stillwaiting said:

gerrard said:

Not touring Sign O the Times in America...HUGE MISTAKE

Not touring Diamonds and Pearls in America....not quite as huge

Name Change...his star had already fallen far enough

Writing slave on his face....in any way, shape or form, this was a disgrace. Sure he was taken by the industry...but he was a 34 YEAR OLD MAN when he signed that contract, no excuses for you Princey. In no way can I understand how he could even try to compare himself to a slave. It would be like me going to work with a shirt saying I'm like a Sept 11th victim, because I did not get a raise.

Not promoting The Gold Experience...well, maybe, the bigger mistake was over-producing it to the point of too much glitz, ruining Endorphinmachine by lowering guitar in the mix, and putting keyboard in.... and that stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid crap at the end of Gold..."Welcome 2 The Dawn, U R now an official member of the New Power Generation, your NPG Membership Card, Lunchbox, and Kirky J stickers are in the mail....did he think his fans were a bunch of 9 year olds with this stupid crap??? This is almost as lame as the Mister Money Minder crap at the end of Jughead.

Untimate live Experience Tour...Untimate?? Can't really respond here....

Not doing Musicology World Tour...well by this time, it didn't really matter...he spent most of the next 6 years in Europe, unless you count the crap in Vegas that was too far away for me.

Giving average albums away free (twice) with newspapers..............What a wasted opportunity????....The albums were pretty good, but by this time, most Prince fans only HEAR an album, and do not LISTEN. At least he is making good music in his old age. Marketing? Well, other than die hards, his new music is DOA when it comes to promotion. Lotus Flow3r was so good, he gave up on it after a few weeks.

Even not making Emancipation as a single.......seeing as this was his big comeback on the charts....Huh? That would be like my 23rd choice on that release...There were not really that many singles on this thing. The single was starting to die at this point anyway. Especially for anyone over 35...even U2 had trouble moving them in the late 90's except for 1 or 2 lead off singles....

Rave onto the joy fantastic album...Funny, I never heard the Rave ONTO album. I heard Rave IN2, and Rave Un2. Again, at this point, not a mistake. So Far So Pleased could have possibly been a big hit if they had worked harder on promotion. Eye Love U, But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore is worth having to put up with some "Love Soldier" ruining TGRES Album version anyway....of course my version with Gangsta Ho edited out with the guitar solo from the single is much better. Not that I have anything against Eve, but just never could get past the fake and stupid "Thug" mentality.

Well, all that....and the original poster did not even mention Prince's biggest mistake....I can say it in 5 letters....

TONY M.

[Edited 9/6/10 10:12am]

Aint u over Tony M yet? geez..but maybe that was a joke..I don't think u really think that was P's biggest mistake...

No confidentiality agreement w/ Kevin Smith. Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Wheres George?

WonderU said:

StonedImmaculate said:

I know it's but...

WENDY AND LISA

The output went progressively downhill afterwards.

TOTALLY agree!!! It was never going to last either way, they quit before he fired them, agreed to do the Parade tour and then he fired them anyway. I do wish a lot of the songs they did together could have been released before they parted ways. The music the 3 of them made together will always be some of my favorite music by anyone.

You know, earlier this year I began digging into Wendy & Lisa's back catalog, discovering music I missed (before I just had an old copy of Fruit at The Bottom from my teens). It has definitely made clear their contributions to Prince's sound. While W&L are brilliant musicians, I feel that Prince's musical output remained solid for several years after they parted ways.

So, I don't think firing Wendy and Lisa was Prince's biggest mistake. His biggest mistake is the almost adversarial way he has treated his online fanbase over the years. I mean, WTF???

ACACIA said:

Biggest mistake: easy :

dragging a BIG grotesque manny-tranny extremely ugly and vulgar drag-queen (so utterly talentless a nasty carreer at the Org is the only option) into the studio and pollute his genius and water down the beauty of his legacy.

sweet michael would be flipping over a thousand times in his grave knowing his great admiration has sunk this low P shoulda just given MJ the butt when he asked for it. LOL

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

ACACIA said:

Biggest mistake: easy :

dragging a BIG grotesque manny-tranny extremely ugly and vulgar drag-queen (so utterly talentless a nasty carreer at the Org is the only option) into the studio and pollute his genius and water down the beauty of his legacy.

sweet michael would be flipping over a thousand times in his grave knowing his great admiration has sunk this low P shoulda just given MJ the butt when he asked for it. LOL

and there it is. but thats what happens when a man thinks with his penis.

