HonestMan13 said:

Fuck the "active fans". They didn't make Prince and they won't break him.

Exactly.

He's one of the biggest stars around.

Worldwide known and respected. And people love his big concerts, and hearing him play his hits life.

And it's healthy if you don't have enough time to follow up on every Prince detail.

I know that when I do that, (being too much into Prince) I'm going trough a rough period. Because I don't need that kind of avoiding behaviour if everything is good.

james said:

I'm sure there's a seriously low number of really hardcore fans... but it doesn't stop him selling out the O2 in London for 21 nights, and all the recent concerts...

I do like what he puts out.

I'm glad he's producing his music like that.

For example That girl thing.

dJJ said:

HonestMan13 said:

Fuck the "active fans". They didn't make Prince and they won't break him.

Exactly.

He's one of the biggest stars around.

Worldwide known and respected. And people love his big concerts, and hearing him play his hits life.

And it's healthy if you don't have enough time to follow up on every Prince detail.

I know that when I do that, (being too much into Prince) I'm going trough a rough period. Because I don't need that kind of avoiding behaviour if everything is good.

Wow, that's pretty insightful. It's true he is a deliciously dangerous distraction. When I get obsessed it's fun but feels dangerous and things in my life get neglected. I feel horrible but can't help myself. For me though I really don't want to avoid and neglect my life but if he's in town for 21 nights (or two in Ahaheim this May!!!!) I'm all about that life. When Prince is in town, I'm down to represent. One of the few times I didn't was during 3121 because I had just had my son. I know my priorities were straight but I sure regret that I didn't stalk the Hollywood Hills tryin' to get IN. hahahaha Seriously though.

dJJ said:

james said:

I'm sure there's a seriously low number of really hardcore fans... but it doesn't stop him selling out the O2 in London for 21 nights, and all the recent concerts...

I do like what he puts out.

I'm glad he's producing his music like that.

For example That girl thing.

All well and good. I'm liking his recent stuff too. doesn't hide the fact the 21 nights or the Earth Tour (in one place!) tickets cost just £31.21 before the worldwide downturn. Like that'll happen ever again.

I think his active fan base is pretty damn healthy and he's blessed considering how he operates. I'm always amazed at how many hardcore fans I see at his concerts. I can't believe it's only around 10,000 active fans. I think he has a healthy overseas fanbase that feels even more disconnected than his American fanbase and it's difficult to stay that actively interested when you feel that way.

For me I am always a fan but actively in spurts

It's hard out here for a Prince fan, but it honestly seems easier now than in years!!!!! If you have Facebook, Twitter and look at Dr. F you pretty much clued in son. Even if you only have one of those.

Hard to find and keep up with Prince in 2013? DAMN, hard was back in the day with no cell phones and internet. If I wasn't up on it with my Purple friends I missed out son and that sh*t was depressing!

That said I still feel like I need to stay aware and I WAS freaking about getting my concert tickets the other day. Prince is doing pretty good staying in his age lane while mentoring the young ladies to keep us connected more than ever and I ain't mad at that. He's always been a word of mouth kind of artist.

I get a little frustrated at the "reindeer games" but I'm in all the way. Couldn't stop if I tried and I have but he won't let me. Machiavelli Manipulator.

'm not a prisoner of the 5th dimension, so I don't need internet. I just vibe

Who said Prince and his fans are healthy? I would worry about myself as soon as people would refer to me as normal. I'd instantly participate in a pillow fight at Travalgar Square, just to prove I'm not normal.

I love to play and puzzle. And that alliterates nicely with Prince.

Play - Prince - Puzzle

antoinet said:

I think his active fan base is pretty damn healthy and he's blessed considering how he operates. I'm always amazed at how many hardcore fans I see at his concerts. I can't believe it's only around 10,000 active fans. I think he has a healthy overseas fanbase that feels even more disconnected than his American fanbase and it's difficult to stay that actively interested when you feel that way.

Perhaps in pockets of Europe.

Certainly not in Asia (which has ENORMOUS spending capability based on population alone). Kpop and Jpop bands here have millions and millions of fans, and their concerts pack arenas that fill 80,000 people.

NONE of the people I've met here know who Prince is. NONE.

He simply needs to get a catchy single out here, and tour.

imago said:

antoinet said:

I think his active fan base is pretty damn healthy and he's blessed considering how he operates. I'm always amazed at how many hardcore fans I see at his concerts. I can't believe it's only around 10,000 active fans. I think he has a healthy overseas fanbase that feels even more disconnected than his American fanbase and it's difficult to stay that actively interested when you feel that way.

Perhaps in pockets of Europe.

