TheEnglishGent said:

stillwaiting said:

I could care less if it was 88 cents or a million dollars.

Do you mean you couldn't care less, that is you don't care? Or do you mean that you do care as that's what you wrote? Sorry but you've confused me as to your point.

Owning a DVD with all the videos over the years would be great. Charging for downloads is kinda dumb. I never intended to bitch about the price. I am just bitching about the concept of charging a download fee for something that many have not seen yet.

Why the hate for downloads? Physical media is dying, time to get with the times. The problem isn't that there is only a download, the problem is the quality.

Prince's fanbase is older. I don't mind audio downloads, but still prefer physical cds that sound much better on great audio equipment.

Video downloads don't sound all that good on a surround system. The bitrate of Screwmyfans live is 128!!! That is awful sound. A pressed DVD, or God Forbid a Blu Ray sound exponentially better. Prince easily could put all his videos on a 4 Blu Ray set, but we know he won't.

If Prince was 25, and his fanbase was all young, this strategy might be ok. But with a bunch of old turds like me, sound and picture quality actually mean something. Paying 1.77 for some shitty sounding video of a very decent song is not a lot of money, but most our age want quality regardless of price. That's why I don't really care how much it costs, but the means of distribution.

Now since the non-musical aspects of this video are borderline ass-clown, I never want to see it again, but I do want to hear the audio again.

No Grammy Performance - 3rdEyeGirl - Screwdriver dance

udo said:

chewymusic said:

bingo

So we have a consensus.

That implies that mr Prince `missold` live material (which technically isn't live).

Where is the BBB in Chanhassen?

The dancers were obviously filmed later, but...

Live does not mean there is an audience. Recording live in a studio means recording the band playing the song all at once rather than one instrument at a time.

We cannot tell from this video that they weren't playing (and recording) all together.

Also, whether or not the video is a live performance and the music is a live performance are two different things.

stillwaiting said:

djThunderfunk said:

Laughing my ass of at those that are pissed it isn't free.

Keep laughing. A lot of people think Adam Sandler is funny too. Videos have always been free. They are supposed to be a promo tool to sell the music. Since the visual aspects of this video are pretty much hideous, it should just be a bonus download if you paid the .88 for the song.

The Undertaker was not free. Most of the videos on the Diamond And Pearls collection and 3 Chains O' Gold were not free. The videos on NPGMC were not free.

If Screwdriver was playing once an hour on MTV (Ha!) like Batdance did in '89, it would NOT be free for me as I don't have cable or satellite and would choose not to PAY for it just to see a Prince video.

Videos have been a promotional too to sell music. They have been offered for sale too!. I, for one, wish ALL of Prince videos were available to buy so I could get the ones not already offered for sale.

Still laughing...

stillwaiting said:

Video downloads don't sound all that good on a surround system. The bitrate of Screwmyfans live is 128!!! That is awful sound. A pressed DVD, or God Forbid a Blu Ray sound exponentially better. Prince easily could put all his videos on a 4 Blu Ray set, but we know he won't.

Video downloads can sound good though, it just so happens that this one has a shit audio encode. It's not the fault of it being a download, it's because it's a shit download!

Even if he puts out the discs I wouldn't mind downloading them, providing they are the same quality as the discs. My physical media just gets a lossles rip and chucked in the loft anyway.

TheEnglishGent said:

stillwaiting said:

Video downloads don't sound all that good on a surround system. The bitrate of Screwmyfans live is 128!!! That is awful sound. A pressed DVD, or God Forbid a Blu Ray sound exponentially better. Prince easily could put all his videos on a 4 Blu Ray set, but we know he won't.

Video downloads can sound good though, it just so happens that this one has a shit audio encode. It's not the fault of it being a download, it's because it's a shit download!

Even if he puts out the discs I wouldn't mind downloading them, providing they are the same quality as the discs. My physical media just gets a lossles rip and chucked in the loft anyway.

I still think the average over 40 Prince fan who make up the majority of those who will hand money over to him prefer cds. FLAC may as well be FUCKED, as it is a difficult format to quickly use and put on cd to play in the car. Those with skill may think it's easy, but for the average fan, no.

stillwaiting said:

FLAC may as well be FUCKED, as it is a difficult format to quickly use and put on cd to play in the car. Those with skill may think it's easy, but for the average fan, no.

You must be using a proproietary operating system and have no access to any search machine whatsoever.

