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This obsession with sales I see here many people obsessed with 's sales, as if it mattered to each and everyone of us that his albums sell or not. . Obviously it matters to as well, because he used to sell by the millions. . Honestly I wish he would embrace the independant approach for good, sell even LESS copies of his albums and be happy with it. Why? Because prolific independent artists release more records than major stars, for the good reason that they are not so preoccupied by sales and that it's better for them to sell 15,000 copies of 6 different new albums every year than to sell 15,000 of a single one, and therefore they're also not preoccupied with the notion of saturating their own market by releasing too much music. . in fact doesn't really release less music nowadays than he did during the WB years, he just releases it differently, lots of it online, a lot of it in streaming only (but we know how to download it), and of course he spreads less songs on other artists' albums than he used to. Nevertheless that's a lot of homeless songs and live material floating around and a bit less cohesive albums (I'm an album guy I have to admit). However, between his current productivity and the tons of live and studio material amassed in the vault he could release MUCH more and he doesn't. . When left WB it was supposedly to be so he could release more music. He did some years (98, 2001) and didn't some other years. The problem is expecting every new album to go gold and consideting 70,000 copies to be a useless, unprofitable venture not worth the time and energy. The problem is expecting radio-airplay and all that crap. . could release an album every 2 months, half of it new material and half of it archive material. Some other independent artists are extremely prolific: John Zorn, Buckethead, Bill Laswell, Chick Corea, DMX Krew, Ryuichi Sakamoto (even though he slowed down a bit lately) to name a few release numerous new albums every year: their core audience is there, sales are low but the venture remains a profitable one, and they understood that nowadays live shows is where you make the hard money. makes a fortune when touring live, but somehow he seems to be discouraged to release proper albums nowadays because of perceived low sales. This article of course is not addressed to him because he won't read it, but to you fellow fans: we should hope for to embrace a true indy approach and release more music for his hardcore fanbase instead of aiming at having a hit. . This is, at least, how I feel. I'd rather have him release 6 albums a year that sell 20,000 each than to have him release a hit album every 2 years. I don't know how often reads this forum's threads if at all, and I know he usually doesn't give a damn about what we think anyway, but if he comes here or get reports by some assistants and what he sees is people moaning all the time about how lame the sales and washed out he is I fear it can only encourage him to pursue this nonsense and keep trying to sell lots of records instead of releasing lots of records. U know the dude, he can't resist a challenge . Just my opinion 4 what it's worth. Peace [Edited 11/20/14 10:12am] A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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The dude is worth 500mill, but clearly, since he is signed with a label, money still matters 2 nite, and every nite, for him. He gets the lion share now, so even though his albums sell much less, he takes home a boatload of cash, as I know you know.
If it wasn't about the money, he would continue making music, and when he is done with that music, throw it up on his website for download, give a description for each track like in the crystal ball booklet, simple as that. Straight from him to us, he might not make as much as being signed with a major, but we would all be forking over our .99 cents per track or 10 bucks per album instantly. No middle man, no time wasted on release, no contracts, no deals gone bad, just music created, delivered and bought through his site, with all proceeds going to him. I hope someday it isn't all about the money for Prince, putting music up on his site the second it is finished for paid download would be fantastic, along with all the other goodies we all know he could put up there, vault material, concert audio, concert video, etc. That is my personal dream factory. [Edited 11/20/14 16:18pm] "You always get the dream that you deserve, from what you value the most" -Prince 2013 | |
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I concur. He easily has enough material for his own site. He sort of did it for awhile with NPGMC, hell even the 3EG site has some stuff, but nothing really from his back catalogue. . I think everyone here wished he would open up another download site with everything. He would make a killing off of us initially, but I'm sure things would fizzle after the first surge, unless he released everything like a slow trickle. . I doubt he will do this. His unwillingness to embrace his past (which got him to where he is now) baffles me. I mean I get it to a certain extent, but to just turn your back to some of your greatest work, I just don't get that. . I would like for his albums to go platinum & gold & whatever else, but bottom line is dude is making bank. He's doing just fine. The obsession with sales here is annoying. Our focus should be the music because that's really what matters & why we're here to begin with. | |
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Everything he does in regards to sales is either a contradiction or reverse contradiction, or some other kind of contradiction that I can't define or even try to understand.
