By "active fans", I'm talking about people who follow the dude's career closely, who are on-the-pulse and up-to-date with what's happening in Princeworld, who purchase most of the stuff he puts out on the day it's released etc. I'm not talking about people who have fallen off the wagon over the years (for lack of a better expression), or casual or semi-fans who have a passing interest etc. (no disrespect to them).

Why the question? Well, if anyone's been paying attention, it's quite clear that 3rdeyegirl.com's ordering number system is counting chronologically: E.g. the first person to buy the first song released was order #1, the second person order #2 etc.

So when I purchased "Bami Live" just a few mins ago, the tally was up to just short of 20,000 orders. Now, consider most active fans would have made at least 3 or 4 orders now from 3rdeyegirl.com. I know I have. Which begs the question: Just how many fans are out there actually buying this stuff? It seems to me that somewhere only around 6,000 fans seems reasonable.

Secondly, we look at the 3rdeyegirl FB page, and I notice it currently only has 4,228 fans.

So again, it seems reasonable to conclude that the number of people out there who are actively following Prince and this 3rdeyegirl thing can't be more than 10,000 people.

Less than 10,000 people? Really? Well, that's what the numbers seem to indicate. Is it just me, or does that sound significantly low? Is this the lowest point in his career in terms of raw numbers of active fans willing to buy his music?

.

[Edited 2/25/13 5:11am]

It all boils down to promotion. If people don't know something exists how will they find it?

How many FB pages are there now? How many that say PRINCE OFFICIAL FB PAGE?

Not sure about you but when I Google something I tend to put in search words relevant to what I'm looking for. "Double ended dildo" does not show me the cheapest place to buy Oral B toothbrush heads (eBay shop btw).

The trouble I have found in life with common sense is that it's not all that common.

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...

Have to say, I think he's just lost another hardcore fan. Me.... I just downloaded all the tracks from 3rd Eye Girl and they're by far the worst rubbish he's ever released.

(Just my opinion, but there's no way I'm buying Prince tracks without hearing them first again!!)

nvrmind, I misunderstood the op's point.

Still I don't think it's that bad. Considering the nature of the project and how reluctant so many people are still purchasing things online.

[Edited 2/25/13 6:23am]

i was thinking the same thing recently, i was really suprised that montreux took so long to sell out! i would say it was a good indicator of hardcore fan levels

I don't think internet numbers are a great indicator of "active fans" when it comes to Prince. As someone pointed out he still sells out huge venues. What you seem to be talking about is fans that are "active internet fans." My thoughs on this:

1. Some members of his fan base aren't all over the net. You have people here that are bemoaning the fact that his new singles/songs are digital releases only and refusing to buy them. All I am saying is that I am sure a certain section of his fanbase aren't THAT into social media. Maybe it's an age thing. Hell, Prince himself isn't THAT into social media.

2. The fans that are active on the internet have to work a bit to find Prince's web presence. Internet and working a bit don't usually go hand in hand. Let's say you are a high school kid watching Jimmy Fallon on Friday. You see Prince play, and you wanna check out his website. How do you know to go to 3rdeyegirl.com or Prince2013, etc?

3. Prince has wounded his internet fan base. He could/should be one of the most thriving artists online. He was a pioneer in the early days of the internet. However, suing fansites and hunting down bootlegging filesharers and "Let's Go Crazy" babies has choked off much of his work that put him on the cover of yahoo! magazine and won him webby awards.

I think he must be at a fan low and I expect it's been getting lower and lower year on year for a good while now. How is someone of his age and so far removed from the current music media going to attract new fans? Especially with his stance on sites like youtube etc.

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...

Have to say, I think he's just lost another hardcore fan. Me.... I just downloaded all the tracks from 3rd Eye Girl and they're by far the worst rubbish he's ever released.

(Just my opinion, but there's no way I'm buying Prince tracks without hearing them first again!!)

'LOL' is terrible, but I thought the other songs were actually rather good.

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.

toejam said:

By "active fans", I'm talking about people who follow the dude's career closely, who are on-the-pulse and up-to-date with what's happening in Princeworld, who purchase most of the stuff he puts out on the day it's released etc. I'm not talking about people who have fallen off the wagon over the years (for lack of a better expression), or casual or semi-fans who have a passing interest etc. (no disrespect to them).

Why the question? Well, if anyone's been paying attention, it's quite clear that 3rdeyegirl.com's ordering number system is counting chronologically: E.g. the first person to buy the first song released was order #1, the second person order #2 etc.

