Remember his last website when you all moaned you couldnt stream the videos because the quality was too high for the bandwith?

honer said:

Remember his last website when you all moaned you couldnt stream the videos because the quality was too high for the bandwith?

We have downloads versus streaming and h.264 compression (mp4...).

Udo

861380090650227042384fc9cd7449793a5b0a19

I'm saving up for a new computer, than I'll be downloading this stuff.

I like it that by that time I can choose on which song or video I'll spend my money on.

And by the time I'm rich, I'll buy them all

The Youtube police have been busy today!! lol!

SynthiaRose said:

I didn't buy the video and honestly I don't care about seeing it. I didn't even visit the website. This is just all kinds of wrong from a marketing standpoint.

This made me laugh. Prince? Marketing? This is a guy who has painfully tried to do whatever is possible to make as little money as possible. The greatest Pop musician in history by far...but he fumbles and bumbles his way to avoid making money. He's so great and talented, that he's going to make money anyway, but naive and neurotic enough to have even been on the brink of serious financial trouble before his awesome Musicology Tour saved his ass.

I've said it a billion times: U2 is my second favorite artist, but don't have 5% of Prince's talent. Their 360 tour didn't make over $700 million due to them being dominant musicans. Yes, they are great, but they go out of their way to have a great fan club, and passionately thank their fans, and provide Live Cds for their fanclub that you can't buy in stores. They don't sue their own fans, and they don't screw their own fans.

No matter how frustrating it is to be a Prince fan, I absolutely love him, and love him like a brother. I would not let my brother get away with bullshit, so I clown on Prince for the bullshit like Tony M, and wasting Shelby J's talent as a crowd flunky.

I praise Prince when I think he deserves it, like 2002's ONA tour, I praised him for 3121, Lotus Flow3r, Planet Earth, most of 20Ten, and yes, I dig RNR Love Affair.

I clown him for the ridiculous intro to the Screwdriver Video, and I have clowned on Prince and Warners for having no idea how to market somebody so brilliant.

3rdeyedude said:

you can see the vid on youtube now (but probably not for long), like the song but the kids dancing look like they are just trying to get gum off their shoes

I quoted your comment somewhere on here, but couldn't remember who said it. Funny stuff. I'm diggin' the song, but the video is crap. Prince as a Jedi Master with the hood is kinda cool, but nearly everything else is so bad it's funny.

ugh. This was awful. From script to the setups. The only part a High School student could not have done better was the musical performance.

Ok I've seen it.

Um so...the whole intro was dorky and when Prince came in thru the door, all I could think of was Fred Armisen from SNL on that Beyonce/Baby blue skit. I burst into laughter. I'm hoping Prince was just trying to make fun of himself.

The dancers - superflous. The band performance was really good but ok I've seen it now.

What I'm intrigued about is where he is taking this girl rock band idea. Also, the other dudes in the video? They are musicians as well. What's happening with them?

For some strange reason ever since i watched the Screwdriver video, I keep wanting to watch this video... It's like Screwdriver was the Black&White Version:

Shake it baby..

I do like that Prince kept the video straight and to the point.

Yall know how I love my baby Prince, however was that CORNY!!!!!!!

the bandmembers acting in the beginning was so bad and Prince's entrance oh lawd

I did like that screwdriver step, it was cute, maybe not for this era but it was cute.

stillwaiting said:

RRA said:

Man crybabies already polluting this thread. Figures.

You don't have to BUY the video folks. Prince aint putting a gun to your head and pay the $1.77.

(or knowing his size, his gun to your crotch.)

Again, lets encourage him to keep putting up videos. Hopefully they'll be better, but hey its more of his "home made" videos, for better or worse.

The best thing about the internet, is that people like you can pretend to be positive and happy about everything, but you take the first opportunity to COMPLAIN ABOUT THE COMPLAINERS....that really makes you worse than the complainers to begin with.

Of course, you could say I am complaining about someone complaining about the complainers...Man this shit gets confusing sometimes.

If Prince fans are trying to sell me & others on downloading Screwdriver video, they are doing a horrible job. I just can't get amped to tell others to download a black & white music video w/ a hooded prince while some teenages quasi twist like a screw as a ploy to get young teenagers into your image again. More power to them, but the numbers have to be so incredibly low for downloads.