I mean: this is 2013. Burning flacs to CD if your music player still doesn't support flac at this time (why did you buy ot then?) is quite doable, even for dummies.

udo said:

stillwaiting said:

FLAC may as well be FUCKED, as it is a difficult format to quickly use and put on cd to play in the car. Those with skill may think it's easy, but for the average fan, no.

You must be using a proproietary operating system and have no access to any search machine whatsoever.

I mean: this is 2013. Burning flacs to CD if your music player still doesn't support flac at this time (why did you buy ot then?) is quite doable, even for dummies.

If you could ask every single person who purchases Prince's next physical cd release how easy it is to get a flac file quickly to cd, at least half or more wouldn't know flac from MS-DOS. Maybe 10% would even have used FLAC once. If FLAC was this format dummies could use with their eyes closed, why would anybody even consider bothering with an MP3? Why would physical cds even be sold? Other than some geeks here, the average Prince dummy wants to go to a Wreck A Stow.

And since the topic is DVD, Blu Ray mastered properly sounds way better than any download. And yes, I have heard decent sounding DVD from downloads.

2020 said:

No Grammy Performance - 3rdEyeGirl - Screwdriver dance

Love it!!

djThunderfunk said:

udo said:

So we have a consensus.

That implies that mr Prince `missold` live material (which technically isn't live).

Where is the BBB in Chanhassen?

The dancers were obviously filmed later, but...

Live does not mean there is an audience. Recording live in a studio means recording the band playing the song all at once rather than one instrument at a time.

We cannot tell from this video that they weren't playing (and recording) all together.

Also, whether or not the video is a live performance and the music is a live performance are two different things.

These are interesting points and distinctions.

I do wonder if they all played together because I voiced concern over the lack of chemistry/synergy earlier.

The part at the end where Prince steps back from the mike and the female guitarist (is that Donna?) steps forward made it seem like they were all there together.....?

stillwaiting said:

And since the topic is DVD, Blu Ray mastered properly sounds way better than any download. And yes, I have heard decent sounding DVD from downloads.

Any compressed download yes, but in this day and age you can download a blu-ray disc image no problem.

stillwaiting said:

udo said:

You must be using a proproietary operating system and have no access to any search machine whatsoever.

I mean: this is 2013. Burning flacs to CD if your music player still doesn't support flac at this time (why did you buy ot then?) is quite doable, even for dummies.

If you could ask every single person who purchases Prince's next physical cd release how easy it is to get a flac file quickly to cd, at least half or more wouldn't know flac from MS-DOS. Maybe 10% would even have used FLAC once. If FLAC was this format dummies could use with their eyes closed, why would anybody even consider bothering with an MP3? Why would physical cds even be sold? Other than some geeks here, the average Prince dummy wants to go to a Wreck A Stow.

And since the topic is DVD, Blu Ray mastered properly sounds way better than any download. And yes, I have heard decent sounding DVD from downloads.

Yeah what he said!

Flac's are a ballache, i've got a load of crap I downloaded on FLac because i didnt realise it was in that format and i've never listened to most of it because I can only play it on VMplayer.

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

honer said:

stillwaiting said:

If you could ask every single person who purchases Prince's next physical cd release how easy it is to get a flac file quickly to cd, at least half or more wouldn't know flac from MS-DOS. Maybe 10% would even have used FLAC once. If FLAC was this format dummies could use with their eyes closed, why would anybody even consider bothering with an MP3? Why would physical cds even be sold? Other than some geeks here, the average Prince dummy wants to go to a Wreck A Stow.

And since the topic is DVD, Blu Ray mastered properly sounds way better than any download. And yes, I have heard decent sounding DVD from downloads.

Yeah what he said!

Flac's are a ballache, i've got a load of crap I downloaded on FLac because i didnt realise it was in that format and i've never listened to most of it because I can only play it on VMplayer.

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

So you still don't know how to convert flac to mp3...

You'd be better off using google now!

[Edited 2/14/13 2:48am]

funkomatic said:

honer said:

Yeah what he said!

Flac's are a ballache, i've got a load of crap I downloaded on FLac because i didnt realise it was in that format and i've never listened to most of it because I can only play it on VMplayer.

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

So you still don't know how to convert flac to mp3...

You'd be better off using google now!

[Edited 2/14/13 2:48am]

Indeed, just install a flac codec pack for your proprietary media player.

That's how hard is too hard for dummies.

flac to mp3... That is LAME in 2013.

udo said:

funkomatic said:

So you still don't know how to convert flac to mp3...

You'd be better off using google now!

