raddahone said:

If Prince was about the money, there never would have been an NPG Fam Club providing access to the best concert tickets.

Those tickets were always gonna sell. Oh, and let's not forget that you had to pay a subscription fee to be able to buy those tickets.

If he as about the money, he wouldn't open the doors of Paisley and give us access to live music.

Whut? You do know the cover charge for the last couple of PP shows was $50, right?

raddahone said:

If Prince was about the money, there never would have been an NPG Fam Club providing access to the best concert tickets.

If he as about the money, he wouldn't open the doors of Paisley and give us access to live music....

I'm sorry but I had to respond. You know that none of the versions of the NPGMC were free, right? The first two years, it was $100 annually, and that allowed you to buy concert tickets at another $100 that (at least in my case) did, in fact, provide me with the best seat I've ever had at any of his concerts, by far. But it wasn't free by any means. And the $25 "lifetime" version of NPGMC around Musicology allowed us to buy $100 tickets that were supposed to be the best seats in the house and of the 5 or 6 shows I went to, one time they were excellent seats, while all of the other times I was stuck on the floor behind a speaker, or behind the drum set. The last show I saw on that tour I bought tickets for half the price on Ticketmaster and wished I had done that for the others, because i could finally actually SEE the concert. But regardless, it wasn't free.

As for opening the doors to Paisley, he's charging a pretty hefty price nowadays, and obviously keeps it all sinec he doesn't have to pay a club or promoter. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it definitely doesn't prove that he's not "about the money."

BartVanHemelen said:

rudeboynpg said:

Prince needs control to have the creative freedom to do what he wants to do. His managers and Warner Brothers wouldn't give him that freedom anymore by 1993, with creative disputes about the NPG, etc., Prince, while under contract, was at the mercy of the company. To them, Prince was just a bundle of money for them to make off of him. So Prince had fired his managers and was trying to get out of his contract with Warner Brothers. Prince was deeply offended that they would interfere with his creative decisions.

This is such BS. WB had lost MILLIONS on his vanity label. Also, there's his $100 million contract, which he signed AGAINST THE ADVICE OF HIS ENTOURAGE because a) it would be "the biggest ever", b) it promised him tons of money (in exchange for him working his ass off, but isn't that reasonable?), and c) it came with a fancy VP position (which was an empty title). Did WB screw him over? You could say that, you could also point out that a grown man ignored the advice of his peers and instead followed his greed and vanity.

And of course the first album to be released under that contract failed to achive the required goal: sell 5 million copies. An almost unobtainable goal, unless Prince would have either come up with a genius pop record like Purple Rain (unlikely, especially since that record was part of a huge campaign that also included a very succesful movie), or worked his ass off like he did in making D&P sell 5+ million copies, i.e. release a thouroughly commercial album and then tour it for months on end. But that's hard, so Prince went the usual Prince way: stomped his little feet, and blamed WB for all his failures. Just like he later blamed others for his failures (Rave is a prime example) and took all credit for successes.

WB were exceptionally friendly towards Prince, and even released him from his contract when he delivered two archive albums instead of three "fresh" albums. Name me one recording artist who was given as much freedom as Prince: WB financed his movies and allowed him to go elsewhere if they did not wanted to get involved (SOTT live), allowed him to pick singles, and let's not forget they destroyed MILLIONS of already pressed copies of an album that was literally being shipped to record stores because Prince had had a bad drug trip and gotten a "religious vision".

"Such bs?" You didn't disprove anything I wrote.

And the Warner suits were dumb to expect the Sexy Motherfucker lead eccentric concept album about Mayte to sell the same as the more mainstream commercially accessable Diamonds and Pearls album did.

