The Wikipedia page for C-Note was a bunch of nonsense written by one of those 17 year-old hysterion fans, that I've partially corrected today, but i'm pretty puzzled by this part:

"Prince's then-fan club, The NPG Music Club charged $100 for a membership that had advertised that paying members would receive 4 exclusive albums. After Prince released One Nite Alone... and the three-disc One Nite Alone... Live!, members who felt deceived sent complaints of Federal Mail Fraud to the Minnesota Attorney General's office and the BBB after Prince failed to honor the agreement. The albums Xpectation and C-Note(slang for a $100 bill) was his response to being forced to comply to these demands."

It's the first time I hear that. Has this ever been corroborated or discussed before or is the author of the page making fact of a personal theory?

Thx

Yes, I remember reading theories back then that "C-NOTE" was Prince's way of "giving you your money back" for the membership fee of $100.

I also remember each track was sent out separately before it was compiled into an "album" of sorts. Some people got Copenhagen, others got Nagoya, etc. I remember communicating with other club members at the time to try to track down all five tracks before buying it all as a set later from the club.

Doozer said:

Yes, I remember reading theories back then that "C-NOTE" was Prince's way of "giving you your money back" for the membership fee of $100.

I also remember each track was sent out separately before it was compiled into an "album" of sorts. Some people got Copenhagen, others got Nagoya, etc. I remember communicating with other club members at the time to try to track down all five tracks before buying it all as a set later from the club.

Yeah I was there too, I just had zero recollection of those speculations. Nothing factual then as I assumed.

"Prince's then-fan club, The NPG Music Club charged $100 for a membership that had advertised that paying members would receive 4 exclusive albums.

Correct

After Prince released One Nite Alone... and the three-disc One Nite Alone... Live!, members who felt deceived sent complaints of Federal Mail Fraud to the Minnesota Attorney General's office and the BBB after Prince failed to honor the agreement.

There was at least one person on prince.org who reported that he had or was going to report the matter to the BBB (and I thnk supplied contact details for others to use

Here's a thread from around the time referring to people going to the Better Business Bureau, for example:

http://prince.org/msg/7/32929

The albums Xpectation and C-Note(slang for a $100 bill) was his response to being forced to comply to these demands.

This has never been officially corroborated, but was a view formed online around that time by at least some.

Here's a thread from 2003 discussing it:

http://prince.org/msg/7/47823

langebleu said:

"Prince's then-fan club, The NPG Music Club charged $100 for a membership that had advertised that paying members would receive 4 exclusive albums.

Correct

There was at least one person on prince.org who reported that he had or was going to report the matter to the BBB (and I thnk supplied contact details for others to use

Here's a thread from around the time referring to people going to the Better Business Bureau, for example:

http://prince.org/msg/7/32929

The albums Xpectation and C-Note(slang for a $100 bill) was his response to being forced to comply to these demands.

This has never been officially corroborated, but was a view formed online around that time by at least some.

Here's a thread from 2003 discussing it:

http://prince.org/msg/7/47823

Thx Always factual and I love u for it

I remember we got Xpectation on New Year's Day. Damn hard to believe that was 12 years ago.

it really did feel like we only got Xpectation because people were complaining so much.

i remember being disgruntled myself, since prince seemed to think that the 3 disc ONA

and the ONA piano album completed the '4 albums' quota.

in the end he 'gave in' and put up Xpectation 1 day after the deadline

plus, the whole C-Note felt real bitter. especially since they handed out different links
to different parts of the world and there being no way for people to get all of them in
any other way than to 'illegally' upload and share them

in the end it contained some fantastic music, "osaka/tokyo" being amongst my favorit

prince songs ever. absolute perfection

but the means and the method were rather shady

IstenSzek said:

it really did feel like we only got Xpectation because people were complaining so much.

i remember being disgruntled myself, since prince seemed to think that the 3 disc ONA

and the ONA piano album completed the '4 albums' quota.

in the end he 'gave in' and put up Xpectation 1 day after the deadline

plus, the whole C-Note felt real bitter. especially since they handed out different links
to different parts of the world and there being no way for people to get all of them in
any other way than to 'illegally' upload and share them

in the end it contained some fantastic music, "osaka/tokyo" being amongst my favorit

prince songs ever. absolute perfection

but the means and the method were rather shady

hmmmm, I don't recall any complaining but then again, I wasn't involved in the NPGMC forum much.............too busy attending about 4 soundchecks/concerts with amazing seats in or near the front row

3rdeyedude said:

IstenSzek said:

it really did feel like we only got Xpectation because people were complaining so much.

