Unless I'm mistaken everyone on this thread and/or site has heard the new album - via Tidal, download or CD. What am I missing?

So the general public doesn't have access to it yet... The general public doesn't know it exists.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

is NOT having trouble with distribution! He's just thinking of new ways of distributing by adding his fans this time that care. Not the ones that spread negative lies(like U).

Congratulation for your new position. Hope this works out for you.

I think most people here apply for the title Loyal Fan, as they aroud for decades. Even if they are being critical they are still the ones who hold the candles in the march for Prince his music.

That being said. Do not under estimate the goodwill factor of people in his shop selling the music.

Everything you say to others from praise to eyerolls will affect (help or hinder) sales.

Regarding the cd?

Are the discounts in place when ordering 10+ cd's?

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

maplenpg said:

...the truth is that most people, including me, only want a CD for ourselves. I'm not interested in buying wholesale and trying to sell them - I have way more stuff that's more important. If prince distributes in this way then eBay will be where the CDs end up. If prince wants to distribute in different ways then fine but each time he does he risks losing a legion of people who aren't anywhere near as loyal as us on this site.

That's actually spot on. The reason I do a bit wholesale is trying to recoup the expensive part of getting this cd this way. I may or may not get customs/handling cost and with the added postage it can cost me around 45 euro (aroudn $50+). Ordering more for others will dampen the postage and spread customs/handling fees to a more acceptable level. It is a unnecessary hassle and the money and energy goes to all kind of overhead. In the end the whole process and all involved will have invested way more money.

(when taking in view the end-end routing and all involved, if they are prepared to make that extra effort).

[Edited 1/27/16 23:56pm]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

is NOT having trouble with distribution! He's just thinking of new ways of distributing by adding his fans this time that care. Not the ones that spread negative lies(like U).

No,he burned all his bridges with the major labels and that's why he's now using this new,chaotic way of distributing his new album.Most of these CDs are just gonna wind up on Ebay with jacked up prices,lol.

SoulAlive said:

I remember the Crystal Ball fiasco in 1997 and now all these years later,Prince is *still* having problems with distributing a CD..,lol...you'd think by now,he would have learned something!

I do think this CD 'fiasco' is something of a myth. the CD campaign was awesome and flawless from my side of things.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

is NOT having trouble with distribution! He's just thinking of new ways of distributing by adding his fans this time that care. Not the ones that spread negative lies(like U).

This isn't as straight forward as this seems. For example you have to consider who you are trading with? When there is a problem who do you clain against? And how is the 'fan' paying the applicable taxes? Will Prince be paying the accountant fees? Also is the fan 'PCI' complaiant - I bet not!

Also you can't sell something for someone else and then pass on the money. That's actaully classedas money laundering. Prince also needs to remember he also needs to pay tax on the money he receives.

This is going to end up very bad for those getting involved as they will not be legally covered!

For goodness sake, Prince can get up is own Shopify or Magento account and sell his own CD and pop it into an envelope!!! He can even sell on bloomin' ebay - so what's his probelm!!!!

darkroman said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

is NOT having trouble with distribution! He's just thinking of new ways of distributing by adding his fans this time that care. Not the ones that spread negative lies(like U).

This isn't as straight forward as this seems. For example you have to consider who you are trading with? When there is a problem who do you clain against? And how is the 'fan' paying the applicable taxes? Will Prince be paying the accountant fees? Also is the fan 'PCI' complaiant - I bet not!

Also you can't sell something for someone else and then pass on the money. That's actaully classedas money laundering. Prince also needs to remember he also needs to pay tax on the money he receives.

This is going to end up very bad for those getting involved as they will not be legally covered!

For goodness sake, Prince can get up is own Shopify or Magento account and sell his own CD and pop it into an envelope!!! He can even sell on bloomin' ebay - so what's his probelm!!!!

