MarquessMarq said:

It could be bigger. Much bigger. But I seriously think at this point in time, that Prince doesn't give a fuck about how many fans he has.

I agree.

dualboot said:

vitriol said:

Well, some real big fans have to have a huge base, otherwise, when they're run in full power the motion could cause them to fall, ruining the rest of the furniture because they'd keep spinning after they fall.

I don't know, though, whether Prince has one of these big fans who need a big base or a more normal one. I hear that Minessotta is quite cold, so maybe he just uses a smaller type of fan when he needs some air.

He should try these. They are multipurpose:

[img:$uid]http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/425389085/Stand_fan_base.jpg[/img:$uid]

These fans are much sturdier, more practical, won't fall over easily, and last a long time. That's the type he should have, even if he might not deserve them.

Timmy84 said:

MarquessMarq said:

It could be bigger. Much bigger. But I seriously think at this point in time, that Prince doesn't give a fuck about how many fans he has.

I agree.

Judging by the fact that he does everything possible to alienate as many people as he can...ABSOLUTELY.

802 said:

Hardcore fan base would be around 100,000. Back in the day it was around 500,000.

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

Prince's facebook page (unoffical) has 791,000 fans right now, not 21000. And its increasing

I think die hard fans are probably 100,000- 200,000 but millions of casual fans are there as well..

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

802 said:

Hardcore fan base would be around 100,000. Back in the day it was around 500,000.

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

I think if his albums were sold in the usual manner and if he promoted himself well, his hardcore fanbase would be 500,000.

802 said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

I think if his albums were sold in the usual manner and if he promoted himself well, his hardcore fanbase would be 500,000.

Well my own mother asked me the other day. When has Prince last put out anything? I told her last year. She looked dumbfounded.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

802 said:

Hardcore fan base would be around 100,000. Back in the day it was around 500,000.

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

Internet does NOT = dead sales. Eminems Recovery which came out in 2010 has over 6 million copies sold wordwide.

carinemjj said:

Well, if you check on Facebook...

Prince has 22 938 fb fans

Eminem has 44 476 712 fb fans

Lady gaga has 41 678 395 fb fans

Rihanna has 41 897 429 fb fans

MJ has 38 809 994 fb fans

so that gives you and idea

Most of those artists you mentioned are at the peak of their careers. Except for MJ of course. He had a few million fans on facebook before he died to be fair, but of course that number went way up after he passed.

Most of these artists you mentioned are just starting out.

Prince is in a much better position if you ask me. He's much more established and his fanbase is much more solid and secure. It doesn't even make sense to compare him to the likes of Gaga because they are not as established and as I said, they're younger and at the peaks of their careers. Of course they'd have more fans on facebook and elsewhere.

At the end of the day, i'd prefer to have a solid fanbase like Prince that's been with me for years over having millions of fans such as is the case with say Justin Bieber or Gaga.

Fanbases are very fickle.

Some of these newer artists are hot today, but they wont have all these millions of hardcore fan s in a few years time most likely. It will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain their success and fanbase over the next few years.

[Edited 8/2/11 12:54pm]

ManlyMoose said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

Internet does NOT = dead sales. Eminems Recovery which came out in 2010 has over 6 million copies sold wordwide.

Eminem has a huge following and was voted top rapper by MTV. So of course he is going to sell either way. Plus he has a major record label backing him. Plus like someone else said he is @ the peak of his career. He wasn't even born when Prince first started. That is a bad example. A lot of artist have suffered sells lost, because of there music being leaked early, because of the internet. Not to mention music sharing sites.

I still think Prince has done pretty good 4 being basically on his own now, 4 over a decade.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

ManlyMoose said:

Internet does NOT = dead sales. Eminems Recovery which came out in 2010 has over 6 million copies sold wordwide.

Eminem has a huge following and was voted top rapper by MTV. So of course he is going to sell either way. Plus he has a major record label backing him. Plus like someone else said he is @ the peak of his career. He wasn't even born when Prince first started. That is a bad example. A lot of artist have suffered sells lost, because of there music being leaked early, because of the internet. Not to mention music sharing sites.

I still think Prince has done pretty good 4 being basically on his own now, 4 over a decade.

Yes, it is true that internet leaks have made sales suffer a lot, but the point is litterally EVERY artist has that happen (Recovery leaked 2 months before release) and yet if the albums good it will sell. If Prince put out an album that was just as good as his 80s/early 90s work and he promoted it, it would sell.