My suggestion: Focus on unreleased music & set up a subscription program where I don't have to go through the process of paying 1.77$ for every track. That gets old quick.

Seriously, how baffling is it that this is what Prince decided to focus on after the Grammy's, a black & white video of a song no one was really that excited about in the first place w/ no youtube or social media streams? Is this idea brilliant for the 21st century or what?

Sorry but no one is going to "GEEK" out over paying for a digital download music video. Countdown til Prince starts blaming the audience for people not being interested in getting "Screwed"

Trickology said:

Seriously, how baffling is it that this is what Prince decided to focus on after the Grammy's, a black & white video of a song no one was really that excited about in the first place w/ no youtube or social media streams? Is this idea brilliant for the 21st century or what?

Sorry but no one is going to "GEEK" out over paying for a digital download music video. Countdown til Prince starts blaming the audience for people not being interested in getting "Screwed"

Seems to me that plenty of people were excited about the song, the remix especially seems to be getting a lot of love.

TheEnglishGent said:

BartVanHemelen said:

Even this whole "Screwdriver Live" video thing seems to be a retread of "The Undertaker" video.

lol, you crack me up. Prince could release the most amazing album ever and you would slag it off as a re-tread because he had released an album before.

It's blatantly obvious that Prince has run out of ideas long ago and is now simply retreading past successes desperate to score again.

If this was a new undertaker stle video it would be the most awesome thing in a long time. I hope it's that but am only expecting screwdriver vid.

It is Undertaker-style (a lame story, half-assed video, combined with a live performance). That it is nothing like it quality-wise is to be expected: Undertaker was performed with an actual band, not with some musicians he's taken a fancy to.

PurpleMedley122 said:

SCREWDRIVER LIVE VIDEO (MOV AND MP4) CAN BE PURCHASED FOR $1.77 AT 3RDEYEGIRL.COM

GO THERE NOW!!!!!

Which is what I predicted earlier in the thread.

Anyone who is surprised at this: go read the Billboard interview, all he talks about is money money money. That is his ONLY motivation. And the reason for the "this will do" quality of his output.

bombpop said:

I'm not complaining. All the stuff was only like 5 bucks. I think of all the ways I waste 5 bucks everyday, this was definitely not one of them. People complaining about the quality (mp3, wav, FLAC, etc) should keep it in perspective. .88 cents? Who cares what the format is for .88 cents. Just my thoughts.

Please inform us of the price point at which criticism is allowed.

djThunderfunk said:

Laughing my ass of at those that are pissed it isn't free. I thought the consensus among us was we weren't interested in a membership site where we didn't know what we were getting,

Last I checked there was no preview of the video. Or any of the songs, for that matter.

So you're still forced to pay for something without knowing what you're gonna get.

alandail said:

Are people really complaining about spending $1.77?

Please inform us of the price point at which criticism is allowed.

After years of no official releases of anything and no web presencse since 2009, Prince is releasing music again. We've seen in the past that Prince will lose interest in releasing material through his web sites if it's not bringing in money. I have no problem spending $1.77 for this and 88 cents for the songs. Even if I hit a song or video here or there that I don't like, it's an investment in more releases.

<cough> Stockholm syndrome <cough>

imago said:

Well, I'm glad I didn't pay for the video, but I think it's a fair price for a video.

Madonna's "Justify My Love" cost more than that in the 80/90s,

No it didn't. It was all over TV all the time. For free.

SEXUALCHOCOLATE said:

I can't believe people have the nerve to complain about the video costing $1.77.

Please inform us of the price point at which criticism is allowed.

Nearly all of us agreed that a subscription based service was the way to go. Paying for only what you want.

You do realise that you've just contradicted yourself, right?

It's 2013 people. Prince is having a BIG year.

No he isn't. It's the same old same old. Nobody outside of the Org gives a fuck.

No more negative comments, please.

Gotta love how secure famz are of their opinions.

BartVanHemelen said:

imago said:

Well, I'm glad I didn't pay for the video, but I think it's a fair price for a video.

Madonna's "Justify My Love" cost more than that in the 80/90s,

No it didn't. It was all over TV all the time. For free.