Unless I missed it, everyone is missing the clear answer - leaving WB.

When he left he had a record tying 15 year streak of top 10 hits, he hasn't had a top 10 hit since (15 years). He left so he would be free to release more music, we had quite a bit, but I'm not sure it's more than the prior 15 years.

He makes more per record sold because he doesn't spend money promoting them.

He makes more performing live, that really has nothing to do with his leaving as I don't think WB ever got a cut of that.

His fight to leave led to the "slave" on his face and to the name change, both of which alienated fans.

Had he stayed at WB he could still be riding hits like Madonna. He's quite clearly the better artist. He has dozens of songs that should be well known hits, but are instead songs that will be lost in time. His WB catalog is largely still in print, his post WB catalog is hit or miss on what you can actually find and buy a legal copy. You can't even buy his new album at all beyond a leftover giveaway copy. You can't buy it at walmart, you can't buy it on iTunes.

Which brings up his 2nd biggest mistake - not embracing iTunes. He could have made a fortune selling songs from his vault on iTunes. He pretty easily could generate $50 million or more over a few years by simply hiring an engineer to master and release the music he's already recorded an album's worth at a time. That's 50,000 core fans each spending about $1000 each over 5 years to buy the music. That doesn't count the other fans who will find all of this on iTunes while browsing.

Instead he makes a music club with 5 promised newly mastered albums from the vault that never materialize. Those are already all ready, so put them on iTunes as a test. I'm sure he'd make a heck of a lot more from that than he did from lotusflow3r.com.

StonedImmaculate said:

I know it's but...

WENDY AND LISA

The output went progressively downhill afterwards.

When I think about it, I kind of agree but, then you look at Lisa & Wendy's careers now and they're doing pretty well for themselves. There are not that many groups that stay together now-a-days or ever, in that case. Eventually, they would have went their separate ways. It would be nice to hear them do something together 'today' and it's all on equal footing where the contribution is equal. The Revolution, initially was a 'touring band' and not necessarily co-producers.

Everything that has happened is part of the journey.

gerrard said:

Was just thinking bout moments in his career where u think if only he did this that or the other he could have gone re created pass success.........

[Edited 9/5/10 21:23pm]

U do realize that has never really been a goal of his.....

stillwaiting said:

gerrard said:

Not touring Sign O the Times in America...HUGE MISTAKE

Not touring Diamonds and Pearls in America....not quite as huge

Name Change...his star had already fallen far enough

Writing slave on his face....in any way, shape or form, this was a disgrace. Sure he was taken by the industry...but he was a 34 YEAR OLD MAN when he signed that contract, no excuses for you Princey. In no way can I understand how he could even try to compare himself to a slave. It would be like me going to work with a shirt saying I'm like a Sept 11th victim, because I did not get a raise.

Not promoting The Gold Experience...well, maybe, the bigger mistake was over-producing it to the point of too much glitz, ruining Endorphinmachine by lowering guitar in the mix, and putting keyboard in.... and that stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid crap at the end of Gold..."Welcome 2 The Dawn, U R now an official member of the New Power Generation, your NPG Membership Card, Lunchbox, and Kirky J stickers are in the mail....did he think his fans were a bunch of 9 year olds with this stupid crap??? This is almost as lame as the Mister Money Minder crap at the end of Jughead.

Untimate live Experience Tour...Untimate?? Can't really respond here....

Not doing Musicology World Tour...well by this time, it didn't really matter...he spent most of the next 6 years in Europe, unless you count the crap in Vegas that was too far away for me.

Giving average albums away free (twice) with newspapers..............What a wasted opportunity????....The albums were pretty good, but by this time, most Prince fans only HEAR an album, and do not LISTEN. At least he is making good music in his old age. Marketing? Well, other than die hards, his new music is DOA when it comes to promotion. Lotus Flow3r was so good, he gave up on it after a few weeks.

Even not making Emancipation as a single.......seeing as this was his big comeback on the charts....Huh? That would be like my 23rd choice on that release...There were not really that many singles on this thing. The single was starting to die at this point anyway. Especially for anyone over 35...even U2 had trouble moving them in the late 90's except for 1 or 2 lead off singles....