1. Let me pander to young people with Auto Tune, and young people studio tricks, and use people like Josh who care more about sound effects than actual music...that will get me SALES.
2. I need to make sure that I tell WB NOT to promote AOA, and I need to make sure that I do as little as possible to promote the new albums. Sure, I'll do a TV show or two. And I need to make sure I have 13 release parties up to a YEAR before the albums are released, and then when it is finally released....ONE BIG HUGE WONDERFUL THING: I'll get the "Lovesex That's My Jam" Girl to host a show on Yahoo.com. That will make the album sell like crazy!!! | |
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Prince has a lot of freeloading fans, accustomed to bootlegs, blowing smoke up his azz about how great he is, so long as they can download it for free. It's called show-business, not show-art, lol. This thread reads to me like people looking for something for nothing. | |
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stillwaiting said: Everything he does in regards to sales is either a contradiction or reverse contradiction, or some other kind of contradiction that I can't define or even try to understand.
1. Let me pander to young people with Auto Tune, and young people studio tricks, and use people like Josh who care more about sound effects than actual music...that will get me SALES.
2. I need to make sure that I tell WB NOT to promote AOA, and I need to make sure that I do as little as possible to promote the new albums. Sure, I'll do a TV show or two. And I need to make sure I have 13 release parties up to a YEAR before the albums are released, and then when it is finally released....ONE BIG HUGE WONDERFUL THING: I'll get the "Lovesex That's My Jam" Girl to host a show on Yahoo.com. That will make the album sell like crazy!!! Yes. THIS. "Drop that stereo before I blow your Goddamn nuts off, asshole!"
-Eugene Tackleberry | |
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yeah, i have to agree with the initial post. i've thought about this a lot over the years. it would be so great if he'd started out with a decent website in 1998 and kept it going all these years. / all of his post warners releases should be housed on one site. all the albums, singles, movie contributions, one off songs and videos should all have a single, transpartant home online. / whenever he did major commercial performances, like the superbowl, how could it not have been a good thing to have such a site when people went online and looked him up again, perhaps for the first time in years, only to see he'd released a load of material they'd never even heard of, with the option to listen to samples etc? it may not have sold in the millions, but it would have had steady traffic and he would've been making money off his post wb catalogue, instead of it being nowhere for sale, with people pirating it for over a decade now. / now that he's getting his masters back, he could start to include his warners albums on the site, along with anthology sets of vault material and live shows. / and with current projects, like 3EG he could have released much more of their stuff low key, even since the release of the album. there is a core audience who will buy anything. even if that core is only 20,000 strong (i actually believe the prince core audience would have remained at about 70,000 had he kept 1 single site), it's still a lot of people who buy stuff instantly and if stuff just stays up forever, eventually it will sell more and more each time people discover him through media or just if people who skipped on it first time round decide to give it a try anyway. / despite me not liking the 3EG album at all, i did like the previous instrumentals and i certainly liked that "raggedy ass car" acoustic song on the yahoo webcast. why is shit like that not on sale yet? an acoustic EP with 3EG is just the kind of thing i'd be very interested in. just like Madrid 2 Chicago, or that unreleased 2008 album, or a hundred other projects. / i seriously don't understand why prince has zero interest in all these things. he once said he wanted the largest section in the music stores. he could have the largest online store in history but he has no interest in revisiting the past. right, right, i know. / so why has he been posting pictures of himself standing in front of all his old album covers since 2010? even now a zoom in of the controversy album is his FB cover / i don't know why i'm rambling. i know it's pointless and repetitive. but come on, it just gets frustrating once in a while, knowing what could be, if prince made some different choices.
and true love lives on lollipops and crisps | |
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He could very easily have it both ways if he wanted. Release a big mainstream album every 2 or 3 years, like AOA, and promote it and do the usual rounds. In between, completely fall off the public's radar and release tracks and albums online to the hardcores. We'll buy everything, and every couple of years he can try to push one big album to the masses. / That's kinda what happened these past few years, but the 3EG tracks we got were all rumored to be building up to a big release. Of course then when it finally came out he undermined it with a new solo record and didn't really bother to promote either one because he was already bored. / Just keep giving us new music with no expectations of it being part of an album cycle, or release small no-fanfare albums that we know are pretty much just for us, and then hit the public hard every few years (we'll be there for that too). Win/win for all involved.