So when I purchased "Bami Live" just a few mins ago, the tally was up to just short of 20,000 orders. Now, consider most active fans would have made at least 3 or 4 orders now from 3rdeyegirl.com. I know I have. Which begs the question: Just how many fans are out there actually buying this stuff? It seems to me that somewhere only around 6,000 fans seems reasonable.

Secondly, we look at the 3rdeyegirl FB page, and I notice it currently only has 4,228 fans.

So again, it seems reasonable to conclude that the number of people out there who are actively following Prince and this 3rdeyegirl thing can't be more than 10,000 people.

Less than 10,000 people? Really? Well, that's what the numbers seem to indicate. Is it just me, or does that sound significantly low? Is this the lowest point in his career in terms of raw numbers of active fans willing to buy his music?

.

[Edited 2/25/13 5:11am]

Doesn't really mean anything. Im on facebook and I consider myself a fan but I don't have any of his pages liked.

excited said:

Prince knows where 2 go 2 get global & attention & he knows where 2 go 2 just get attention from his hardcore fans....Muziq purchases is just at a all time low 4 every artist. Especially old school ones...U don't have 2 sell half a million a week 2 become number #1 on Itunes....

lezama said:

toejam said:

By "active fans", I'm talking about people who follow the dude's career closely, who are on-the-pulse and up-to-date with what's happening in Princeworld, who purchase most of the stuff he puts out on the day it's released etc. I'm not talking about people who have fallen off the wagon over the years (for lack of a better expression), or casual or semi-fans who have a passing interest etc. (no disrespect to them).

Why the question? Well, if anyone's been paying attention, it's quite clear that 3rdeyegirl.com's ordering number system is counting chronologically: E.g. the first person to buy the first song released was order #1, the second person order #2 etc.

So when I purchased "Bami Live" just a few mins ago, the tally was up to just short of 20,000 orders. Now, consider most active fans would have made at least 3 or 4 orders now from 3rdeyegirl.com. I know I have. Which begs the question: Just how many fans are out there actually buying this stuff? It seems to me that somewhere only around 6,000 fans seems reasonable.

Secondly, we look at the 3rdeyegirl FB page, and I notice it currently only has 4,228 fans.

So again, it seems reasonable to conclude that the number of people out there who are actively following Prince and this 3rdeyegirl thing can't be more than 10,000 people.

Less than 10,000 people? Really? Well, that's what the numbers seem to indicate. Is it just me, or does that sound significantly low? Is this the lowest point in his career in terms of raw numbers of active fans willing to buy his music?

.

[Edited 2/25/13 5:11am]

Doesn't really mean anything. Im on facebook and I consider myself a fan but I don't have any of his pages liked.

Yeah, me neither. I've "liked" Prince as one of my favourites for "music", but I see no point in "liking" the 3rdeyegirl page or his back up musicians.

I'm not sure if I even like them so much.

i guess im classes as hard core but in a non obsessive way but jesus..3rd eye girl and all that crap?

im almost 40

i just want to go to itunes and buy his shit...im too old to be plodding round the net looking at cryptic websites

99% of people whom i talk to always say "prince? he hasnt done anything for years"

jesus just have a PRINCE website

jonylawson said:

i guess im classes as hard core but in a non obsessive way but jesus..3rd eye girl and all that crap?

im almost 40

i just want to go to itunes and buy his shit...im too old to be plodding round the net looking at cryptic websites

99% of people whom i talk to always say "prince? he hasnt done anything for years"

jesus just have a PRINCE website

however i do love the new stuff (except live out loud)

the only thing i didnt buy is the video....

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

errant said:

Too bad that 20pr1nc3.com got all that online media attention about 3 days before he switched over to prince2013.com, before immediately abandoning that one to sell music on 3rdeyegirl.com a week later lol

exactly

what grown ass man can be arsed typing in some infantile play on words?

almost as bad as fans using "u" and '2" cos prince does

skywalker said:

I don't think internet numbers are a great indicator of "active fans" when it comes to Prince. As someone pointed out he still sells out huge venues. What you seem to be talking about is fans that are "active internet fans." My thoughs on this:

1. Some members of his fan base aren't all over the net. You have people here that are bemoaning the fact that his new singles/songs are digital releases only and refusing to buy them. All I am saying is that I am sure a certain section of his fanbase aren't THAT into social media. Maybe it's an age thing. Hell, Prince himself isn't THAT into social media.