Was Warner still giving Prince the support and creative freedom to do what he wanted to do? No. Would they release the Crystal Ball album in 1987? No. Would Warner release the Come triple album set or The Undertaker or NPG Gold Nigga in 1993? No. Would Warner release The Sacrific of Victor film or The Beautiful Experience film in 1994 or ever in the US? No. Would Warner release The Most Beautiful Girl in the World in 1994? No. Would Warner release the Live multiple-disc album, The Live Experience, Madhouse 24, 1-800-New-Funk, NPG Exodus, The Tora Tora Experience, Mayte's Child of the Sun album and the Love 4 One Another film on video? No. Did Warner terminate Prince's Paisley Park label in 1994, which included funk legend George Clinton and legend Mava Staples in it's roster? Yes. Did Prince have to form NPG Records and release music through small independent companies (Bellmark Records, Msi, Phantom Sound & Visi) under as his name because the Prince name was still under contract with Warner? Yes. Did Warner belittle Prince with an ad in Billboard magazine? Yup.

Prince replied with his own ad in Billboard magazine, "We here at NPG treat our artists with respect. It makes us when they r . If they have new music they want 2 give 2 their fans, that's cool. We just want 2 bring u music so u can have a good time."

Warner didn't care about his creative visions. To them, Prince was just a bundle of money for them to try and make off of him and the trends were changing with the rise of Neil Young, Captain Beefheart and Pixies influenced grunge rock and '70s soul sampled gangsta thug hip hop and '70s disco/soul influenced techno, they'd lost faith in Prince and his style of '80s electro/funk/rock and his androgynous glam fashion wasn't what was trendy by 1993. Warner only wanted to release The Most Beautiful Girl in the World after it became a surpise hit released by Bellmark Records in 1994.

[Edited 11/7/13 23:15pm]

BartVanHemelen said:

raddahone said:

If Prince was about the money, there never would have been an NPG Fam Club providing access to the best concert tickets.

Those tickets were always gonna sell. Oh, and let's not forget that you had to pay a subscription fee to be able to buy those tickets.

If he as about the money, he wouldn't open the doors of Paisley and give us access to live music.

Whut? You do know the cover charge for the last couple of PP shows was $50, right?

50 dollars is fairly inexpensive when one considers the overhead to keep paisley park going. true that the tickets would sell anyway but do you understand that the vibe of some of the npg fams is different that the vibe of most non-fams? if he was all about the money, the rich folks would have been around the stage in those days and not us not as fat in the pocketbook fams.

theblueangel said:

raddahone said:

If Prince was about the money, there never would have been an NPG Fam Club providing access to the best concert tickets.

If he as about the money, he wouldn't open the doors of Paisley and give us access to live music....

I'm sorry but I had to respond. You know that none of the versions of the NPGMC were free, right? The first two years, it was $100 annually, and that allowed you to buy concert tickets at another $100 that (at least in my case) did, in fact, provide me with the best seat I've ever had at any of his concerts, by far. But it wasn't free by any means. And the $25 "lifetime" version of NPGMC around Musicology allowed us to buy $100 tickets that were supposed to be the best seats in the house and of the 5 or 6 shows I went to, one time they were excellent seats, while all of the other times I was stuck on the floor behind a speaker, or behind the drum set. The last show I saw on that tour I bought tickets for half the price on Ticketmaster and wished I had done that for the others, because i could finally actually SEE the concert. But regardless, it wasn't free.

As for opening the doors to Paisley, he's charging a pretty hefty price nowadays, and obviously keeps it all sinec he doesn't have to pay a club or promoter. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but it definitely doesn't prove that he's not "about the money."

Oh, yes, i know about nothing being free with the npg but it does take money to keep paisley going - the physical infrastructure and the people that are required. in my business, we call the g&a (general and administrative) and it is often quite larger than what most see. yes, i have been on this Prince train for quite some time and don't regret any of it with tickets and prices. i have always prayed and willed for the best tickets possible and have never been let down. i feel that Prince often listens to the Inner voice and goes along with this when he brings the show. If he was about the money, he wouldn't be listening to that Inner voice. But, please keep in mind that we all need money in this man-made system that has been created.

It is all about Love. Love and devotion and seeking to understand the Soul.