Rave onto the joy fantastic album...Funny, I never heard the Rave ONTO album. I heard Rave IN2, and Rave Un2. Again, at this point, not a mistake. So Far So Pleased could have possibly been a big hit if they had worked harder on promotion. Eye Love U, But Eye Don't Trust U Anymore is worth having to put up with some "Love Soldier" ruining TGRES Album version anyway....of course my version with Gangsta Ho edited out with the guitar solo from the single is much better. Not that I have anything against Eve, but just never could get past the fake and stupid "Thug" mentality.

Well, all that....and the original poster did not even mention Prince's biggest mistake....I can say it in 5 letters....

TONY M.

[Edited 9/6/10 10:12am]

Bwaaahahahaaa!!!!

For me it was all that Tora Tora, name changing, unpronouncable symboling, figerwave sideburns wearing, non talking in interviews, bitching, moaning and complaining, carrying on like a big baby over the record company nonsense.

That and his pulling back on all things internet. For a second there it looked like he was poised to really use the internet to interact with fans and distribute music in this new way and all of a sudden it was womp womp. Then that whole lotusflower stuff, charging the people who love you most and then SCREWING them!! What the hell kinda shit is that? The name change and the fan alientation for me are neck and neck for biggest mistakes.

[Edited 9/16/10 12:29pm]

gerrard said:

Was just thinking bout moments in his career where u think if only he did this that or the other he could have gone re created pass success.........

Not touring Sign O the Times in America

Not touring Diamonds and Pearls in America

Name Change

Writing slave on his face

Not promoting The Gold Experience

Untimate live Experience Tour

Not doing Musicology World Tour

Giving average albums away free (twice) with newspapers..............What a wasted opportunity????

Even not making Emancipation as a single.......seeing as this was his big comeback on the charts

Rave onto the joy fantastic album

[Edited 9/5/10 21:23pm]

Letting Vanity go!

Live DVDs......perhaps the greatest live performer...where are the official DVDs in perfect quality from Parade, Lovesexy, Purple rain, Diamonds and Pearls, Act II, Musicology, 21 Nights in London, Montreux, etc.....

He could promote himself in germany with one appearance at WettenDass..the biggest show with 15 million viewers in germany, austria and switzerland....( MJ, Bowie madonna, the stones, every big name was there) but Prince??? I don?t get it....^^

Releasing hit singles.....he seems not able o write a real hit song anymore....

Releasing Lovesexy instead of The Black Album (I know, NOT a popular opinion)

PRINCES BIGGEST MISTAKE..........................................2010

stillwaiting said:

stillwaiting said:

Not promoting The Gold Experience...well, maybe, the bigger mistake was over-producing it to the point of too much glitz, ruining Endorphinmachine by lowering guitar in the mix, and putting keyboard in.... and that stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid crap at the end of Gold..."Welcome 2 The Dawn, U R now an official member of the New Power Generation, your NPG Membership Card, Lunchbox, and Kirky J stickers are in the mail....did he think his fans were a bunch of 9 year olds with this stupid crap??? This is almost as lame as the Mister Money Minder crap at the end of Jughead.

Um... u forgot the Endorphinmachine cowbell. Can't forget that.

Clear answer - leaving WB.

He lost the budget, the engineers, the quality check, the promotion etc.

Except crystall ball, I do not see any album better than any of WB era.

Now all we got is 2010, underproduced, not even correctly masterised and no promotion.

The 1993 Greatest Hits Album was the biggest mistake.

"7" was a good hit off of and Prince should have followed that up with some of the Come/Gold era stuff in 1993. I remember alot of that Come/Gold era stuff out on bootlegs back in 1993 and alot of people really excited about the new material. By the time some of it was coming out in 1994 people were over it and music and radio had moved on abit, there was more grunge than rock being pushed.

1993 was the best window for the Come/Gold material, the material was fresh and new for the time. Prince prior to that time always seemed cutting edge with hs music and the time delay of losing 1993, Come delayed to 1994, and Gold to 1995 hurt those records because people had moved on, Prince instead of setting the trends seemed to be following trends, and the music was stale by then. The name change and Slave tihng did not help matters.

