ConsciousContact said:

I'd love to follow you guys around for a few days to see what great human beings you are.

Please do. I am a good human being who does not go out of their way to cause people harm intentionally.

SoulAlive said:

I don't think that Prince hates his fans.I don't think he even thinks about his fans,one way or another.He never attempts to see things from a fan's point of view.

His choice to do in the round concert tour in 2004 was to make sure every seat, if not most, were great seats for his fans.

SoulAlive said:

Guitarhero said:

Because he reads the org and if these are his real fans , no wonder he hates some of us. Not much love for Prince even on a forum dedicated to Prince.

[Edited 12/11/15 15:19pm]

Artists get the fanbases that they deserve.He said so himself.

u mean he's created a sexually obsessed opinionated freakfeast???

I don't think he hates his fans, he just can't be close to us or anyone else outside of his overprotected bubble for that matters. That's how he protected himself from the begining, when he became famous. I honestly don't know how other major superstars behave with their fans, in which way they're friendlier or closer to them. Maybe they do sign autographs, surely they don't harrass fan boards and magazines, certainly they communicate in a less cryptic manner with the press. Maybe also they listen more to fan feedback when it comes to their own online services such as websites and online stores. But IDK, I never really felt Prince was hating or disrespecting me as a fan except for that one time when I paid 77 bucks and got nothing exclusive in return but a single song and three or four live videos. That and the lack of reaction to our complaints was disrespectful as hell but it's been 6 years and we got a LOT of free material streamed or released online ever since to make up for it.

.

The thing is when you think of it Prince today, with Youtube and fansites harrasments and removing the music from streaming services and canceling projects one second after finishing them and talking weird in interviews is just the same Prince as ever. The same Prince that freaked out interviewers in 1979-80, the same Prince that declined to sing in We Are The World and would get caught in a club that very same night and would then justify himself in a song (Hello), the same Prince that decided to release a psychedelic album without a music video after his worldwide success instead of giving more of the same, the same Prince who often wouldn't tour in his own country to support album sales, the same Prince who'd force weird singles on WB and get a worldwide hit out of them (WDC, Kiss...)... or not (IIWYG), the same Prince that would withdraw The Black Album from release a day before it was supposed to be out and make a big mystical mumbo-jumbo of the whole thing and so on... We used to love Prince because he was different, because he refused to play by the rules and give the media, his label and the public what they wanted from him. He was that big superstar and at the same time he was this odd underground artist who just did as he pleased whether we liked it or not. We now blame him for exactly the same things we used to praise him and IMHO it's a bit silly. Hell we even blame him when he does play ball by playing the hits live to please general audiences instead of touring his latest album.

.

In the end yes from a business perspective P's relationship with his fanbase has been disappointing but it really began with the internet: when he began to sell his own products to us and wouldn't deliver (Crystal Ball, NPGMC Year 2, the lifetime membership and lotusflow3r.com) because he wouldn't let a team of professional advise him on business strategies; and probably even worse when he began to harrass fansites and magazines instead of just leaving them alone like all other musicians do. Sure it's not a very healthy relationship to one's fanbase but on the other hand I'd just like us to remember that he was always like this, only until the mid 90's the music business was different and he had a label to take the hits for him. I can't blame Prince for being Prince, because I grown loving him because he was Prince.

BobGeorge909 said:

thedance said:

Prince is just very egocentric, he only thinks of his own needs, he doesn't care about others, he cares shit about our needs for remasters just to name 1 thing..

TBH, Prince don't owe u nothing other than the respect of being a fellow human being. Which he does....along with a lot more. He does lots of things that make the world a better place...which in turn makes the world better for you. Quit whining about the friggin remasters. U already have the damn record. Prince don't owe none of us shit. He's given his life to his craft...what more do u want...he needs to follow your orders too? He has no wife, not many friends, some associates, no children. Music is his life...he records and performs endlessly. Much of which I assume u have. Quit bitching about what else he needs to do for u and be thankful he's not dead from an OD or busy raising a kid or hanging all the time with friends. He's busy making music and rehearsing...he don't wanna take orders from u as well.

