It's here! The day the Prince Online Museum opens. Check it out and share your thoughts here!

I haven't ventured through the whole thing yet as it's encroaching onto 2am but am looking forward to browsing tomorrow and to hearing what everyone else thinks!

http://princeonlinemuseum.com

Spectacular! This should be a sticky!

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Seeing all those rare video and audio clips is a treasure trove!

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Lotus3er is amazing to see again after all these years.

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THANK YOU!

Sweet jebus, can someone tell Sam he can quit writing in princebonics?

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Also, gotta love the revisionist history:

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- NPGMC v1:

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This version of the Music Club was short-lived as it was decided a web-based approach was better.

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No, this version got so much shit dumped on it that it was replaced with a web based solution -- which was BTW what naysayers like me suggested form the start.

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The software wasn’t smooth and it ultimately required too much from our audience.

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Yeah, the software was based on a beta version of QuickTime that expired ON THE DAY OF LAUNCH. It was also a massive memory hog that would only work on newer computers.

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Our audience wanted simplicity. The player just wasn’t smooth enough.

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Your player didn't work on most computers and it was ridiculous that you needed to start up a specific piece of software in order to play the Ahdio shows, because we'd soon figured out the XML and where the far from great MP3 files were stored, but the Ahdio shows were .MOV and IIRC couldn't be played by regular QuickTime or converted to a handier format.

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I would have skipped this part and went straight to the simple web interface. Once we did that, it was smooth sailing.

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Apart form the lousy MP3s and numerous other quality issues.

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NPGMC v2:

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But after about a month, it was decided that the player was 2 complicated.

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It was way longer than a month.

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A fan could join up for one month for $7.77 and get around 3 new MP3 song files plus an MP3 ahdio show. Or they could pre-pay a whole year and become a Premium Member and get even more downloads per month.

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Hmmm, why not post the exact words of the agreements? Why the feeble "around 3 new MP3 song files" wording? Couldn't have anything to do with the NPGMC not fulfilling its minimum requirements for most months, now?

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I think Prince felt the demands of 3 or 4 new songs and an hour ahdio show was too much to maintain for a long period of time.

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That's just fucking hilarious. Also note how this section doesn't mention the company that handled the technical work. Nor does it mention the atrocious quality of the MP3s (often made with rubbish codecs). Or that time when they uploaded an already released song(!) which was ripped from a cassette(!!). Or that time when they sold shoddy video rips from a Japanese broadcast of a Prince special.

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NPGMC 2002:

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The CDs we sent out didn’t exactly fill the member’s expectations. I remember there being some controversy around that.

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LMAO. Let's see: fans were promised several unique CDs and were actually promised specific product in a graphic; only one exclusive CD was sent after which nothing happened and then the live box set was sent which wasn't exclusive (because also available in shops). Granted, because they'd fucked shit up so badly and apparently didn't keep proper records they also included the exclusive CD again with this order so people who had joined later (after One Nite Alone had already been sent) would get the first CD as well.

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Note that once again none of the supporting companies are mentioned.

Yes, I got the notice on FB this morning, it's fantastic!

There were already a couple of threads about it though:

http://prince.org/msg/7/428785
http://prince.org/msg/7/427426

Thanks for posting this!

Well, this is going to be a fun thread...

Much thanks to the efforts of all those involved in making the site a reality.

I love it. It's simple, but polished and professional looking, with crisp, sharp graphics. I enjoyed the commentary about the museum itself as well as the commentary about the individual sites. Very nicely done.

[Edited 7/4/16 3:14am]

I have to ask, why wasn't One Song a bigger hit?!

Am I the only one who imagines two cavemen sitting around at the beginning of Human discovery, attempting to create fire and Bart sitting alongside pointing out why it is rubbish.

- The Fire didn't work perfectly first time

- The fire was too hot

- One man hurt his finger making the fire

-Bart has seen better fires from other firemakers

If everyone succumbed to this relentless negativity, no-one would do anything...ever. No-one would create anything, no-one would take a risk.

jayspud said:

Thanks for the link!

Thank you Sam and the Team for taking the time for putting this together and sharing with us. You didn't have to do this, so I'm sorry for the negative harsh comments from typical rude orgers. You know how it goes... there's more of us that do appreciate it.

Just thinking if Paisley Park Museum ever does open. It would be cool if interactive touchscreen stations be setup and the patrons could view these websites.

THIS IS SO AWESOME!!! There are some sections of some sites that I am only seeing now for the first time today!! Like, for example on the LotusFlow3r site!! Once I get past the opening page I am now seeing everything on there for the FIRST TIME!!! Back when it started up I couldnt afford the $77 to register and join the site!! After all, it did start up in the height of the massive worldwide recession and I was, like many others, more concerned at the time of trying to keep body and soul together, let alone forking out to pay for yet another Prince fucked up site that was bound to screw u, one way or another!!!

Also as a previous poster stated, if you didnt have the latest technology in the way of a, moreorless, brand new computer of that time period, or were still using dial-up connection(as I was when Love4OneAnother.com was in existence) as well as the most up to date OS and browsers, a lot of the features on a lot of sites didnt work and couldnt function properly, like applications to obtain VIP concert tickets or ordering merchandize online, or even to just browse through some of the virtual "rooms", Plus the fact that, at the time, I couldnt afford the full $100 membership fee to join the NPG Music Club, so, hence, I always felt left out of a lot of things!! Everything was fine once the membership fee was brought down to $35 and that was due to someone reporting the Club to the Better Business Bureau!!

So, for me, this is an awesome trip down the Prince Memory Lane for me!!

[Edited 7/4/16 6:17am]

Post here, this thread was first http://prince.org/msg/7/427426