A previous thread asked what songs we thought should have been singles. I am also curious...with the influence of social media - including youtube, do you think that the fact that he didn't have his music videos on there at the time, hindered the successes of those albums? I've often wondered this. I mean, he has spent some time making really great videos for even better songs and they never see the light of day or are ever-so-briefly blink-and-you'll-miss-it there and gone again. I think if he could have put one or two music videos per album for the songs that people go crazy for. To help promote it, and have links to purchase the songs/purchase whole album, like we see on other pages...couldn't that have helped?

I guess I find it hard to believe *still* that with his talent and the music he was still putting out, songs like FunkNRoll come to mind, that these albums should have made a mark on the charts and it saddens me that they didn't. I think more people could have discovered his music while he was here if he had.

Not trying to open up an argument if this was a sore subject for folks, I'm genuinely curious and wondering if anyone else thinks these decisions impacted the success of his albums?

Maybe he'd had enough of that level of success.

sunset3121 said:

Maybe he'd had enough of that level of success.

That could very well be the case. The lyrics to My Name Is Prince (and probably a handful of others) elude to that. I do also think like all musicians, they want their music to reach as many people as possible. (not necessarily to reach a certain number on a chart or whatnaught, just to reach the audience, maybe inspire new people etc).

I seem to remember some comment about the audience he was playing to with Purple Rain. I don't think he was impressed.

sunset3121 said:

I seem to remember some comment about the audience he was playing to with Purple Rain. I don't think he was impressed.

I remember something about that too. I do think his more recent albums would have automatically attracted a difference audience if they were put out there to be seen/heard.

Like this one for example:

https://youtu.be/08tyBdLg6u0

So damn groovy! I think a lot of people could have got onboard with this track. Or FunkNRoll. Well, the list is endless, this IS Prince we're talking about.

I think the answer is obvious. If those vids were available on YT he would have gained lots of new fans. For the most part the comments of YT are positive and many are saying I never knew he could play like that. There has been some increase in album songs but without live shows to support them I am not sure how long it will last. As we all know Prince live was far better than any album. IMHO I wondered why Prince did not release a lot of live shows on his own instead of allowing boots to make the money.

However we will never know what success meant to Prince or what goals he was still reaching for.

To me he was successful. He gave me many many years of great music and shows.

We had fun didn't we

ForeverPaisley said:

sonshine said:

ForeverPaisley said:

A previous thread asked what songs we thought should have been singles. I am also curious...with the influence of social media - including youtube, do you think that the fact that he didn't have his music videos on there at the time, hindered the successes of those albums? I've often wondered this. I mean, he has spent some time making really great videos for even better songs and they never see the light of day or are ever-so-briefly blink-and-you'll-miss-it there and gone again. I think if he could have put one or two music videos per album for the songs that people go crazy for. To help promote it, and have links to purchase the songs/purchase whole album, like we see on other pages...couldn't that have helped?

I guess I find it hard to believe *still* that with his talent and the music he was still putting out, songs like FunkNRoll come to mind, that these albums should have made a mark on the charts and it saddens me that they didn't. I think more people could have discovered his music while he was here if he had.

Not trying to open up an argument if this was a sore subject for folks, I'm genuinely curious and wondering if anyone else thinks these decisions impacted the success of his albums?

Of course. It's a no-brainer. Idk if we will ever understand Prince's marketing philosophy tho.

Good point. It's a shame as I do think more people would have discovered or even rediscovered the magic we all know to be Prince.