Thank you.

You really have to wonder about the maturity level of people who accuse Prince of being egocentric in one breath and in the next breath they whine about "our needs for remasters"?

"Needs" involve things like food and water last time I checked.

On top of that he says "our" as though he can speak for other people.

But Prince is the one being egocentric?

I think he loves AND hates his fans. He calls it being a Gemini. I call it him being bipolar.

databank said:

I don't think he hates his fans, he just can't be close to us or anyone else outside of his overprotected bubble for that matters. That's how he protected himself from the begining, when he became famous. I honestly don't know how other major superstars behave with their fans, in which way they're friendlier or closer to them. Maybe they do sign autographs, surely they don't harrass fan boards and magazines, certainly they communicate in a less cryptic manner with the press. Maybe also they listen more to fan feedback when it comes to their own online services such as websites and online stores. But IDK, I never really felt Prince was hating or disrespecting me as a fan except for that one time when I paid 77 bucks and got nothing exclusive in return but a single song and three or four live videos. That and the lack of reaction to our complaints was disrespectful as hell but it's been 6 years and we got a LOT of free material streamed or released online ever since to make up for it.

.

The thing is when you think of it Prince today, with Youtube and fansites harrasments and removing the music from streaming services and canceling projects one second after finishing them and talking weird in interviews is just the same Prince as ever. The same Prince that freaked out interviewers in 1979-80, the same Prince that declined to sing in We Are The World and would get caught in a club that very same night and would then justify himself in a song (Hello), the same Prince that decided to release a psychedelic album without a music video after his worldwide success instead of giving more of the same, the same Prince who often wouldn't tour in his own country to support album sales, the same Prince who'd force weird singles on WB and get a worldwide hit out of them (WDC, Kiss...)... or not (IIWYG), the same Prince that would withdraw The Black Album from release a day before it was supposed to be out and make a big mystical mumbo-jumbo of the whole thing and so on... We used to love Prince because he was different, because he refused to play by the rules and give the media, his label and the public what they wanted from him. He was that big superstar and at the same time he was this odd underground artist who just did as he pleased whether we liked it or not. We now blame him for exactly the same things we used to praise him and IMHO it's a bit silly. Hell we even blame him when he does play ball by playing the hits live to please general audiences instead of touring his latest album.

.

In the end yes from a business perspective P's relationship with his fanbase has been disappointing but it really began with the internet: when he began to sell his own products to us and wouldn't deliver (Crystal Ball, NPGMC Year 2, the lifetime membership and lotusflow3r.com) because he wouldn't let a team of professional advise him on business strategies; and probably even worse when he began to harrass fansites and magazines instead of just leaving them alone like all other musicians do. Sure it's not a very healthy relationship to one's fanbase but on the other hand I'd just like us to remember that he was always like this, only until the mid 90's the music business was different and he had a label to take the hits for him. I can't blame Prince for being Prince, because I grown loving him because he was Prince.

I can agree with a lot of this.

He has made a lot of (almost) (?) willfully bad business decisions in the eighties too

but the music caME fast and furious and a lot of it was very good.

That's all gone.

Also, in this internet age we think we know what's going on, while back then everything

happened behind closed doors.

Pentacle said:

databank said:

I don't think he hates his fans, he just can't be close to us or anyone else outside of his overprotected bubble for that matters. That's how he protected himself from the begining, when he became famous. I honestly don't know how other major superstars behave with their fans, in which way they're friendlier or closer to them. Maybe they do sign autographs, surely they don't harrass fan boards and magazines, certainly they communicate in a less cryptic manner with the press. Maybe also they listen more to fan feedback when it comes to their own online services such as websites and online stores. But IDK, I never really felt Prince was hating or disrespecting me as a fan except for that one time when I paid 77 bucks and got nothing exclusive in return but a single song and three or four live videos. That and the lack of reaction to our complaints was disrespectful as hell but it's been 6 years and we got a LOT of free material streamed or released online ever since to make up for it.

.