As I understand it the fan distributors are simply buying a number of CD's wholesale just as you would from a record company and then selling them on just as a shop would. A number of them are using third party payment methods such as Shopify. Obviously there is a rick in that once you have bought the Cd's if you do not sell all of them you could make a loss. Obviously any profit you do make would, I presume, mean you are trading and would have to declare everything to the relevant authorities.

darkroman said:

SoulAlive said:

I remember the Crystal Ball fiasco in 1997 and now all these years later,Prince is *still* having problems with distributing a CD..,lol...you'd think by now,he would have learned something!

I do think this CD 'fiasco' is something of a myth. the CD campaign was awesome and flawless from my side of things.

The problem is...many fans sent their money ($50) directly to Prince's 1-800-New Funk store,thinking that they were pre-ordering it.But then,it soon began appearing in stores....while those who pre-ordered it were still waiting for their copies to arrive! I recall alot of fans were pissed off,lol.

SoulAlive said:

darkroman said:

I do think this CD 'fiasco' is something of a myth. the CD campaign was awesome and flawless from my side of things.

The problem is...many fans sent their money ($50) directly to Prince's 1-800-New Funk store,thinking that they were pre-ordering it.But then,it soon began appearing in stores....while those who pre-ordered it were still waiting for their copies to arrive! I recall alot of fans were pissed off,lol.

That is very interesting to know. Something though does seem odd.

.

At the very beginning this was an experiment - the set was only going to be pressed when it reached a target of 100,000 pre-orders. It took a while for this target to be reached as not many people were using the internet and ecomm security was not like what it is today. Hence this was really cutting edge at the time.

.

I remember that if you placed a pre-order then you would receive the 5 disc set and t-shirt. Which I did. A while later I then saw the 4 disc jewel case version in stores. This was at first 40 pound but then dropped to just 5 pound as no one was buying it. I remember shops being stuck with piles of stock selling them off cheap.

.

So, SoulAlive, those fans who pre-ordered and where upset, did they still receive the 5 disc version as I never saw that versaion in stores as that was supposed to be an online exclusive?

.

I do think this campaign was totally awesome. This was great use of the internet when others didn't know what it was! Also the online booklet idea as also genius.

.

It's a pity Prince hasn't continued with such innovation.

.

[Edited 1/28/16 3:30am]

laurarichardson said:

trickster said:

This is a joke ... Now imagin prince would Release the remasters He would sell around 10k copies just because he is unable to do professional buisness .... [Edited 1/26/16 22:09pm]

---- He is not on a major label

.

He is. They simply rejected this sub-par album.

.

it is not that easy for artist to get CDs into stores

.

Oh please. Dude just expects absurd amounts of money.

darkroman said:

SoulAlive said:

I remember the Crystal Ball fiasco in 1997 and now all these years later,Prince is *still* having problems with distributing a CD..,lol...you'd think by now,he would have learned something!

I do think this CD 'fiasco' is something of a myth. the CD campaign was awesome and flawless from my side of things.

.

Oh look, the old "it didn't happen to me so it didn't happen at all" bullshit defense from the famz. The CB fiasco is well-known and well documented.

darkroman said:

At the very beginning this was an experiment - the set was only going to be pressed when it reached a target of 100,000 pre-orders. It took a while for this target to be reached as not many people were using the internet and ecomm security was not like what it is today. Hence this was really cutting edge at the time.

.

Amazon already existed and was all the rage. But don't let facts obstruct your defense of P. Also, there's NO WAY they got 100,000 orders. Maybe 20,000-25,000 -- and plenty of them were people having duplicate orders because it took so fucking long that people had to re-order because the CC they used on their original orders had expired. And because the bozos as 1800-no-clue alledgedly noted orders on post-its and put those on a wall instead of entering them into a database it was impossible to update your order.

.

The pre-order bullshit was only meant for Prince to show distributors that the set was a viable seller. He used to to entice them.

.

.

I remember that if you placed a pre-order then you would receive the 5 disc set and t-shirt.

.

.

Kamasutra and The Truth and the T-shirt were only added to dampen the tons of complaints after this bullshit had been going on for six months and 1-800-no-clue had been exposed repeatedly as run by incompetents. The set appearing in stores (which was against initial promises!) was merely extra fuel to the flames.

.