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You're a liar. I bought almost everything until 2006. I was a premium member of NPGMC in 2001 and 2002, then a "lifetime" member from 2003 on, I bought every track sold in the NPGMC store, I subscribed to Lotusflow3r.com from day 1 (and never got my t-shirt nor any of the expected content), and I've bought each and every track released on 3rdEyeGirl.com on the day of release. I don't buy ALL of his music it's true, but back in the 90's it also happened that I wouldn't buy some specific release and a fellow fan would make me a cassette: there was no way I'd spend my cash on those stupid My Name Is Prince remixes or a CĂ©line Dion album for example. Now since u seem to be keen on lecturing people how about u go preach in a church about how evil people are and washing-up their sins and so on? Peace [Edited 11/20/14 23:16pm] A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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It's not an obession at all, it's just that if his albums doesn't sell, there won't be any following. That's not hard to understand. | |
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I think Prince should semi retire, become a teacher of music to the younguns and just write songs that his class can use. Occasionally, when he makes a new song with his students and he likes the results he should upload it to a website for the fans. And every now and then when he and his students come up with something more substantial than a few songs, perhaps an albums worth of songs, he should release it through a label so that the students can see how tough the music biz really is. | |
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But surely if he stopped selling records he wouldn't bother making new ones, which is a bad thing [Edited 11/20/14 23:42pm] She Believed in Fairytales and Princes, He Believed the voices coming from his stereo
If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me? | |
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That was his way to blackmail us lately: "records don't sell no more so missa no release my albums no more". If he could only take the indie approach instead of the superstar one, as I explained above then it could be quite the opposite: "Missa make money with concerts and release lotsa albums mostly for my core fanbase". A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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Databank, why do you have this obsession with calling him all the time? | |
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And why do you have this obsession of him being an indie ? Nobody cares about the indies. | |
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Because it makes people ask me why I do it? A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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You ask people one thing, but when they ask you, you can't find an answer ? Why do you have an obsession with people obsessed with sales ? | |
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Yeah well maybe not in the mainstream world of insurance policy traders and supermarket clerks but in the beautiful hipsters world I live in we do listen mostly to indie artists and don't even have the smallest clue of what's in the Top 20 Mainstream and major-released records used to be where a good half if not more of what was happening was happening but this situation ended in the late 90's. Today the indie scene is where things are happening for the most part. I can't imagine the state of total ignorance and mental pain the people who still rely on mainstream medias and releases to discover new music must be in A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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I thought u were joking, really. Do you feel personally attacked by my original thread? I have an obsession with fighting nonsense. I find no logic in people who already purchased a record complaining that the mass didn't purchase it as well. It is my belief that one consumes music for their own personal enjoyment and therefore I don't understand why nor how it could matter to them that hundreds of thousands of other folks would enjoy the same music or not, unless they feel the need to be sheep in a herd and can't stand the fact that the herd isn't eating the same grass they eat... I've never heard anywhere but here anyone complaining that their favorite artists didn't sell. I've had numerous conversations about music with numerous people in my life but honestly only here have I ever heard people voicing such an odd opinion. It must mean something mustn't it? + given the current state of affairs I would find it more embarrassing than anything else if Prince would sell 2M copies of AOA, it would more likely demonstrate that the album is lame than that it's good. A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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I'm ironic, because you can't answer one simple question. I sent you back your reasonment : why do you care about what other people think ? Everybody's got the right to think what they want. I am interested in sales, for many reasons, one is that it's socially and economically relevant. But I do understand that people doesn't care about it. If millions of people didn't bought Prince's record back in the day, that is to say if prince sold 15.000 albums, you would have never heard about him. He couldn't have done such things as PURPLE RAIN, he couldn't have recorded in his own studio with others musicians, he couldn' t have fucked so many major records, he wouldn't be such an asshole, and couldn't afford to have such eccentricities. The nonsense is what you want for Prince : him to be heard by almost nobody. Hey, that is today what is happening, so you should be happy. | |