I dont know why a symbol for a name would be too weird given the fact that Lady GaGa is so popular and she wore a f*@$ing meat dress to the mtv awards.

gerrard said:

Not touring Sign O the Times in America

This was a huge mistake.In the fall of '87,there was so much momentum going on with this record."U Got The Look" and "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" reached the Top 10,and non-singles like "Housequake","Hot Thing" and "Adore" were getting heavy airplay on many radio stations.This would have been the perfect opportunity to do a US tour.Instead,he waited a year later when he had a less accessible album ('Lovesexy') and the misfortune of having to compete with George Michael and Michael Jackson,who were both doing successful tours at the time.

Mistake according 2 whom?

mrsquirrel said:

johnart said:

What?

Prince has been my favorite since Purple Rain (it was the first real listen i had at his music).

I don't get the question tho.

Inception rubbish - my older brother was playing The Love Symbol Album constantly when i were young, and i also remember bootlegging the batman soundtrack in 1989 when i were twelve (holding up one cassette player to another). At the time it seemed like every house required some form of hifi.

On the name change bit, all i'm saying is that is the exact point at which i became a fan.

It cuts like a knife, it tries to get in you,

that and Equinoxe by Jean-Michel Jarre. Anybody taken over a building yet?

[Edited 9/5/10 22:05pm]

What the fuck are you even talking about? This is barely English.

Putting shit hop in his music in hopes that he'll attract some dick from some rough trade.

ernestsewell said:

So he made a mistake if he doesn't tour overseas, and it's still a mistake when he does? Okay then.

Giving away free music isn't a bad move at all. He's not the first to do it, and not the last, and certainly puts most acts in the more rose-colored view of their fans. Hell, even Chuck D and Q-Tip were giving away music in 1998-1999 on the internet.

Prince's biggest mistake is always the same: Never following through.

TheKid94 said:

ernestsewell said:

So he made a mistake if he doesn't tour overseas, and it's still a mistake when he does? Okay then.

Giving away free music isn't a bad move at all. He's not the first to do it, and not the last, and certainly puts most acts in the more rose-colored view of their fans. Hell, even Chuck D and Q-Tip were giving away music in 1998-1999 on the internet.

Prince's biggest mistake is always the same: Never following through.

word.

A.D.D will do that 2 u............

Graycap23 said:

TheKid94 said:

word.

A.D.D will do that 2 u............

So now Prince not only is autistic, but he has ADD?

Man, he sure is fucked up.

Spinlight said:

Graycap23 said:

A.D.D will do that 2 u............

So now Prince not only is autistic, but he has ADD?

Man, he sure is fucked up.

Prince has thee shortest attention span of any artist that I know.

Graycap23 said:

Spinlight said:

So now Prince not only is autistic, but he has ADD?

Man, he sure is fucked up.

Prince has thee shortest attention span of any artist that I know.

He's constantly making new, complete music. If I record a song today, it could take months and/or years to get released. Why should he be confined to those kind of restraints just because pop stars today are?

Back in the day when you only bought singles, artists would released 2-3 albums' worth of material a year.

Spinlight said:

Graycap23 said:

Prince has thee shortest attention span of any artist that I know.

He's constantly making new, complete music. If I record a song today, it could take months and/or years to get released. Why should he be confined to those kind of restraints just because pop stars today are?

Back in the day when you only bought singles, artists would released 2-3 albums' worth of material a year.

I'm glad that he constanly makes music. it is one of the GREAT things about his art........but that has nothing 2 do with his short attention span. A man.......any man, should be good 4 his word. Prince has proven time and time again that his word is suspect.

Graycap23 said:

Spinlight said:

He's constantly making new, complete music. If I record a song today, it could take months and/or years to get released. Why should he be confined to those kind of restraints just because pop stars today are?

Back in the day when you only bought singles, artists would released 2-3 albums' worth of material a year.

I'm glad that he constanly makes music. it is one of the GREAT things about his art........but that has nothing 2 do with his short attention span. A man.......any man, should be good 4 his word. Prince has proven time and time again that his word is suspect.

There's only been 3 situations where Prince "owed" his fans anything or where Prince's word was ever on the line, so to speak.

1. Crystal Ball pre-orders

2. NPGMC

3. LotusFlower.com

Beyond those 3 things, it's no one's business what his word is. He's an artist and he ain't workin' a 9 to 5 and we ain't his boss.