i remember being disgruntled myself, since prince seemed to think that the 3 disc ONA

and the ONA piano album completed the '4 albums' quota.

in the end he 'gave in' and put up Xpectation 1 day after the deadline

plus, the whole C-Note felt real bitter. especially since they handed out different links
to different parts of the world and there being no way for people to get all of them in
any other way than to 'illegally' upload and share them

in the end it contained some fantastic music, "osaka/tokyo" being amongst my favorit

prince songs ever. absolute perfection

but the means and the method were rather shady

hmmmm, I don't recall any complaining but then again, I wasn't involved in the NPGMC forum much.............too busy attending about 4 soundchecks/concerts with amazing seats in or near the front row

well then you weren't here either because the complaints and the moaning were very audible,
to put it mildly

TheGhostlyNun said:

NPGMC Year 2 was a disaster and proved that Prince will happily rip his fans off if he can get away with it once he has our money. He clearly didn't though. NPGMC staff were telling people that the club had fulfilled its obligations once ONA Live had shipped (to not every member). Four specific CD titles had been advertised in an earlier tour book that never appeared. So therefore, false advertising. Suddenly, the website went dead prematurely at the time people on the org were talking about complaining to the BBB... And then nothing until New Year's Day when suddenly new downloads appeared. Doesn't take a genius to see what went on. And as far as I recall, the NPGMC/Paisley Park had a bad rating with BBB after that. And as for the number of times the website messed up/locked up when trying to book advance concert seats for NPGMC subscribers... An utter disaster.

yikes!! I had no idea...........I guess it was better than Lotusflow3r.com........still waiting for my cruddy t-shirt

Se7en said:

Pretty sure the other titles that we were supposed to get included Madrid 2 Chicago, Last December and The Very Best Of . Also, let's not forget that he shipped an extra copy of ONA Piano with the Live box set…probably for most fans to sell it off and not complain about the money as much. ONA Piano (CD) ONA Live! (CDs) Xpectation (MP3) C-Note (MP3) So…worth $100? Not really. But, it was more of a value than LotusFlow3r.com, which was $77 for a CD set that was available at Target for $12, a T-shirt, and 1 extra song (The Morning After). Doing the math, that's basically paying $64 for a crappy T-shirt.

i didn't even get the tshirt

in the very end we also got "cause and effect" on that site (it was available as a download, iirc?)
but yeah that site was the ultimate kick in the teeth from prince to his hardcore fans

IstenSzek said:

Se7en said:

Pretty sure the other titles that we were supposed to get included Madrid 2 Chicago, Last December and The Very Best Of . Also, let's not forget that he shipped an extra copy of ONA Piano with the Live box set…probably for most fans to sell it off and not complain about the money as much. ONA Piano (CD) ONA Live! (CDs) Xpectation (MP3) C-Note (MP3) So…worth $100? Not really. But, it was more of a value than LotusFlow3r.com, which was $77 for a CD set that was available at Target for $12, a T-shirt, and 1 extra song (The Morning After). Doing the math, that's basically paying $64 for a crappy T-shirt.

i didn't even get the tshirt

in the very end we also got "cause and effect" on that site (it was available as a download, iirc?)
but yeah that site was the ultimate kick in the teeth from prince to his hardcore fans

There was nearly no exclusive material on LF. Only a few videos (that couldn't be downloaded) and The Morning After at first, then IIRC nearly everything that was offered (and that wasn't much anyway) for either download or streaming was available somehow, somwhere else: either on Youtube thru Shelbey or on the radio.

For that reason I felt ripped-off. NPGMC Year 2 was already a major disappointment because except Xpectation and a few random tracks nothing was exclusive (C-Note doesn't count as it wasn't released to everyone nor as an album at the time) but still I had the feeling I'd received something for my money (ONA Live was very expensive in France as an import, I ended-up receiving not 2 but THREE copies of ONA piano (silly me gave 2 to girlfriends instead of keeping them as an investment), and Xpectation at least was an exclusive album).

With lotusflow3r I really felt like Prince had taken the money and ran.

Yeah, I remember it looked for a while there that all we were getting was One Nite Alone, One Nite Alone... Live! and It Ain't Over! - Only three of the promised four albums. And it looked a little sus to count One Nite Alone... Live! and It Aint Over! as separate albums. Many felt cheated - particularly those who were unable to take advantage of the other benefits of the club (priority seating at shows etc.). When it originally advertised "four albums", most people (myself included) took that to mean four standard studio Prince albums. I remember lots on the org getting a little feisty in those final weeks after the tour had wrapped up. But once Xpectation and C-Note were released on the final day of the year, there was no longer any right to feel any resentment. Two studio albums, and five discs worth of live soundboard material, plus some other one-off bits and pieces throughout the year, was pretty good value looking back on it. I remember being satisfied by the end of it all. Did Prince release Xpectation and C-Note simply to avoid legal problems? Nah, I doubt it. Similar accusations against Prince's website promises being misleading turned up again during the lotusfailur3.com days, and Prince seemingly didn't bat an eye lid.