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That is true, without the success of 1999 and Purple Rain he would have never been able to record the music on the following releases. The costs would have been too much. I guess I could imagine the Parade album without the orchestrations, but it would be hardly the same. | |
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Well, u don't like me very much anyway do u? Peace A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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No, don't misunderstand me ! I don't have any grief at all with you. I'm just upset to read that some people doesn't want to understand that everybody's free to thinK what they want. There are contradictions in your post that you can't resolve, that's all. And like I pointed out, you have now what you want : prince's sales are that of an indie. Say goodbye to the reeditions, and other albums from Prince | |
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OK, cool then They are certain contradictions indeed, I will admit this at least. I wanted to express a view of how I peceived things could be: less business, less stardom, more music. As a fan of certain other artists I enjoy such a balance of things and find it healthier from a mental POV for both the artists and their fans is all. I understand the need for profit, but there's more to life than that and there's a margin between making profit and wanting to make tons of profit, a bit like when a Hollywood studio deems a movie a failure because it made only 100M dollars in profits instead of 500M if u c what I mean I am a part of this community which is why I have some concern about some opinions expressed here and as I've stated numerous time before, while I totally believe in freedom of thoughts and speech I don't necessarly believe everyone is entitled to having an opinion about everything. They're free to express it, though, but I'm just as free to express my disapproval as well. I don't have what I want, no: Prince is still trying to play superstar, his fans encourage this and we don't get as much music as we should. I believe a lot of time and energy is being wasted here on both sides is all A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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Why oh why couldnt he just keep the NPGMC going? I just cannot fathom what on earth it was that made him close it down? He didnt even have to be hands on with it. Just provide the music and let a web developer keep it updated. He was given awards for that site. Imagine how big it would be today if the momentum kept going? Imagine instead of handing out a free CD at concerts, he handed out a free yearly subscription. He would have a very busy and lucrative site on his hands right now! | |
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I thought it was because of the message boards like these that he had. Weren't there message boards? It's been so long it's hard to remember. But I'm with you, just sell the music, that's all we care about anyway, we WILL buy it ALL! | |
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I suspect 3 reasons if u mean NPGMC by it as it was the first year, which I guess u do: 1/ According to Alan Leeds Prince (, sorry) wasn't allowed to release anything recorded during the WB years, studio or live, until now. He released some on CB and Rave, they let it go, then he started to basically open the Vault with NPGMC and I suspect WB sent him a cease and desist or at least let him know that they wouldn't tolerate it anymore, particularly since he also released previously released WB tracks on both CB and NPGMC. Prince then didn't feel his new material was enough to justify monthly releases and gave-up on the whole thing. 2/ It was an obligation for him to spend time every month selecting tracks, not to mention compiling the Ahdio Shows, he got lazy and realized he didn't want to be chained to doing this continuously. 3/ He just got bored with it the same way he gets bored with everything one minute after he starts it. IDK whether it's one of the 3 reasons above, or several or all of them, this is mere speculation, but I guess the truth lies somewhere in the suppositions above. A COMPREHENSIVE PRINCE DISCOGRAPHY (work in progress ^^): https://sites.google.com/...scography/ | |
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Even Prince's fan doesn't buy his albums anymore. They don't encourage anything at all anymore. Look at the sales and figures from AOA and PE. Prince is selling underground his music on internet since more than 15 years. He's far too much indie for me. In the best of world, if AOA and PE sold a lot, you would have 15 WB reeditions from 1979 to 1999, with one bonus disc full of tracks from the vault. That was the best way to have more music from him.
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Sweet memories of folks walking on eggshells and getting banned for things like refering to him as "Prince" instead of , lol. | |
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