I was just going through Twitter a few minutes ago and was checking out the account of The Portside Pub, where the Live Out Loud Tour Launch Party is going to be held. I noticed that they'd tweeted @Prince_Live and my initial reaction was, "Oh, I guess they didn't know it was a fake." Then I clicked on the link and I was astounded to see that the account had been verified. I thought that maybe it was just a fake verification symbol blended into the cover photo, but it looks like it's genuine.

Yep... it's genuinely verified. How bizarre.

Okay - I have to be honest. I don't understand this whole twitter thing (and i'm 22!!!!)... But is it me or do I see tweets from 2011 on this twitter account?!?!!? And what's being sounds like legit out of Prince's mouth?!

"A Lots got 2 B done B4 it all ends, so they say #2012" on Dec 31st 2012.

i got questions about dr funkenberry is he on prince payroll?? do he know prince personally?? have they met or is he just a stan?

Entry on the 7/3/11: "Chapter & Verse"

(......... makes you wonder)

I wonder how reliable Twitter's verification process is? It's pretty hard to believe they would verify a fake account. Or would they??? I guess they could be mistaken. Very strange...

WTF.

It's fake, why the hell did they verified it?

Twitter's verification process is legit -- people can request to be verified but normally Twitter determines when someone needs a verified account. At that point the person must submit a form of ID to Twitter to get their little blue checkmark.

I don't think this account is fake..

Even though this Prince Twitter Account is verified, it's no different than Lotus Flow3r or prince2013.com.

Kirin Sharma confirmed via twitter that the account has nothing to do with Prince, that'll do me fine.

Prince_Live was "official"like during the Australian shows if I recall... and I do know that Twitter DID go through a process to verify the account.

This has more to do with Prince and his team quickly dropping one thing and picking up a next. It also is what happens when you go into self-imposed exile and create a vacuum for others to fill.

Prince does not like "official" anything, anymore than he likes to have his interviews recorded. It allows him plausible deniability should he change his mind. He can always blame it on "unofficial reports."

Wasn't this the account that did some sort of ticket giveaway contest at one stage? Perhaps it was someone who is no longer in the organisation.

As leerix said, that account did make a tweet saying "Chapter & Verse" LONG before we knew there was a song of that title.

rmartin70 said:

It is a fake account, the Dr. confirmed it. [Edited 4/13/13 22:40pm]

The DR. will "confirm" things whichever way Prince wants him to

The same twitter account that promised us an album in May 2012?

"Truly a time capsule, in the studio listening 2 phase 1 of the re-issues #2012" Jan. 6th 2012

"Phase 1 of the roll out, May 2012" Jan 20th 2012

Hey, maybe this account IS real!

Prince_Live has now lost its blue tick. I have no doubt that it was never official.

I'm sure the giveaway was a fake and if they did have any info ahead of time, then perhaps that suggests a leak, but I also remember that account posting a photo that was apparently backstage at a gig, and it turned out that it was a photo from some European band. Not even a semi-official account would do something that silly.

Twitter's verification process is strange - there seem to be a few ways to get a tick, and one of them is based on how many followers an account has and how many official sources are tweeting it. So ironically, some of the media outlets and venues that have been using Prince_Live erroneously might inadvertently have been the ones that earned it the tick.

I remember seeing that Christian Slater had all sorts of trouble getting his account verified, and eventually had to post a photo of himself holding a script for an as-yet unaired episode of 'Breaking In' before he got the blue.

I've long thought that, even if Prince didn't want to be on Twitter, he should at least create an official account and get it verified in order to stop all this nonsense. But it turned out, that's exactly what he did.

The official account that was created last year is still there - @Prince_NPG - but apparently Prince didn't want to pay what they were charging to verify it (evidently another option for verification is for celebrities to pay directly and no doubt they would want them to pay a premium for it).

Sadly, the account seems to be pretty much abandoned since W2Aus, so it would be hard to convince any outside sources that it's the official link - and therein lies the problem, because venues and media outlets continue to use Prince_Live because it looks more official.

That said, @Prince_NPG probably isn't the ideal one to use at the moment anyway, given that he's touring with 3rd Eye Girl, so presumably they'll just keep rolling with @3rdEyeGirl, albeit tickless.


btw, cbarnes, Dr. Funkenberry isn't a stan - whatever people might think/say/write about him, he's met Prince several times and I've no doubt that he is his official mouthpiece online.

Chiquetet said:

Prince_Live has now lost its blue tick. I have no doubt that it was never official.

I'm sure the giveaway was a fake and if they did have any info ahead of time, then perhaps that suggests a leak, but I also remember that account posting a photo that was apparently backstage at a gig, and it turned out that it was a photo from some European band. Not even a semi-official account would do something that silly.

Twitter's verification process is strange - there seem to be a few ways to get a tick, and one of them is based on how many followers an account has and how many official sources are tweeting it. So ironically, some of the media outlets and venues that have been using Prince_Live erroneously might inadvertently have been the ones that earned it the tick.

I remember seeing that Christian Slater had all sorts of trouble getting his account verified, and eventually had to post a photo of himself holding a script for an as-yet unaired episode of 'Breaking In' before he got the blue.

I've long thought that, even if Prince didn't want to be on Twitter, he should at least create an official account and get it verified in order to stop all this nonsense. But it turned out, that's exactly what he did.

The official account that was created last year is still there - @Prince_NPG - but apparently Prince didn't want to pay what they were charging to verify it (evidently another option for verification is for celebrities to pay directly and no doubt they would want them to pay a premium for it).

Sadly, the account seems to be pretty much abandoned since W2Aus, so it would be hard to convince any outside sources that it's the official link - and therein lies the problem, because venues and media outlets continue to use Prince_Live because it looks more official.

That said, @Prince_NPG probably isn't the ideal one to use at the moment anyway, given that he's touring with 3rd Eye Girl, so presumably they'll just keep rolling with @3rdEyeGirl, albeit tickless.


btw, cbarnes, Dr. Funkenberry isn't a stan - whatever people might think/say/write about him, he's met Prince several times and I've no doubt that he is his official mouthpiece online.

Thanks for the update.