funksterr said:

feeluupp said:

if Rihanna's new album only sold 460 physical copies through TIDAL... imagine Prince's numbers for PHASE 2... no wonder why everyone passed up on a major distribution for that album.

100 copies sold.

My point with Rhianna is that everybody's sales are crazy low. Streams are essentially bullshit numbers dependent on self-reporting from businesses that are not real. Prince put zero promotion into Phase1 and Phase2. You can say virtually the same thing about AOA and PE. He had no corporate sponsers. He had virtually no online presence. No tour. There were magazine and newspaper interviews, but I don't know what the value is in that given that nobody reads that shit anymore. Even if you did, there was more about Josh than Prince in those articles.

Prince's numbers are exactly what you'd expect them to be in this market, given that he isn't really playing the game anymore, and these last few releases were basicaly vanity projects.

I completely agree.

feeluupp said:

funksterr said:

100 copies sold.

My point with Rhianna is that everybody's sales are crazy low. Streams are essentially bullshit numbers dependent on self-reporting from businesses that are not real. Prince put zero promotion into Phase1 and Phase2. You can say virtually the same thing about AOA and PE. He had no corporate sponsers. He had virtually no online presence. No tour. There were magazine and newspaper interviews, but I don't know what the value is in that given that nobody reads that shit anymore. Even if you did, there was more about Josh than Prince in those articles.

Prince's numbers are exactly what you'd expect them to be in this market, given that he isn't really playing the game anymore, and these last few releases were basicaly vanity projects.

I completely agree.

I believe that with Prince, every album he publishes is a vanity project, save the occasional charity/humanitarian project! Man, only a recording executive would feel otherwise. For every record, every song, he just has to put it out there to make his mark, statement--whatever--give people a groove to shake-dem-booties-down, whatever the inner drive may be. The money and attention strokes his ego of course and offers the fuel to propel the cycle onward again, I think. And more power to him, I say!

So this the required disclaimer in an open forum about a musician, music, the business, community, the future, and memories... Else the color of your font may be judged... 2016

feeluupp said:

This is not a Prince is over and done thread... But a question I hope gets some good general input, and discussion...

I don't think a Major Label is required for anything. It is Prince. In my last post I threw a lot of various Prince moments around good and bad as... examples. Apparently in no particular order. The one thing I can say is that until we know what Prince's goals realy are (or if he knows), do those goals jive with the fans. He can have it however he wants it, and I can see paths to any number or type of goals. Prince may have those goals concretely or not at all, that is first. Second, if his goals don't mesh with the LARGE Prince fan base are those goals no longer OK for prince- and we have seen that happen a couple times, the internal conflict. Maybe he wants the BIG STUFF and for some reason he really thinks he needs a major label. And the remasters already...related heavily, but I might have something different to say at the bullet point should he feel to bestow them upon us very soon but until then, as it stands:

• His name is Prince: he... really doesn't need a major label. Maybe LiveNation.
• The internet..

[Edited 2/4/16 2:18am]

If the Prince man were to tour e.g. Europe for this new album (e.g. perform it all on piano...) he could sell the album for an extra small sum added to the ticket price.

Like he did in 2007 for the O2 shows.

Of course that requires a tiny bit of effort from the Prince man but gives the fans and faMs easy access to the shiny discs.

TheAStarr said:

So this the required disclaimer in an open forum about a musician, music, the business, community, the future, and memories... Else the color of your font may be judged... 2016

feeluupp said:

This is not a Prince is over and done thread... But a question I hope gets some good general input, and discussion...

on the org yes... u've got quite a few characaters on here...