The thing is when you think of it Prince today, with Youtube and fansites harrasments and removing the music from streaming services and canceling projects one second after finishing them and talking weird in interviews is just the same Prince as ever. The same Prince that freaked out interviewers in 1979-80, the same Prince that declined to sing in We Are The World and would get caught in a club that very same night and would then justify himself in a song (Hello), the same Prince that decided to release a psychedelic album without a music video after his worldwide success instead of giving more of the same, the same Prince who often wouldn't tour in his own country to support album sales, the same Prince who'd force weird singles on WB and get a worldwide hit out of them (WDC, Kiss...)... or not (IIWYG), the same Prince that would withdraw The Black Album from release a day before it was supposed to be out and make a big mystical mumbo-jumbo of the whole thing and so on... We used to love Prince because he was different, because he refused to play by the rules and give the media, his label and the public what they wanted from him. He was that big superstar and at the same time he was this odd underground artist who just did as he pleased whether we liked it or not. We now blame him for exactly the same things we used to praise him and IMHO it's a bit silly. Hell we even blame him when he does play ball by playing the hits live to please general audiences instead of touring his latest album.

.

In the end yes from a business perspective P's relationship with his fanbase has been disappointing but it really began with the internet: when he began to sell his own products to us and wouldn't deliver (Crystal Ball, NPGMC Year 2, the lifetime membership and lotusflow3r.com) because he wouldn't let a team of professional advise him on business strategies; and probably even worse when he began to harrass fansites and magazines instead of just leaving them alone like all other musicians do. Sure it's not a very healthy relationship to one's fanbase but on the other hand I'd just like us to remember that he was always like this, only until the mid 90's the music business was different and he had a label to take the hits for him. I can't blame Prince for being Prince, because I grown loving him because he was Prince.

I can agree with a lot of this.

He has made a lot of (almost) (?) willfully bad business decisions in the eighties too

but the music caME fast and furious and a lot of it was very good.

That's all gone.

Also, in this internet age we think we know what's going on, while back then everything

happened behind closed doors.

That one last bit is true: we know a lot more than we did.

As for quality and quantity: the quantity is really not so much less than it used to, it became very obvious to me when working on the online discography: Prince keeps making as much material available as ever, more or less.

Regarding the quality it's widely subjective: while I've grown, expanded my tastes and don't listen to P's music as passionately as I did 20 years ago, I don't blame him for me getting old and objectively I'm just as happy with his musical output as I ever was.

So I really don't have any complaint.

Dupe

[Edited 12/16/15 9:50am]

Who cares.

why is this even a thread? If he hated his fans, he would have retired a long time ago. Intead he still is constantly recording and releasing music and as another poster said invites his fans to his studio. The problem has aways been the same, he's rally bad at running the business and promoting his music. He makes enougn money that from his perspective it really doesn't matter.

Prince don't hate his fans , its the fans who hate him. Look at the Ebony interview thread.

[Edited 12/23/15 12:45pm]

NorthC said:

^Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the thread should be retitled:"Why do YOU think Prince fans hate their favourite artist?". Strange. The man can do no right in the eyes of some people. Looks like they're suffering from the Stockholm Syndrom or something...

Certainly if there was a message board about me and I'd check it out and read the same disrespectful (if not hateful) things about me, my work and my friends as Prince can read here about his, I'd be pretty pissed and I wouldn't feel comfortable getting too close to my fans community.

There's a bunch of people who seem to have a personal problem with Prince, as in having a problem with someone u know in real life, someone who's hurt you, and who will condemn whatever he does or releases regardless of what it is. This is something I'd like those people to be willing to discuss, because that's pretty stunning from a psychologic point of view, to feel so much anger towards someone u've never met or spoken to, and who's not a political leader either.

And then there are all the absurd, uneducated opinions about the music itself, with all those people saying "this song is good, this song is bad", as if they had a clue about what constitutes good or bad music, as if their judgment was supreme.

databank said:

NorthC said:

^Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the thread should be retitled:"Why do YOU think Prince fans hate their favourite artist?". Strange. The man can do no right in the eyes of some people. Looks like they're suffering from the Stockholm Syndrom or something...