Certainly not in Asia (which has ENORMOUS spending capability based on population alone). Kpop and Jpop bands here have millions and millions of fans, and their concerts pack arenas that fill 80,000 people.

NONE of the people I've met here know who Prince is. NONE.

He simply needs to get a catchy single out here, and tour.

I hope Prince is beyond that phase where needs the appraisal of a bank accountant, filled stadiums or media attention.

Why would he spend his time touring and fill his life with stress about getting a hit, filled stadiums, being No 1 on some random list?

Isn't he getting to old to please the outerworld?

I wish for him to have a life that is beyond being a slave to his ego, anxieties, hang ups and need for appraisal of other people.

Only fools and young people are obsessed with other people and how to relate to them or have them relate to you.

dJJ said:

imago said:

Perhaps in pockets of Europe.

Certainly not in Asia (which has ENORMOUS spending capability based on population alone). Kpop and Jpop bands here have millions and millions of fans, and their concerts pack arenas that fill 80,000 people.

NONE of the people I've met here know who Prince is. NONE.

He simply needs to get a catchy single out here, and tour.

I hope Prince is beyond that phase where needs the appraisal of a bank accountant, filled stadiums or media attention.

Why would he spend his time touring and fill his life with stress about getting a hit, filled stadiums, being No 1 on some random list?

Isn't he getting to old to please the outerworld?

I wish for him to have a life that is beyond being a slave to his ego, anxieties, hang ups and need for appraisal of other people.

Only fools and young people are obsessed with other people and how to relate to them or have them relate to you.

Being known has implications far beyond just chart success.

Kids in Prince's generation wanted to be the next Hendrix or James Brown.

Now, the want to be the next Britney Spears.

It's almost amazing how he has no name whatsoever in this part of the world.

imago said:

antoinet said:

I think his active fan base is pretty damn healthy and he's blessed considering how he operates. I'm always amazed at how many hardcore fans I see at his concerts. I can't believe it's only around 10,000 active fans. I think he has a healthy overseas fanbase that feels even more disconnected than his American fanbase and it's difficult to stay that actively interested when you feel that way.

Perhaps in pockets of Europe.

Certainly not in Asia (which has ENORMOUS spending capability based on population alone). Kpop and Jpop bands here have millions and millions of fans, and their concerts pack arenas that fill 80,000 people.

NONE of the people I've met here know who Prince is. NONE.

He simply needs to get a catchy single out here, and tour.

Where are you? I live in Hong Kong now, and it seems like I'm the only prince fan here, LOL. But the one English language radio station here has played quite a few prince songs recently, and they are recent songs... like RnR Love Affair, and some other tracks off MPLSound, Planet Earth and 3121. So i suspect there's a fellow fan working at the station

2013MW said:

I say no because he did all he can do now he goy money now he doing what he want remember Prince is sometimey

I doubt if the modus of the fanatic or enthusiastic fans are correlated highly with what Prince does.

Graycap23 said:

Prince sells out where ever he goes.............I'm not sure what u are basing this on.

No, not true. He didn't sell out many european shows in 2010/2011. I know it, because I was there and saw it.

^^ Exactly, i cant remember a single show in Europe 2010/2011 that was completely sold-out too.

[Edited 4/6/13 1:23am]

mrmarcus said:

imago said:

Perhaps in pockets of Europe.

Certainly not in Asia (which has ENORMOUS spending capability based on population alone). Kpop and Jpop bands here have millions and millions of fans, and their concerts pack arenas that fill 80,000 people.

NONE of the people I've met here know who Prince is. NONE.

He simply needs to get a catchy single out here, and tour.

Where are you? I live in Hong Kong now, and it seems like I'm the only prince fan here, LOL. But the one English language radio station here has played quite a few prince songs recently, and they are recent songs... like RnR Love Affair, and some other tracks off MPLSound, Planet Earth and 3121. So i suspect there's a fellow fan working at the station

Bangkok

i dont think you can judge his fanbase on a obscure website..even i dont go there and i would say i am a huge fan...his first week album sales are a good guide to his fanbase i think...his last 3 proper albums in the us have sold between 150000 and 200000 sales ....3121..planet earth and lotusflower...similar number again worldwide...so i would say up to half a million fans worldwide who will buy just about anything he puts out...album wise..more than respectable figures looking at other mature artists...he outsells just about all of them.

ludwig said:

Graycap23 said:

Prince sells out where ever he goes.............I'm not sure what u are basing this on.

No, not true. He didn't sell out many european shows in 2010/2011. I know it, because I was there and saw it.

The ticket prices were very high and only really poor seats were left here in Helsinki (maybe 5-10% of the capacity). The venues in countries like Finland are often designed for ice hockey games, so people know the seats up high are terrible. I think those seats on most occasions for concerts are left unsold.

