ten are nice releases...take out MPLS Sound, and no clunkers in site.

Live? Well, he can still bring it, but how many cover songs do we have to sit through. Has Rod F*#*ing Stewart been telling Prince how a live show should be? Remakes/Covers suck...other than A Case of U, I don't want to hear anybody else's songs. It would be like if Prince went to see James Brown back in the day, and he did a bunch of Elvis songs...it would stink.

Man, I love Prince, but it sure can be frustrating being a fan...

stillwaiting said:

Now if we could only motivate him to have a Prince concert without cover songs, and without over-bearing female backing vocalists. Anything for one last amazing tour like SOTT, One Nite Alone, Lovesexy, Parade, Controversy, even Musicology. He seems to be re-hashing the last few years live. Only a few shows like that Nokia one, the Paris 2009 have really seemed to be that uplifting. He has to have an exciting tour to even generate interest in his unreleased material...Most fans here talk about how great he is live, and how awful he is in the studio. Either I have it backwards, or the masses do. I think Musicololgy, 3121, Planet Earth, Lotus Flow3r, and 20Ten are nice releases...take out MPLS Sound, and no clunkers in site.

Live? Well, he can still bring it, but how many cover songs do we have to sit through. Has Rod F*#*ing Stewart been telling Prince how a live show should be? Remakes/Covers suck...other than A Case of U, I don't want to hear anybody else's songs. It would be like if Prince went to see James Brown back in the day, and he did a bunch of Elvis songs...it would stink.

Man, I love Prince, but it sure can be frustrating being a fan...

Have U ever thought once that maybe there is a reason why Prince is doing covers all the time? Maybe he is saving his songs live for when he totally owns them and gets his masters back. Prince never does anything without a reason......I think i'm dead right about this......

I with you OP, I don't think Prince is money driven.. Because he could have done so much by now that would both get him millions of dollars and make friends happy. But he hasn't. Which one can only conclude that he does what he feels he should be doing, when he feels he should do it. Yes, he has to make a living, so he wants to get paid for what he does do. So that is so understandable. But he doesn't go overboard. Heck, he doesn't do enough from the fans perspective. Mine included, I'd like the new ablum, I'd like to see him perform as much as possible. I'd like dvds, remastered old cds, etc. I guess we just have to trust he will give us more of himself when it's right. HE has a higher calling, so I think he looks at things differently than most people do. And he of course like to make sure things go the way he wants them to go, he is a natural born "leader."

Graycap23 said:

Prince is NOT money driven. If he were, u would not be getting 2 cd sets for $12.00 or

Concerts for $31.21.

Concertticket (Werchert 10 July) : 85€ regular seats - 125€ gold tix

and then then aftershow : 80€ entrance - to be paid in cash at the door. Later there was an article in the paper that P originally wanted to ask 125€ at the entrance, but since it was already 4am before doors opened, he agreed to lower the price to 80€.

FYI : 125 € = 158 USD (current conversion rate, applied for the dates of the concert)

Marrk said:

I see a lot of fans referring to the amount of money Prince could make doing this or that.

It's not the be all and end all though is it? Maybe he's happy with his lot.

It's not like he is going to do 'Glee',

If Glee pays him, who knows?

pay per song on a website for the unreleased material,

You donit get it, do you? He wants it ALL: subscription fees, etc. Plus web is an afterthought. He wants the lump advance sum, just like he's used to from his WB years. Look at CB: the only reason that wa sold online was to find a distributor nuts enough to pay big money to get it into stores. "Look, I've got 100,000 pre-orders, see how I deserve all those millions in advance I require?"

release that material on physical CD's,

Advance, advance, advance...

or do remasters of his classic albums,

WB isn't willing to put up the ridiculous money he's demanding, I bet.

boxsets or put out fresh DVD's.

Cluelessness isn't a business strategy.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

DecaturStone said:

I think P is a musical ADD genuis. His attention doesn't allow him to think of long term plans. It appears he is more driven by what has his attention at that moment and money may not be super important at all times

He showed he didn't care about money. When all the top news stories was saying how he should cash in on the song "1999" . But that year came and went. Besides a 1999 remix single Prince did nothing. He could have made a fortune off of that song. It shows he an artist first.

Bullcrap.

1. "1999" was sold to a major company (IIRC Coca-Cola), but apparently the deal fell through.

2. What do you think that remix was supposed to do? EARN GAZILLION $.

mblevels said:

I'm not sure really, because if he was after the money, he'd still be signed up at WB, he'd release 20TEN worldwide, he'd promote it, he'd be touring now,

Why woudl he? He cashed the advance checque, he's done "caring". Euro-tour = again HUGE advances which resulted in perfunctory concerts.

and he wouldn't bother about aftershows.

He gets PAID for those. Aftershow in Viage = €80 tickets. Viage paid him HUGE money because they're a new club desperate to make a name.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Have U ever thought once that maybe there is a reason why Prince is doing covers all the time? Maybe he is saving his songs live for when he totally owns them and gets his masters back. Prince never does anything without a reason......I think i'm dead right about this......

Hilarious. Oh, so that's why he's not playing any of his WB-era songs? Oh wait, THAT'S ALL HE'S BEEN PLAYING. He's been "free" for 15+ years, and how much of the songs from the past 15 years does he play live? One? Two?

Sheesh, how about STICKING TO THE FACTS? Is it so bloody hard to come up with a theory that can't be disproven by pointing to ANY concert he's done in the past 15 years?

BartVanHemelen said:

He gets PAID for those. Aftershow in Viage = €80 tickets. Viage paid him HUGE money because they're a new club desperate to make a name.

Did Viage pay Prince, in addition to the entrance money?

I understood that P and the band made about 28000€ in entrance money , which was divided among the musicians.

Viage themselves made money on drinks and free advertising.

Although they probably didn't make any profit, seeing as they probably had repaircosts with the safetyglass of the escalator breaking due to fans pushing too hard when trying to get in.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Maybe he is saving his songs live for when he totally owns them and gets his masters back. Prince never does anything without a reason......I think i'm dead right about this......

I don't know much about copyrights, but I wonder what owning the masters has to do with playing the songs live.

Like he owns the rights to all the stuff he's covering.

Prince not money driven??? He might not be too greedy compared to others, but he goes through a whole lot of cash to support his life style, his ex-wives, and girl-friend(s). The way Bria is decked out all the time and the way he is dragging her everywhere. That kind of lifestyle isn't cheap! He has to make sure there is enough money coming in to keep her happy. That woman doesn't look like she really has a job, besides being Prince's arm candy.