Oh, just for the record, Eminem is ~9 years past his prime. His prime was 1998-2002 and ended mid 2003. In 2004 he released a shitty album (which still sold well, but left fans that knew shit about rap very upset), this happened because of exetreme pill popping (~100 a day) affected his writing skills, Em didnt release an album for a full 5 years and did nothing but feature on a few artists work with some verses that make Prince look like a master of rap.

But, as we know now Em has made a major comeback both artistically (Though not nearly as good as his prime) and saleswise. If Prince made some inspired work and took the time to promote it he could as well.

[Edited 8/2/11 15:02pm]

[Edited 8/2/11 15:04pm]

Cinnamon234 said:

carinemjj said:

Well, if you check on Facebook...

Prince has 22 938 fb fans

Eminem has 44 476 712 fb fans

Lady gaga has 41 678 395 fb fans

Rihanna has 41 897 429 fb fans

MJ has 38 809 994 fb fans

so that gives you and idea

Most of those artists you mentioned are at the peak of their careers. Except for MJ of course. He had a few million fans on facebook before he died to be fair, but of course that number went way up after he passed.

Most of these artists you mentioned are just starting out.

Prince is in a much better position if you ask me. He's much more established and his fanbase is much more solid and secure. It doesn't even make sense to compare him to the likes of Gaga because they are not as established and as I said, they're younger and at the peaks of their careers. Of course they'd have more fans on facebook and elsewhere.

At the end of the day, i'd prefer to have a solid fanbase like Prince that's been with me for years over having millions of fans such as is the case with say Justin Bieber or Gaga.

Fanbases are very fickle.

Some of these newer artists are hot today, but they wont have all these millions of hardcore fan s in a few years time most likely. It will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain their success and fanbase over the next few years.

[Edited 8/2/11 12:54pm]

Well, since the person who started the thread did ask :

"how big is prince's fan base compared to today's big selling artists such as eminem, lady gaga, kanye, rhianna?"

I compared him to them lol, and for the others who said that Facebook fan pages are not accurate OF COURSE I know that, but it does give an idea of pourcentage of people who could be fans... you just have to extend the percentage to the world lol. There are millions of people who have Facebook, yet not even 25 000 of them say they like Prince (not that they have to, but it just can be an indicator, so for those who answered that to my answer.. don't try to show you know better, it was just an example based on the OP's question for god's sake

hardcore fans = those who will buy ANYTHING he puts out = 100,000

casual fans = those who will buy the hits or anything which may get radioplay = millions.

His recent concerts are drawing out the casual fans bigtime.

Big enough to get a mediocre album like 3121 at the top of the charts! lol

Revolution said:

hardcore fans = those who will buy ANYTHING he puts out = 100,000

casual fans = those who will buy the hits or anything which may get radioplay = millions.

His recent concerts are drawing out the casual fans bigtime.

I was going to say something very similar to this. He has a big enough hardcore fan base to put out an album 100% independent and still make close to the $1million he's been accustomed to getting up front in advances. He seemed to have found a great business model with the "Musicology" tour. No sure why he didn't stick with it.

Adisa said:

I was going to say something very similar to this. He has a big enough hardcore fan base to put out an album 100% independent and still make close to the $1million he's been accustomed to getting up front in advances. He seemed to have found a great business model with the "Musicology" tour. No sure why he didn't stick with it.

It has to say stay fresh and exclusive for his businesspartners. If he does this every year prices could be less favorable. Switching makes it more unpredictable and also I think Universal offered him a good deal after the succesfull 2004 for 3121

opps

[Edited 8/3/11 14:14pm]

I'm sure Prince still has a big, decent fan base (like all legends do). The way people go about fans nowadays is way different than it was when Prince was emerging.

his worldwide fanbase is around a million...people who will buy anything to do with him...he has one of the most loyal hardcore fanbase in the world which is down to his overall musical talent and nothing else really..

linus4000 said:

There used to be Prince Facebook page (not official) with the wikipedia article on him and last time

i checked it had more than 700 000 fans...but it seems to be gone now...

Those pages don't count at all. If a facebook user has the word "Prince" in their profile, they are automatically added to this count. It's not an example of people going out of their way to click "like" as on normal fb pages.

I think he has around 100k fans in the US. I have a hard time believeing he has 1M woldwide at this point unless we're setting the bar to entry at an extremely low level. Counting concert goers seem suspect, too. A lot of those people haven't bought a Prince album in 25 years but for the Musicology CD they got for free a few years ago.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

802 said:

Hardcore fan base would be around 100,000. Back in the day it was around 500,000.