Certainly if there was a message board about me and I'd check it out and read the same disrespectful (if not hateful) things about me, my work and my friends as Prince can read here about his, I'd be pretty pissed and I wouldn't feel comfortable getting too close to my fans community.

There's a bunch of people who seem to have a personal problem with Prince, as in having a problem with someone u know in real life, someone who's hurt you, and who will condemn whatever he does or releases regardless of what it is. This is something I'd like those people to be willing to discuss, because that's pretty stunning from a psychologic point of view, to feel so much anger towards someone u've never met or spoken to, and who's not a political leader either.

And then there are all the absurd, uneducated opinions about the music itself, with all those people saying "this song is good, this song is bad", as if they had a clue about what constitutes good or bad music, as if their judgment was supreme.

I agree with you both i love to read facts about Prince and constructive criticism is fine. But to me this place is getting more and more about joking and trolling and people attacking each other. Some people need to chill out and stop talking as if they know better than Prince himself what to do with his career decisions. What makes them so perfect that they know better? Not everything Prince says is stupid or lies , but you would never know reading threads at prince.org. So i stand by what i said before Prince don't hate his fans , some of his fans hate him.

perfume said:

NorthC said:

BobGeorge909 said:

thedance said:

Prince is just very egocentric, he only thinks of his own needs, he doesn't care about others, he cares shit about our needs for remasters just to name 1 thing..

TBH, Prince don't owe u nothing other than the respect of being a fellow human being. Which he does....along with a lot more. He does lots of things that make the world a better place...which in turn makes the world better for you. Quit whining about the friggin remasters. U already have the damn record. Prince don't owe none of us shit. He's given his life to his craft...what more do u want...he needs to follow your orders too? He has no wife, not many friends, some associates, no children. Music is his life...he records and performs endlessly. Much of which I assume u have. Quit bitching about what else he needs to do for u and be thankful he's not dead from an OD or busy raising a kid or hanging all the time with friends. He's busy making music and rehearsing...he don't wanna take orders from u as well.

This is the post of the year imo. Bravo!

In regards to Prince's music not being on display on YouTube, it's like Chanel bags not being on sale at Target to increase their visibility. Sure, more people would yearn to buy Chanel if it was easy to obtain. But Chanel doesn't need the exposure. It'll be found by those who seek quality regardless.

In the end, I think Prince loves us, especially from a spiritual point of view.

But let's get things straight. We didn't make Prince rich. Prince made Prince rich. He deserved it and the fans followed because of his unique gifts, not the other way around.

Secondly, Prince is very spiritual. We might not interpret it the same way, but he probably feels like he's sharing something really special with us since his music is a reflection of himself and his connection to God.

So personally I feel grateful Prince chooses to share his music at all. I truly believe 200 years from now he'll be considered on the same level Beethoven or Mozart today. It must be frustrating being bound by the cultural norms and unfair business structures of the 20th and early 21st century when you take a step back and look at his music as timeless. But history will be kind to Prince IMO, and he takes his music very seriously for a reason.

GoldStandard said:

In regards to Prince's music not being on display on YouTube, it's like Chanel bags not being on sale at Target to increase their visibility. Sure, more people would yearn to buy Chanel if it was easy to obtain. But Chanel doesn't need the exposure. It'll be found by those who seek quality regardless.

In the end, I think Prince loves us, especially from a spiritual point of view.

But let's get things straight. We didn't make Prince rich. Prince made Prince rich. He deserved it and the fans followed because of his unique gifts, not the other way around.

Secondly, Prince is very spiritual. We might not interpret it the same way, but he probably feels like he's sharing something really special with us since his music is a reflection of himself and his connection to God.

So personally I feel grateful Prince chooses to share his music at all. I truly believe 200 years from now he'll be considered on the same level Beethoven or Mozart today. It must be frustrating being bound by the cultural norms and unfair business structures of the 20th and early 21st century when you take a step back and look at his music as timeless. But history will be kind to Prince IMO, and he takes his music very seriously for a reason.

This is so beautifully said, what a great post, thank you!

If Prince hates some of his fans, that's completely understandable.