CB was such a huge disappointment (not even forty fucking minutes of music per disc? fucking remixes? fucking edits of already released music?) that the leak of the real track list (after weeks of fake ones) was greeted with disbelief because it was such a rip-off.

.

And let's not forget the released product was nothing like the promised one -- onless a sphere is the same as a puck. The lack of a booklet was also not appreciated, especially not when the copies in stores DID have booklets. And many of the pucks had scratched the discs because they were so shitty.

.

Oh, and later on they sent The War to some of the people who ordered CB to further attempt to please the fans.

.

I do think this campaign was totally awesome. This was great use of the internet when others didn't know what it was!

.

Oh please, Bowie and George Michael were way ahead.

.

Also the online booklet idea as also genius.

.

No it wasn't. Who the fuck wants to start up his PC and connects to the internet to access a shitty website full of slow-as-fuck java applets to read the (often incorrect) liner notes?

What's wrong with bandcamp? Put the cd on there, get some minion from Minneapolis (probably Kirky J) to put the bloody thing in an envelope and send that shit out. Not "innovative" enough?

here my solution on this distribution issue...

a)build a distribution faculity in the backside of paisley park

b)prince hires people to manufacture his products

c)distribute the cd's via mail order,amazon etc...

since he has no major label ties,he can go this route

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

BartVanHemelen said:

CB was such a huge disappointment (not even forty fucking minutes of music per disc?

First, I agree CB was a fiasco, and ALMOST everything you said is true. However, each disc is nearly 50 min. I mean, come on, we don't have to exaggerate to make this case as all 3 discs could have easily fit on 2.

Not picking a fight Bart, just fixing the only thing wrong in you post.

XNY said:

i don't see a clear-cut way of directly distributing phase II..unless the intention is to sell them while on the road or at paisley park.

i think the best alternative is to do it digitally, by paying to download it. If NPGMC and lotusflow3r.com provided this, why not go back into doing something similar to it...or perhaps they do need a "middle-person" for websites and digital downloading?

djThunderfunk said:

BartVanHemelen said:

First, I agree CB was a fiasco, and ALMOST everything you said is true. However, each disc is nearly 50 min. I mean, come on, we don't have to exaggerate to make this case as all 3 discs could have easily fit on 2.

.

Yes, you're correct.

LadeeDas said:

i don't see a clear-cut way of directly distributing phase II..

.

So Prince cannot manage what Fugazi have been doing since the 1980s?

.

The ONLY reason Prince isn't finding a proper distributor is because he's demanding absurd amounts of money.

Comment deleted - langebleu - moderator

LadeeDas said:

i don't see a clear-cut way of directly distributing phase II..unless the intention is to sell them while on the road or at paisley park.

i think the best alternative is to do it digitally, by paying to download it. If NPGMC and lotusflow3r.com provided this, why not go back into doing something similar to it...or perhaps they do need a "middle-person" for websites and digital downloading?

He wants a middle-person that pays him much more money than he can earn by selling it directly to the fans. And of course no one is willing to do that.

hopefully i am understanding this accurately....this is more about getting what he is entitled to (financially) upfront rather than about not to allow either a major record label or retailer getting a piece of the profit from distributing CDs?

If so, then i guess it seems logical to do wholesale route by whomever are interested in purchasing and selling to other fans. If that turns out to be a success, then more to power to him

I am probably one of the few who wouldn't mind digitally downloading it

'When my back is so far back

it's on the other side of the wall

When half a chance is all I get

if I get a chance at all..........

No CONTRACTS!

Yo baby/ Tell me where your wallet at
No contracts

Hey yo pay me/ I won't take any overage product back

Take a chance if you want to, make your own money back

Fans are fucked for Phase 2/ you can bet on that

When they tell me to walk a straight ine

I put on crooked shoes....'

create a website and sell the product through the website. this seems so obvious.

.

it's an easy, workable solution. SO obvious, imo

.

but, i'm not that guy so he's gonna do what he's gonna do.

.

nevermind. electric fetus is stepping up to handle distribution - CDS can be ordered via phone through electric fetus now

[Edited 1/28/16 23:51pm]

already sold out