Best play he could have made from a PR standpoint. He is now associated with the "cool kids" of music. This will generate headlines.

Tidal will have an exclusive for about a week. I don't think there would be any point to a CD release a month after it's been ripped from Tidal.

Everyone here will sign up to tidal on the 7th Sept. Why not? You get a free month anyway. Anyone claiming to be an audiophile should already be a subscriber.

No record company was going to release this. It was always between Spotify & Tidal.

Noodled24 said:

No record company was going to release this. It was always between Spotify & Tidal.

By choice or by default?

Noodled24 said:

Best play he could have made from a PR standpoint. He is now associated with the "cool kids" of music. This will generate headlines.

Tidal will have an exclusive for about a week. I don't think there would be any point to a CD release a month after it's been ripped from Tidal.

Everyone here will sign up to tidal on the 7th Sept. Why not? You get a free month anyway. Anyone claiming to be an audiophile should already be a subscriber.

No record company was going to release this. It was always between Spotify & Tidal.

whatever, dude...why not? because i want to hear a prince record, not an audiophile version of a prince record at the cool kid's streaming site that also offers me the ability to listen to audiophile quality recordings of lil' wayne and young jeezy cuz i could give a shit about anything 'cept the new prince record.

revolution75 said:

After carefull consideration, I've decided to refrain my bitching and complaining, untill I've got reason too. As of this moment, I'm pretty positive that this moment has not yet arived.

I am, though, exited by the fact that Prince is going to release new music in the near future. Last time it took him 4 years.....

That was too damn long.

It's about the money with that one. You guys need to wake up. Prince wants to bilk us. He is spiritually damaging us.

BartVanHemelen said:

Bwahahahaha.

.

This is what happens when you believe your own bullshit.

.

Just keep feeding the bootleggers, Prince. Just keep on alienating your fans.

THIS.


He's basically asking for this thing to be bootlegged.


My guess is that Jay-Z paid him upfront costs for exclusively releasing it on TIDAL (for a time).


And, being just a day before this announcement, yet ANOTHER bad news report on TIDAL was released, and being that Prince can't possibly attract enough subscribers to make it worth TIDAL's time.

What have they been through since the embarassing kickoff keynote? 2, 3 company presidents?

I wonder what "phase 1" means but considering the title and the format (streaming, no download) it seems to me that this is to be put in correlation with the concept that either you were there or you weren't and you missed it, i.e. you cannot legally purchase the album, only enjoy it until it's gone (bootlegging aside). NOW the question remains whether phase 2 and other possible phases means that the same album will hit n run to another streaming service and so on, or that several albums will be released that way and under the "HNR" title (at least if P doesn't move on to another concept the day after the album is online).

But the way I see it there won't be any proper "release" and that leaves me wondering whether the album can be considered released at all. Physical releases are more irrelevant every year but the possibility to own a copy of the record (digital or otherwise) is what makes a release a release. Streaming is another category entirely, just like we don't consider the TV Detroit Parade show to have been released the way Lovesexy Live was.

On the other hand it is possible that more and more people will completely give up on owning music entirely and move on to streaming, I already know a few people who do that, they don't even bother downloading anything. In that case the concept of "release" might be challenged, eventually.

The Judith Hill album is already in a grey area: it was released, OK, but for free. Giveaways were considered promos in the days of physical releases, so I consider it a promo, except of course that promo copies weren't available for millions of people to download: they were sent to selected people or to the limited audience of a particular event, so IDK what the JH album is exactly.

Noodled24 said:

Best play he could have made from a PR standpoint. He is now associated with the "cool kids" of music. This will generate headlines.

Are Tidal the cool kids?

It might generate a couple of music/entertainment website headlines, but like all his recent publicity stunts it'll be tomorrow chip paper and it won't convert in to sales because the public still don't trust his studio output to be anything other than masturbatory water-treading.

PurpleSkipper58 said:

CDs and VINYLs STILL MATTER......

and downloads too ................

I just cannot sign up just to hear stuff - no candy TIDAL for me.

basically, all i want to do is give prince my money in return for new music.

for about 15 years now, prince has been looking for ways to make that an

almost impossible thing.

This is all a mess... I would like to see the streaming numbers after this is released... No offense so please don't start ganged up on me when I say this... Just from the posts on streaming, you can tell most of the members on here are up there in age and have no idea of the relevance of Streaming right now...

His fans are so much older now, the only fans he has left will not be joining TIDAL... The numbers won't lie...

NouveauDance said:

It's going to get bootleged regardless. How many people besides 5 or six here actually paid for AOA before buying/not?. I listened to the whole thing a few times on Spotify and have no interest in it what so ever after that. It doubt even bootleggers have any interest in it whatsover. If the music is good, it will stand the test of time and make money/status in the long term, it will be played and loved in concert and whatnot and it will live on, or it will collect cobwebbs in a server somewhere. Nothing he can do about any of this. It's out of his or anyone elses hands.