I'm going to make this point again. How many "active" fans does any artist, especially Prince, ever have? Prince had some very poor singles in his '80s heyday, even when they contained a great remix or unreleased b-side.

America, Mountains, Anotherloverholenyohead, If I Was Your Girlfriend, Glam Slam and I Wish U Heaven, and Scandalous sure as hell didn't set the charts on fire.

Look at how crazed this website is! I go to other websites and do not see this kind of traffic.

He certainly is doing much better than similar artists. Stevie Wonder doesn't have this much buzz.

2freaky4church1 said:

Look at how crazed this website is! I go to other websites and do not see this kind of traffic.

He certainly is doing much better than similar artists. Stevie Wonder doesn't have this much buzz.

on the other hand, we've got threads appearing on the first page of the Prince: Music & More forum with a most-recent post of 2 days ago. That would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago, when the current day's thread postings bled into at least half of the second page.

2freaky4church1 said:

Look at how crazed this website is! I go to other websites and do not see this kind of traffic.

He certainly is doing much better than similar artists. Stevie Wonder doesn't have this much buzz.

Stevies peak was going on when prince was in high school and he was a star a decade before Prince even released an album + I personally think a Stevie wonder tour would do equal or better sales numbers as a Prince tour.

IstenSzek said:

i don't think it's the quality of his music but rather his invisibility on the internet.

i've recently met 2 people independently of each other who both have all of his

albums. and i mean all. even N.E.W.S. and TRC and copies of the Madhouse 8

and 16 albums etc.

yet they didn't know that prince had a new website. or well, websites. and they

didn't know ANYTHING about his movements since the 20Ten album.

granted, those are only 2 people i have happened to talk to but i think that this

is the main problem with prince. he messed up big time with his online presence

from the get go.

if he'd had a decent site with an easy url, something like princemusic.com or i

don't know what and through the last decade, in which he's had lots of good and

solid promotion and exposure, people would have had that place to go to and

check out what he was doing.

if his albums from TRC onward would have all had that url on the back and the

website would have remained, with a discography, a news feed and an online

store selling (forever) whatever he released, he would have kept a lot more

people in his flock.

but these days, apart from coming to the org and reading the news here that

others have hunted down, how is anyone supposed to know what he's doing?

without the org i would have never known about doc funkenberry and without

the org i would not have known about 3RdEyeGirl or 20pr1nc3 etc etc.

there's scores and scores of people out there who were or are interested in his

music but he's alienated them either through fucking up online time and again,

or simply by being invisible on the social media radar (youtube, anyone?).

it's incomprehensible to me that no one in his camp over the last 15 years has

been able to sit him down and explain this to him. or that he hasn't noticed it

himself.

an artist like prince with such a wealth of material to promote, even after WB,

needs a central place for all that stuff to be available.

imagine everything from emancipation onward being on such a site. then he

performs at the oscars with beyonce. boom, loads of site traffic (if the site at

least shows up top of the list on a google search for Prince new music), then

he does the superbowl. boom, an enormous amount of interest. people want

to buy the mash up of "best of you/all along the watchtower". it should be at

the front page of the website.

etc etc etc.

he generated a lot of goodwill or at least interest in the past decade over and

over again yet he never capitalized on it. he just squandered it all again and

again.

The unpredictability of Prince was always one of his glittering attractions but in these days of clicking a screen it just doesnt work and people get bored really quickly unless access to his stuff is easy. Maybe Prince cant change and he wants to be remembered as the eccentric genius, crashing and burning and unable to do anything about it. Much of the music he has released these days sounds just like album filler. It would be cool if Prince has been secretly working for a decade to produce some special albums to finalise his career, then release them with a great fanfare. Fingers crossed.

Soulstar77A said:

^^ Exactly, i cant remember a single show in Europe 2010/2011 that was completely sold-out too.

[Edited 4/6/13 1:23am]

Isn't part of the touring model (With regards to Prince.) is to sale tickets to a venue in a short period like 1 to 2 weeks. Not giving enough time to sell out. So, the concert makes up for the lack of seats by the high priced tickets.

Although the touring model is more like airline tickets. If there are any seats left last minute they can be half off.

In W2A tour they moved the 40 dollar seat holders to the 100 seats for free.

kewlschool said:

Isn't part of the touring model (With regards to Prince.) is to sale tickets to a venue in a short period like 1 to 2 weeks. Not giving enough time to sell out. So, the concert makes up for the lack of seats by the high priced tickets.

Although the touring model is more like airline tickets. If there are any seats left last minute they can be half off. In W2A tour they moved the 40 dollar seat holders to the 100 seats for free.