The level of entitlement and know-it-all pretense is often astonishing, you'd think they were talking about their maid.

Artists get the fanbase they deserve.Treat fans with love and respect and they will do the same.It's not rocket science

SoulAlive said:

Artists get the fanbase they deserve.Treat fans with love and respect and they will do the same.It's not rocket science

Sure except Prince is bootlegged to death and some of his fans think anything he does is theirs to have by birthright.

He's got a problem with that. Go figure.

GoldStandard said:

In regards to Prince's music not being on display on YouTube, it's like Chanel bags not being on sale at Target to increase their visibility. Sure, more people would yearn to buy Chanel if it was easy to obtain. But Chanel doesn't need the exposure. It'll be found by those who seek quality regardless.

In the end, I think Prince loves us, especially from a spiritual point of view.

But let's get things straight. We didn't make Prince rich. Prince made Prince rich. He deserved it and the fans followed because of his unique gifts, not the other way around.

Secondly, Prince is very spiritual. We might not interpret it the same way, but he probably feels like he's sharing something really special with us since his music is a reflection of himself and his connection to God.

So personally I feel grateful Prince chooses to share his music at all. I truly believe 200 years from now he'll be considered on the same level Beethoven or Mozart today. It must be frustrating being bound by the cultural norms and unfair business structures of the 20th and early 21st century when you take a step back and look at his music as timeless. But history will be kind to Prince IMO, and he takes his music very seriously for a reason.

That's about the size of it.

Mozart and Beethoven were not modest people. They knew they had something unique and considered themselves to be a different plane. They had an artistic mission. Beethoven pissed off his sponsors on more than one occasion, was mean to his maids. paranoid at times and all sorts of other manners far from perfection. They had ups and and they had downs. Beethoven wrote only one opera, two if you consider the earlier version of that. If this had been Beethoven.Org, I'm pretty sure there would be a thread about good old Ludwig being an inferior musician just because Mozart wrote such beautiful operas.

Aerogram said:

SoulAlive said:

Artists get the fanbase they deserve.Treat fans with love and respect and they will do the same.It's not rocket science

Sure except Prince is bootlegged to death and some of his fans think anything he does is theirs to have by birthright.

He's got a problem with that. Go figure.

Prince has said that,as a young teenager,he used to collect any James Brown bootlegs he could find.So surely,he has to understand why fans go crazy over stuff like this The problem is...these days,he never looks at things from the viewpoint of a fan.

Guitarhero said:

Prince don't hate his fans , its the fans who hate him. Look at the Ebony interview thread.

[Edited 12/23/15 12:45pm]

.

I agree with this.

I don't think Prince hates his fans. I think Prince is very protective of his privacy, of his personal life, and because of that there was always this mystique about him. I think he is just as protective of his art, his image (afterall, his image is a major part of his art), and as such, fans have over-analyzed his need to protect his art and his image and have concluded that he's being selfish or egotistical (or whatever they deem his actions as). When you look at other artists that have not been so protective of their art and image, look at what the media does to them, look at how the public judges them and their art. Prince *has* to be protective of both in order to maintain the integrity of his art and to maintain some privacy and normalcy to his life. People critique every aspect of the man's life: his love affairs, his business dealings, his music, his dress, his hairstyle, his ... and it goes on and on. So Prince protects what is his, because if he doesn't, who will? Every one else would just throw it to the lions and let it be ravaged. His image, his art, his life. Look at how his fans talk about him, how they tear apart every little detail of his life. He doesn't hate his fans, he's just trying to protect himself and his art, because Lord knows his fans sure wouldn't.

imagine if everyone you met placed you on a pedestal

you'd wonder what's real and what's not

he doesn't hate his fans

he does things his way

he invited his fans to his house for 3 summers straight (I was at the first Celebration)

It appears he doesn't like use of his intellectual property without his permission

but what would make you think he hates his fans?

he's said a million times, he's a people pleaser

maybe you're upset at his right and choice whether or not to distribute his intellectual property

but then again, how do all of these songs leak from the vault?

He obviously leaks them to let us hear them