NPGMC Year 01 was awesome. Monthly downloads, videos (albeit low-res), Rave In2 and VIP concert/soundcheck access. $100

.

NPGMC Year 02: the 4-CD debacle culminating in CNOTE and Xpectation. $100

.

NPGMC Year 03/Musicology Store: IIRC this was a "lifetime" membership charge of $25. Nothing really tangible except for anything you could download from the Reflection room. Musicology Store downloads were pay-per-download, which were heavily DRM'd and are useless now.

.

Lotusflow3r.com: $77 for a 3-CD set and a T-shirt, and maybe a few extra songs.

.

So $302 total unless I'm missing something. Not horrible when you look at it overall, but I just wish everything was upfront and honest.

.

Prince teases you with "never before heard music" or something similar to get you excited. But I know now that someone here on the Org will join, and it will be posted ASAP if something awesome ever makes its way online.

controversy99 said:

I loved the NPGMC download store because we could buy all this interesting music without being members.

.

Oh yeah, just gotta love those DRM'ed to hell WMAs which you haven't been able to play in close to a decade. Lossy encodes which could only be converted to WAVs through one bit of (rather expensive) software. Oh, and you just gotta love that over time some of those WMAs got slightly altered, hence there being a sticky at HQ which detailed the differences between the various versions of those songs.

Se7en said:

Also, let's not forget that he shipped an extra copy of ONA Piano with the Live box set…probably for most fans to sell it off and not complain about the money as much.

.

IIRC ONA Piano hadn't been sent to all subscribers (because NPGMC admins were fuck-ups) and also wasn't available to those who subscribed later.

Se7en said:

NPGMC Year 01 was awesome. Monthly downloads, videos (albeit low-res), Rave In2 and VIP concert/soundcheck access. $100

.

Most months Y1 didn't fulfill its minimum requirements, most MP3s were made using crappy encoders, one of the tracks was a CASSETTE RIP of a RELEASED song, and let's not forget that it was only the SECOND version of NPGMC that was any good, the first one was that cruddy "hey let's use a beta version of QuickTime that expires on the day we launch" version that was thrown in the garbage a couple of months later when another company took over due to the high levels of incompetence. Let's also not forget they sold VHS tapes which contained dubs of a B&W version of a Prince TV special copied from Japan TV.

.

NPGMC 1.0 was rubbish, NPGMC 1.1 was okay-ish after MUCH complaining but far from professional.

BartVanHemelen said:

controversy99 said:

I loved the NPGMC download store because we could buy all this interesting music without being members.

.

Oh yeah, just gotta love those DRM'ed to hell WMAs which you haven't been able to play in close to a decade. Lossy encodes which could only be converted to WAVs through one bit of (rather expensive) software. Oh, and you just gotta love that over time some of those WMAs got slightly altered, hence there being a sticky at HQ which detailed the differences between the various versions of those songs.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

So there have been several alternate versions of certain tracks? U still got that list from HQ?

I may have missed something but I didn't see anything about several versions of any of those songs on Princevault when I worked on the discog.

databank said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

Oh yeah, just gotta love those DRM'ed to hell WMAs which you haven't been able to play in close to a decade. Lossy encodes which could only be converted to WAVs through one bit of (rather expensive) software. Oh, and you just gotta love that over time some of those WMAs got slightly altered, hence there being a sticky at HQ which detailed the differences between the various versions of those songs.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

So there have been several alternate versions of certain tracks? U still got that list from HQ?

I may have missed something but I didn't see anything about several versions of any of those songs on Princevault when I worked on the discog.

.

Hmmm, I might be mistaken.

.

I suspect you've seen this?

.

Note that PV isn't always reliable or complete. Look at http://www.princevault.co...php/Vavoom which completely ignores the version sent to radio which is different from the version posted on NPGMC. T got a copy of the CD promo actually, so there is a CD quality version circulating among the inner circle. T proved that he had the promo by posting the "porno" version where he used the clean CD original and added porno noises on top. The radio rip was circulated widely at the time but isn't great quality.

.