[Edited 2/14/13 2:48am]

Indeed, just install a flac codec pack for your proprietary media player.

That's how hard is too hard for dummies.

flac to mp3... That is LAME in 2013.

GEEKS

[Edited 2/14/13 3:29am]

honer said:

udo said:

Indeed, just install a flac codec pack for your proprietary media player.

That's how hard is too hard for dummies.

flac to mp3... That is LAME in 2013.

GEEKS

[Edited 2/14/13 3:29am]

Your sentence lacks a verb, maybe also an object ort subject.

honer said:

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

Try Bing!

[Edited 2/14/13 4:30am]

Seriously though, nothing came up? Google, you're doing it wrong!

I typed :

convert flac to mp3

First hit was:

Free FLAC to MP3 Converter - CNET Download.com

What the hell did you look for?

TheEnglishGent said:

Seriously though, nothing came up? Google, you're doing it wrong!

I typed :

convert flac to mp3

First hit was:

Free FLAC to MP3 Converter - CNET Download.com

What the hell did you look for?

http://www.xiph.org/dshow/

udo said:

http://www.xiph.org/dshow/

They can't use google properly, I'm not sure what they'll make of that.

honer said:

stillwaiting said:

If you could ask every single person who purchases Prince's next physical cd release how easy it is to get a flac file quickly to cd, at least half or more wouldn't know flac from MS-DOS. Maybe 10% would even have used FLAC once. If FLAC was this format dummies could use with their eyes closed, why would anybody even consider bothering with an MP3? Why would physical cds even be sold? Other than some geeks here, the average Prince dummy wants to go to a Wreck A Stow.

And since the topic is DVD, Blu Ray mastered properly sounds way better than any download. And yes, I have heard decent sounding DVD from downloads.

Yeah what he said!

Flac's are a ballache, i've got a load of crap I downloaded on FLac because i didnt realise it was in that format and i've never listened to most of it because I can only play it on VMplayer.

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

The free program FlacFrontend will convert the FLAC files to WAV, from there you can you convert them to any kind of MP3 you want with any MP3 convertor you already have. BTW, I learned this using google...

[Edited 2/14/13 9:40am]

If anyone on here has seen a worse official band website than Prince's then i'd love to hear about it. Prince may as well not have bothered cos its beyond a joke.

Site content? You're having a laugh aintcha??!!!???

Oh and dont bother saying "yeah but wait to see what's coming soon".

I've heard that one way too many times now.

onecrush said:

Site content? You're having a laugh aintcha??!!!???

You mean 'bare bones'?

Just enough, but nothing more, to sell some music files.

And which outlet?

prince2013.com, 20pr1nc3.com, 3rdeyegirl.com or simply the 3rdeyegirl youtube?

I did forget to mention the honorable DrFunkenberry as info source next to the 3rdeyegirl twitter feed.

Does your head spin yet?

udo said:

onecrush said:

Site content? You're having a laugh aintcha??!!!???

You mean 'bare bones'?

Just enough, but nothing more, to sell some music files.

And which outlet?

prince2013.com, 20pr1nc3.com, 3rdeyegirl.com or simply the 3rdeyegirl youtube?

I did forget to mention the honorable DrFunkenberry as info source next to the 3rdeyegirl twitter feed.

Does your head spin yet?

countdown til Prince blames his whole marketing team on the low download numbers of "Screwdriver" & everyone just walks away because a)they are underpaid b)underappreciatedc)overworked

Let's set the clock at 4 months.

djThunderfunk said:

honer said:

Yeah what he said!

Flac's are a ballache, i've got a load of crap I downloaded on FLac because i didnt realise it was in that format and i've never listened to most of it because I can only play it on VMplayer.

I once asked about a year ago on here how to get Flacs into mp3 and/or onto a cd and I was arrogantly told to use google. I hate that, if you know the answer just bloody say so, anyway I googled it and nothing of any use came up.

So Flac can fukin do one!

The free program FlacFrontend will convert the FLAC files to WAV, from there you can you convert them to any kind of MP3 you want with any MP3 convertor you already have. BTW, I learned this using google...

[Edited 2/14/13 9:40am]

Since FLAC is obviously easier than ANYTHING imaginable, please explain to me how MP3 even exists anymore? This So easy FLAC format sounds so easy that the 3 year old that plays Video Games could master in 3 seconds. If it this easy, it seems it would be the dominant format.

What weird people we have in the industry. We have this Superior sound quality format out there that is so simple Gilligan could use it, but it just doesn't catch on.