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

I think sales of TRC are a good baseline as of a decade ago. It was marketed very little and sold very little, mostly to fans. Everything since has been at a much higher profile and received at least a little bit of decent or clever marketing.

jtfolden said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I still think his fanbase is close 2 500,000. Usually Prince's albums go @ least gold. But some have been hard 2 get lately. Plus the internet has dwindled his sales 2. Most peeps don't by cd's anymore. His concerts still sale well......

I think sales of TRC are a good baseline as of a decade ago. It was marketed very little and sold very little, mostly to fans. Everything since has been at a much higher profile and received at least a little bit of decent or clever marketing.

carinemjj said:

Well, if you check on Facebook...

Prince has 22 938 fb fans

Eminem has 44 476 712 fb fans

Lady gaga has 41 678 395 fb fans

Rihanna has 41 897 429 fb fans

MJ has 38 809 994 fb fans

so that gives you and idea

.

if prince had an official facebook page...he would have a few million followers...any album he releases with a bit of promotion sells at least a million worldwide so thats his hardcore fanbase...people who like prince...i would say around 5 million worldwide...

imago said:

jtfolden said:

I think sales of TRC are a good baseline as of a decade ago. It was marketed very little and sold very little, mostly to fans. Everything since has been at a much higher profile and received at least a little bit of decent or clever marketing.

Are you flirting with me?????

blackbob said:

carinemjj said:

Well, if you check on Facebook...

Prince has 22 938 fb fans

Eminem has 44 476 712 fb fans

Lady gaga has 41 678 395 fb fans

Rihanna has 41 897 429 fb fans

MJ has 38 809 994 fb fans

so that gives you and idea

.

if prince had an official facebook page...he would have a few million followers...any album he releases with a bit of promotion sells at least a million worldwide so thats his hardcore fanbase...people who like prince...i would say around 5 million worldwide...

i agree. it shouldn't even be considered his page

[Edited 8/5/11 21:32pm]

I doubt Rihanna has even sold 44 million albums in total. So that should give you some indication what type of "fans" she has.

I've added Prince to my "music" list and he currently has over 795 000 "fans". I think, that's what the worldwide sales of some of his more recent records have been. Of course, that's not a fair comparison either, because he just simply doesn't make them available in stores very easily.

Like pointed out by people before me, Prince has no problem attracting large audiences to his live shows whenever he tours.

novabrkr said:

I doubt Rihanna has even sold 44 million albums in total. So that should give you some indication what type of "fans" she has.

I've added Prince to my "music" list and he currently has over 795 000 "fans". I think, that's what the worldwide sales of some of his more recent records have been. Of course, that's not a fair comparison either, because he just simply doesn't make them available in stores very easily.

Like pointed out by people before me, Prince has no problem attracting large audiences to his live shows whenever he tours.

I think the average casual fan of Prince, would rather c him per4rm live, then buy his latest music.Most of them don't even know he released any new music in the last decade. Even though he has won double grammy's 4 it. I think Prince realizes that now. That is why he thinks of quick ways 2 release his new music & make a quick buck. So @ least his hardcore fans(Me) can get 2 it easily. Than the average casual fan.

Plus he caters more now 2 casual fans in concert now. He knows exactly what his hardcore fan base is. Plus knows what the casual fans want from him live.

many can't stand him

many respect him, but had a hard time getting into his style

actually I believe that 90% of those going to see him on concert is just there for the hits and him being an icon, while the actual serious listener of his music is rather small

Meeting big fans of his music is a seldom experience, atleast for people on my age(25)

This is the problem:

The general public wants hits, and therefore might like him for the ones they remember, but prefer Michael Jackson.

The musicians and music interrested choose to listen to James Brown, Parliament and Sly and The Family Stone instead. They're good, but alot easier to get into. One don't have to deal with the whole persona thing, and all the weirdness, attitude... etc that Prince brings to the table.

Replica said:

many can't stand him

many respect him, but had a hard time getting into his style

actually I believe that 90% of those going to see him on concert is just there for the hits and him being an icon, while the actual serious listener of his music is rather small

Meeting big fans of his music is a seldom experience, atleast for people on my age(25)

This is the problem:

The general public wants hits, and therefore might like him for the ones they remember, but prefer Michael Jackson.

The musicians and music interrested choose to listen to James Brown, Parliament and Sly and The Family Stone instead. They're good, but alot easier to get into. One don't have to deal with the whole persona thing, and all the weirdness, attitude... etc that Prince brings to the table.

I am not sure if Sly or Parliment have more fans than Prince, even among musicians. I think most musicians respect him alot and his work gets covered by everyone from rock musicians, to pop and r&b artists and so on. Even those who dont like his persona respect his talent alot.