[Edited 8/27/15 5:57am]

BartVanHemelen said:

Se7en said:

NPGMC Year 01 was awesome. Monthly downloads, videos (albeit low-res), Rave In2 and VIP concert/soundcheck access. $100

.

Most months Y1 didn't fulfill its minimum requirements, most MP3s were made using crappy encoders, one of the tracks was a CASSETTE RIP of a RELEASED song, and let's not forget that it was only the SECOND version of NPGMC that was any good, the first one was that cruddy "hey let's use a beta version of QuickTime that expires on the day we launch" version that was thrown in the garbage a couple of months later when another company took over due to the high levels of incompetence. Let's also not forget they sold VHS tapes which contained dubs of a B&W version of a Prince TV special copied from Japan TV.

.

NPGMC 1.0 was rubbish, NPGMC 1.1 was okay-ish after MUCH complaining but far from professional.

I was strangely OK with the MP3 quality at that time. It was in that "Napster" era, pre-iTunes Store and way before artists like NIN were offering HD Flac/WAV files for download. I was more offended by the low-quality videos.
.

Then again, I was on a 56k modem and those NPG Ahdio shows took hours to download. Now, they'd take less than a minute.

.

Was it Horny Pony that was a cassette rip? I remember the horrible "safe sex" intro that was tacked on.

3rdeyedude said:

hmmmm, I don't recall any complaining but then again, I wasn't involved in the NPGMC forum much.............too busy attending about 4 soundchecks/concerts with amazing seats in or near the front row

Well, the complaining about the 4 CD disatisfaction was on here and other forums at that point. The NPGMC forums did not launch until the third incarnation/year of the NPGMC around March(?) 2003.

BartVanHemelen said:

databank said:

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

So there have been several alternate versions of certain tracks? U still got that list from HQ?

I may have missed something but I didn't see anything about several versions of any of those songs on Princevault when I worked on the discog.

.

Hmmm, I might be mistaken.

.

I suspect you've seen this?

.

Note that PV isn't always reliable or complete. Look at http://www.princevault.co...php/Vavoom which completely ignores the version sent to radio which is different from the version posted on NPGMC. T got a copy of the CD promo actually, so there is a CD quality version circulating among the inner circle. T proved that he had the promo by posting the "porno" version where he used the clean CD original and added porno noises on top. The radio rip was circulated widely at the time but isn't great quality.

.

[Edited 8/27/15 5:57am]

Ah yeah TCI and TS had different evrsions but that's another story. That list u also linked was pasted as such on princevault I think, on one of their NPGMC pages. I know they're not always accurate, I've checked many mistakes, unevitable with such an amount of data. I have the radio rip of Vavoom and took Pvault's word for it being similar to the NPGMC version. I should have compared both. R u 100% positive they are different?

KeithyT said:

3rdeyedude said:

hmmmm, I don't recall any complaining but then again, I wasn't involved in the NPGMC forum much.............too busy attending about 4 soundchecks/concerts with amazing seats in or near the front row

Well, the complaining about the 4 CD disatisfaction was on here and other forums at that point. The NPGMC forums did not launch until the third incarnation/year of the NPGMC around March(?) 2003.

I remember the almost constant ongoing speculation toward the end of that membership year (which was not January-thru-December - it was slightly off by a month or two.)

Such a great and simple concept - a paid fanclub membership and an online music download portal/store.

.

Some argue that artists don't make great businessmen, and go further into right-brain/left-brain debates, but this concept is so simple it was basically a guaranteed home run.

.

Greed, ego, boredom and paranoia got in the way of something that could've been very special.

databank said:

BartVanHemelen said:

.

Hmmm, I might be mistaken.

.

I suspect you've seen this?

.

Note that PV isn't always reliable or complete. Look at http://www.princevault.co...php/Vavoom which completely ignores the version sent to radio which is different from the version posted on NPGMC. T got a copy of the CD promo actually, so there is a CD quality version circulating among the inner circle. T proved that he had the promo by posting the "porno" version where he used the clean CD original and added porno noises on top. The radio rip was circulated widely at the time but isn't great quality.

.

[Edited 8/27/15 5:57am]

Ah yeah TCI and TS had different evrsions but that's another story. That list u also linked was pasted as such on princevault I think, on one of their NPGMC pages. I know they're not always accurate, I've checked many mistakes, unevitable with such an amount of data. I have the radio rip of Vavoom and took Pvault's word for it being similar to the NPGMC version. I should have compared both. R u 100% positive they are different?

.

Haven't listened to them in ages (and those mp3s are lord knowh where) but my memory tells me there were small differences: additional noises etc. Prince tinkering with the song like George Lucas tinkering with his movies.