.

[Edited 2/15/13 17:23pm]

stillwaiting said:

djThunderfunk said:

The free program FlacFrontend will convert the FLAC files to WAV, from there you can you convert them to any kind of MP3 you want with any MP3 convertor you already have. BTW, I learned this using google...

[Edited 2/14/13 9:40am]

Since FLAC is obviously easier than ANYTHING imaginable, please explain to me how MP3 even exists anymore? This So easy FLAC format sounds so easy that the 3 year old that plays Video Games could master in 3 seconds. If it this easy, it seems it would be the dominant format.

What weird people we have in the industry. We have this Superior sound quality format out there that is so simple Gilligan could use it, but it just doesn't catch on.

Nobody said it was "easier than anything imaginable", or, at least I didn't.

MP3 exists because it is a standard that is playable on many (almost all) media players, dvd players and for a while now, even CD players.

It's the standard because everybody knows it and everybody's devices will play it. It's common for a lessor quality format to be the standard in media, particularly in audio.

I don't know any 3 year olds that know what an mp3 is much less a FLAC. But, any adult that can turn a wav file (which is what is on a CD) into an mp3, can also turn a wav into a flac, a flac into a wav or a flac into an mp3. There are dozens of audio convertors that will convert any audio file into any other kind of audio file with the click of a button. Most of them aren't free. FLAC Frontend is free and will turn the FLAC into a WAV. Everybody already knows how to turn a WAV into an MP3, so, problem solved.

Why be against a lossless format that preserves the sound quality and frequencies of the recording? Is it because you don't understand it or because you just can't hear the difference?

For the record I would prefer CD, Vinyl, Bluray & DVD too. If I pay for something I want to put it on the shelf and add it to my collection, and with downloads, I can't do that. But, Prince isn't releasing this material in a physical format, at least not yet, and, if it's going to be digital at least the price is right. If the quality is lossless, I have 1 less thing to complain about and can focus on the good: new music that I'm digging...

[Edited 2/15/13 23:36pm]

stillwaiting said:

djThunderfunk said:

The free program FlacFrontend will convert the FLAC files to WAV, from there you can you convert them to any kind of MP3 you want with any MP3 convertor you already have. BTW, I learned this using google...

[Edited 2/14/13 9:40am]

Since FLAC is obviously easier than ANYTHING imaginable, please explain to me how MP3 even exists anymore?

Can't you see this is because of hysterical historical reasons?

Bandwidth was scarce, storage was not cheap.

Nowadays, depending on where you are, bandwith can be OK or even good.

Storage is affordable.

So why not simply rip the CD and put teh WAVs on the harddisk/SDcard/whatever.

Why 'gain' a few megabytes per track at the cost of processing time and degraded audio quality.

All this is unnecessary. Just play the WAVs.

This So easy FLAC format sounds so easy that the 3 year old that plays Video Games could master in 3 seconds. If it this easy, it seems it would be the dominant format.

Ever heard of the word marketing?

Companies are lazy. They'd rather make ipods and such with patent encumbered mp3 decoders or even patented prorietary formats (apple has a few) instead of using a good open format.

With an open format you cannot compete or even protect your supposed assets.

What weird people we have in the industry. We have this Superior sound quality format out there that is so simple Gilligan could use it, but it just doesn't catch on.

Compare to people still bying vinyl when the same audio is on CD.

Is vinyl the latest hysteria?

Or DVD-A?

The sheeple won't catch on to simple and good stuff unless you force feed them that stuff.

Force via marketing or price differences for example.

RRA said:

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.

Wrong. Hiring professionals to run a website that even someone in middle school could do better than what he currently is would be "trying to do the right thing". Not releasing sub-substandard material which he probably wouldn't have wasted tape or a passing thought on back in the 1983 (back when he actually had passion for music and an ear for great dance tunes) would be him "trying to do the right thing".

BartVanHemelen said:

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.

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.

Damn, dude. I was saying the SAME exact thing.

Just how far low has Prince fans set the bar where a lot of them now think that the very bland, unmoving, middle-of-the-road, I-can-do-this-in-a-coma-but-then-I'd-be-pushing-myself tracks he's been putting out are "funky"/"masterpieces"?? Really. Hell, Ronnie Talk To Russia is funkier than anything he's bothered to record in the past few years!!!! SMMFH

Damn! I must say that I am impressed. Is someone paying ya'll for all of this consistently trollish negativity?