A cool quote I agree with on FB I read in reply to the Tidal release...

"Word to the (not so) wise; release on vinyl, cd and download and many fans will buy two copies and rip to mp3 or download a torrent. Release as download only and most won't buy it. Most of your fans are over 35 and think the concept of buying data is a bad one."

feeluupp said:

This is all a mess... I would like to see the streaming numbers after this is released... No offense so please don't start ganged up on me when I say this... Just from the posts on streaming, you can tell most of the members on here are up there in age and have no idea of the relevance of Streaming right now...

His fans are so much older now, the only fans he has left will not be joining TIDAL... The numbers won't lie...

but the case has got to be that prince doesn't care about that. it just has to be.

for one of two reasons that i could think of (perhaps you know another one?):

1 - prince just wants to back initiatives like Tidal and gave them the rights to

stream the album for a while, exclusively, without demanding a big advance.
basically: prince is paying it forward, so to speak.

2 - prince did get a big advance, which Tidal were happy to pay since it will be
headline news, if even for just a day or 2, and draw a bit of a crowd. paying P
a couple of mill for an album exclusive does reach a different audience than an

advertising campaign geared toward young(er) people.

so i think either way, he doesn't (have to) care about the money anymore once

the album is streaming. he doesn't care about streaming numbers, he had to
know that for an album to reach $ 10 worth in cheques from streaming he has
to stream the album about 10,000 times.

so either he's a good egg who's helping out Tidal because he likes the initiative
or he got an advance, like with many other albums (Planet Earth, 20Ten etc)
and basically doesn't give a flying f*ck anymore what happens next

he's probably already shopping the 3RDEYEGIRL sophomore release around to
an increasingly eyerolling audience

peedub said:

Noodled24 said:

Best play he could have made from a PR standpoint. He is now associated with the "cool kids" of music. This will generate headlines.

Tidal will have an exclusive for about a week. I don't think there would be any point to a CD release a month after it's been ripped from Tidal.

Everyone here will sign up to tidal on the 7th Sept. Why not? You get a free month anyway. Anyone claiming to be an audiophile should already be a subscriber.

No record company was going to release this. It was always between Spotify & Tidal.

whatever, dude...why not? because i want to hear a prince record, not an audiophile version of a prince record at the cool kid's streaming site that also offers me the ability to listen to audiophile quality recordings of lil' wayne and young jeezy cuz i could give a shit about anything 'cept the new prince record.

It'll be ripped and bootlegged by the end of the day. You wouldn't HAVE to sign up. But then again Tidal have quite a few live streams too... so there is scope for hit and run concerts too? It's not just hip-hop, Daft Punk, and Jack White are on there too.

If you already used your free trial sign up with a different email account and they'll likely offer you a second free trial. Personally, I don't think having to sign up to Tidal for a free month is a huge ask, in order to get early access to the new Prince album. It's not like you have to sacrifice your currency.

It comes down to value obviously. By month two there would need to be a lot of Prince content to keep me subscribed... But if we get remixes and live content then I dont see a problem.

nosajd said:

Noodled24 said:

No record company was going to release this. It was always between Spotify & Tidal.

By choice or by default?

I couldn't say. However it is his choice to put out an album.

No record company in their right mind wants a 3rd new Prince album in under a year. Tidal will release anything that will help them get some PR, they pay more than spotify. They'll front page him and social network the shit out of anything he uploads.

It feels - with the "Phase one" branding like H&R will be Prince. Phase 2 will be a new 3EG album (since they were working on it the other night - twitter). Phase 3 could be a tour... or more in-house albums, NPGQ/His current backup singer/etc. - All speculation on my part, but Tidal gives him the platform to release a lot of music. If he doesn't get bored after a week.

I'm really getting sick and tired of this new age of not owning something when you pay for it. Adobe did it with photoshop and it's other creative software. No physical form available to buy on CD to install anymore, you have to basically 'stream' it and pay for it month by month. I, as a student cannot afford that. I want to buy something and keep it forever. Same with music.

Companies need to seriously pack this in.

I don't like having to pirate stuff but jesus christ they are literally MAKING me.

Noodled24 said:

Militant said:

I don't like Tidal, do I get a choice? I am still about the Wrecka Stow.

"Goodie, they gave me a better deal." Keep rubbing your hands Pwince.

Where the tracklist at?

Militant said:

Dr. Dre released his first album in 16 years today. Exclusively on Apple Music. It was bootlegged within minutes of being online. And it's to be expected since he is a co-founder of the service. But it's definitely the new thing all the superstars are doing. Like everyone else, I wish there was a way to just exchange money for the album, as I have very little interest in a Tidal subscription. Prince ought to have a label account with Bandcamp.

I want a CD/vinyl for both Dre and Prince. I work in a basement with spotty wifi, I drive my automobile, the price of data in Canada is ridiculous, on top of the subscription price. I would like to pay $10 ONCE, not every month, to hear this Prince album.