So instead of renting a smaller and cheaper venue which he could sell out, he prefers to rent a huge venue with a bigger rental fee that he can't sell out.

But that's no problem at all because the high ticket prices make up for that, even if the venue is only half full?! That's really a very clever business model, prince has always been a business genius

W2A audience members which paid $100 for a seat must have been very happy, when they finally realised that they could have got a seat in the very same section for just $ 40.

Do Airlines give away tickets for free as well? Because back in Berlin 2010 a few hundred people were given admission for free (with the side-effect that the stadium was at least approx 70% full)

Why not just schedule the tour with a few more weeks in advance??

[Edited 4/7/13 14:06pm]

Soulstar77A said:

kewlschool said:

Isn't part of the touring model (With regards to Prince.) is to sale tickets to a venue in a short period like 1 to 2 weeks. Not giving enough time to sell out. So, the concert makes up for the lack of seats by the high priced tickets.

Although the touring model is more like airline tickets. If there are any seats left last minute they can be half off. In W2A tour they moved the 40 dollar seat holders to the 100 seats for free.

So instead of renting a smaller and cheaper venue which he could sell out, he prefers to rent a huge venue with a bigger rental fee that he can't sell out.

But that's no problem at all because the high ticket prices make up for that, even if the venue is only half full?! That's really a very clever business model, prince has always been a business genius

W2A audience members which paid $100 for a seat must have been very happy, when they finally realised that they could have got a seat in the very same section for just $ 40.

Do Airlines give away tickets for free as well? Because back in Berlin 2010 a few hundred people were given admission for free (with the side-effect that the stadium was at least approx 70% full)

Why not just schedule the tour with a few more weeks in advance??

[Edited 4/7/13 14:06pm]

The price concept applies to sporting events as well. If you buy your tickets in advance you pay a potential higher price.

Basically on an airplane I could be paying 500 seat when the person next to me paid 200 the last minute. Airlines sometimes have empty seats-which essentially is giving a seat away for free.

Prince can sell out big venues he would just need more time to sell out-just like all the bigger acts do.This short window in which to purchase tickets curbs a lot of scalping of his tickets. Which seems to be a big part of his plan.

The $40 seats where nose bleed. Bruce Springsteen played the same venue with approx 30% less people in the audience then Prince's concert.

errant said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Look at how crazed this website is! I go to other websites and do not see this kind of traffic.

He certainly is doing much better than similar artists. Stevie Wonder doesn't have this much buzz.

on the other hand, we've got threads appearing on the first page of the Prince: Music & More forum with a most-recent post of 2 days ago. That would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago, when the current day's thread postings bled into at least half of the second page.

In the early 90s, he was really ahead of the game as far as the Net goes. I believe though he missed the ball many times. Take a look at the number of followers he has on twitter vs. others. 3rd eye has like 11k followers and Lindsay Lohan has nearly 7 million followers!! He made it difficult, most people on twitter will not associate 3rdeyegirl with him. I would not expect him to have a million followers though I think with the right promo he could and I think it would be good business wise as far as the web goes. But 11k? C'mon..

Prince can and always will sell tickets to shows and he can always find ways to sell cds though some of the means he uses are not standard. That's alright, not many artists really sell cds like the 80s anymore (only a few).

As far as the web. I think if he kept a central website over the years, it would have made it much easier for the less core to follow him. There are plenty of people that are more casual Prince fans..far more casual that core. There will always be people that will just be thinking about an artist one day and google them and checkout website and buy some stuff but you make it difficult for them they won't even search that hard for hidden eggs.

The 3rdEYe website will imo vanish once he gets tired of that project. None of his websites lasted. I think that hurt but I'm not sure if he really cares or thinks he just does?

But thats the thing with being a Prince core fan..its not always how great it is (and I think over time many of us just take it for what it is as well love his music). Thinking, dreaming..It's how much more great it could have been. The numerous projects dumped or changed over the years. The prospect of what he has sitting in the vault. The times changing now where it seems like he is holding back albums because of downloaders..etc. Would love to hear it!

errant said:

How many "active" fans does anyone ever have outside of their 2 to 10 year peak? Nut everyone is a nutjob on the internet looking to fill whatever void there is in their soul or life by populating web forums, facebook fan pages, or tracking down every scrap of information or obscure internet track from thier favorite artist. Even during his '80s heyday, Prince had some relatively abysmally selling singles that even had a great remix and an unreleased b-side on them.

TELL IT

Is Prince having financial problems?

He can't do what fullfills him, because he needs to earn money with concerts?

Or does he just likes to perform in a stadium?

anyone know the CD and downloads sales for Andy's ??