2. The fans that are active on the internet have to work a bit to find Prince's web presence. Internet and working a bit don't usually go hand in hand. Let's say you are a high school kid watching Jimmy Fallon on Friday. You see Prince play, and you wanna check out his website. How do you know to go to 3rdeyegirl.com or Prince2013, etc?

3. Prince has wounded his internet fan base. He could/should be one of the most thriving artists online. He was a pioneer in the early days of the internet. However, suing fansites and hunting down bootlegging filesharers and "Let's Go Crazy" babies has choked off much of his work that put him on the cover of yahoo! magazine and won him webby awards.

Spot on. I am the same age as Prince and I could care less about social media. However, I was a member of anything Prince put on the web and bought everything I could and still do. Yes, I am going to Montreux and this web site is my main source of Prince happenings. However, I would guess that his fan base is dwindling, which it has to, due to the age of some of his fans and time. And a good indicator of why this might be the case is this web site is increasingly displaying critical comments of Prince - seems some people are no longer willing to put up with what comes with his genius

errant said:

Too bad that 20pr1nc3.com got all that online media attention about 3 days before he switched over to prince2013.com, before immediately abandoning that one to sell music on 3rdeyegirl.com a week later lol

AHH! Don't we love him? LOL

The ultimate game changer! Hahaha

Seriously though; Prince is able to embark on his talent in ways that always seems to help him. I don't remember the last time he struggled to get his name out there? Or to even sell out concerts? He has enough die hard fans to keep him economically secure, if that is what we are looking at. He doesn't seem to want every inch of fame and glory. He ALREADY knows what that life is about, he experienced it already...Multiple times I might add!

THAT was before the internet. AND Even now that the internet has boomed he has already had that height of fame. Musicology was the best selling tour of 2004..he made close to 80 million right? I mean I don't think it is about the money all together, because he has always seemed secure in that level. He does not seems to live his life in the lens of those die hard fans, he wants to reach newer people, and he does that. NOT all of them are going to follow his every antic, and website. Especially IF they know, Prince ain't going to stay there. He comes and goes, whenever. You just don't know what he is going to do.

SO in terms of his whole fan base, I do believe it is a fair question to wonder how many are indeed active? However it's rather difficult to measure the numbers, because not all fans react the same way. Sometimes it takes a while for some to catch up. Obviously we on the org, follow everything, but we can't all possibly be the same. I think he has a larger fan base than we like to imagine. Not all come here, and not all comment. I was a member on the org for a while, I've been searching here way back in 2009..Just never created an account. lol. I think that is the case of many.

ALSO, just like any other artist. Some people rather download their music then to actually purchase it, Prince is surely NOT exempt from that.

SO I don't think he has reached a low career point; it's just not shown through the numbers, because how can we really measure these things anyways? I mean we can measure them, but not really accurate enough just based on the org and his two fairly new websites. He has had so many!

My Two cents anyways!

Does anybody knows how many fans did (approximately) suscribe to NPGMC in 2000 ?

That would be a good indicator if we compare it with 3rdeyegirl sales.

Unfortunately, i think his fanbase number is at a low point. Year after year, Prince is loosing hundreds and hundreds of hardcore fans.

This has nothing to do with people who come to see Prince in concert. Most of them are not hardcore fans.

fredmagnus said:

Does anybody knows how many fans did (approximately) suscribe to NPGMC in 2000 ?

That would be a good indicator if we compare it with 3rdeyegirl sales.

Unfortunately, i think his fanbase number is at a low point. Year after year, Prince is loosing hundreds and hundreds of hardcore fans.

This has nothing to do with people who come to see Prince in concert. Most of them are not hardcore fans.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

jeffreymiller said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

TheEnglishGent said:

jeffreymiller said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Graycap23 said:

I'd venture TRC/ONA era had fewer active fans then today, however I would probably rate right now as his second least popular time. Back during the 02-03 period I would mention I was a Prince fan and people would ask me "Is he still alive?" Now, the average person is sort of familiar that Prince is around doing something, but as others have pointed out, he's really hurt his online presence, and he doesn't have a label helping with his promotion.

^Good point. Rainbow Children era was probably the quietest in terms of mass audience. He was still somewhat a joke to many people after the name-change stuff. It wasn't until Musicology that he started to regain that widespread respect again. But I still think there were more active fans during that time. But maybe that's just my rosy memory.