Not all the time and not everywhere. It was after a a specific time (10 p.m. iirc) due to the supposed risque sexual content and basically only on MTV.

But you're right, it was free.

udo said:

AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 120.4 kbit/8.53% (ratio: 15051->176400)

Less than 128Kbit! Piss poor quality!

LOL. No wonder they never put up technical specs for their downloads.

RodeoSchro said:

udo said:

At least Bart is paying attention.

And what he writes is true.

Of course people don't like his delivery as criticism is still very unexpected.

Bart isn't paying a bit of attention. He has a personal vendetta against Prince and carries it out on this website because he knows Prince/his people read this site.

Project much?

Prince could record a song that has the secret to curing cancer and Bart would screech about it being "the same old stuff".

Except he doesn't. I know you famz like to pretend that he does this every time, but he really doesn't. Y'all know damn well his output is lame and you can't stand when people point it out.

I wish he would go away. It'd be one thing if his criticism was constructive, but you know as well as I do that all he's doing is carrying on a personal grudge with Prince.

Please define constructive criticism. Is pointing out that launching three asstastic URLs in one month is amateurish constructive? Is pointing out that selling music in non-lossless formats is a rip-off constructive? Is pointing out that Prince's online store is an amateurish joke constructive? Is pointing out that communicating via an amateur gossip blogger who can't write if his life depended on it is amateurish at best, constructive?

I keep forgetting that I'm not allowed to dislike Prince's output. Silly me.

Genesia said:

teiemka said:

Right, just like you saw Gett Off, SexyMF, 3 Chains O'Gold, Sacrifice of Victor, and Undertaler videos before buying them.

Or heard any of his albums before you bought them - especially back in the day.

Spending money on a PHYSICAL item is a whole lot different than on a digital item. And most of those videos are longform videos. Also, those things get reviewed, so you knwo what you're in for.

Oh, and back int eh day radio used to premiere albums in my neck of the woods, often playing tracks from them about a week or two in advance. I'd taped almost all of D&P from the radio premiere two weeks before the release and had played that tape a lot before the album appeared in stores.

Also, back then you'd know you'd get quality product. Nowadays we live in the era of "Purple & Gold" and other shitastic output. Albums so bad Prince can't be arsed to promote them or play songs from them live.

Tokyo said:

hope more stuff is posted, including the Montreux film...that looks like even more fun! ;o)

I still doubt that he will release this unedited, because he played some cover versions, and that means he has to pay royalties if he wants to sell the video.

If it's edited, I'll stick to the unedited bootleg video in perfect quality.

Trickology said:

My suggestion: Focus on unreleased music & set up a subscription program where I don't have to go through the process of paying 1.77$ for every track. That gets old quick.

I got a better idea: $77 for a subscription service. Yes that's brilliant!

Oh and genius, its 88 cents per track. You poor poor poor impoverished baby.

Subscription, for those who don't understand, you get what you're given after you already forked over your case. With pay-by-track, you do have the choice of buying or not buying said track.

But alas. Just amazing that Prince is TRYING to do the right thing, and fandom still has to call 911 for the Wahbulance.

honer said:

Remember his last website when you all moaned you couldnt stream the videos because the quality was too high for the bandwith?

FYI depending on the source, YouTube offers video in three or four different encoding formats, each of them in several different bitrates (Don't believe me? Enter the URL of a high quality YouTube video into Keepvid). Websites like Bandcamp offer downloads in various formats and encodes.

There is NO REASON for Prince to offer downloads in just one format, other than incompetence. (Or perhaps greed: because charging $1.77 for a crummy encode leaves him the possibility of selling a higher quality version to some other distrbutor.)

RRA said:

Oh and genius, its 88 cents per track. You poor poor poor impoverished baby.

The video is $1.77 and is one track.

Subscription, for those who don't understand, you get what you're given after you already forked over your case. With pay-by-track, you do have the choice of buying or not buying said track.

Except there are no previews here, so you're buying blind.

But alas. Just amazing that Prince is TRYING to do the right thing

You don't get a cookie when you're trying to do the right thing. It's 2013, and Prince's official online presence is amateurish beyond belief. But for you the bar is apparently so low, that you feel that he deserves praise for this.