ForeverPaisley said:

Cherrymoon! Hi Lovely I've been thinking about you and hope you are doing okay

As much as I like the idea of Sometimes It Snows In April..I personally feel Prince would want us to celebrate, that song to me, would linger the heartache & heighten the pain - I think songs that would trigger the celebration of Prince would be fantastic. I also think songs that SHOULD have made it on the charts should be the ones we push for - something big that will will grab the attention of new listeners. Alas my vote is for: FunkNRoll.

Though if I was able to pick more than one

2). RNR Love Affair and

3). AnotherLove

The reason why I am choosing these is because the more recent albums were also omited on the Prince4Ever albums - again missing the opportunity to attract new ears and attention to those great albums. This would be a way to get a 'new' song charting!

PLUS, I suspect the radios are already going to be playing some of the popular Hits during that month, just as people are rocking Bowie tunes now. So, since those tunes will likely already be on the radio - my vote is definitely for something 'new'

I'm on twitter under the same name - if you tweet me once with it I will make sure to regularly retweet the campaign for you CM

Great idea by the way

Hi ForeverPaisley!

I agree with most of the above, especially the first part (boldened). I also agree that there are some brilliant attention grabbing hit potentials on his recent albums and that they should be put forward in the very near future.

As for April, because the occasion is a celebration and a commemoration at the same time, I think the appropriate track should either be:

• A *strong* uplifting new track,
• An anthem or
• A song that is representative of Prince's music/vision/ethos as a whole (even though that's not easy to do with just one song!).

It is very hard to all agree on the same choice/preferences, but the main thing is to all try and go past these differences and work together in the best way we can to make the campaign a success so that Prince can be celebrated and honoured peacefully and respectfully by us all.

I have entered your suggestions (thank you!) and we will just have to wait until later this month to see what we think the strongest choices are. I will post an updated list in a couple of weeks so people will still have time to have a look at it and share their views before the final poll is published.

Many thanks for your support, I will look out for you on Twitter! 💜

[Edited 1/12/17 13:55pm]

ForeverPaisley said:

CherryMoon57 said:

^ Hi lopez568!

Thank you so much for your feedback, it really warms my heart to see that some people do appreciate and understand what these campaigns are all about. The main motivation behind this is ultimately to spread more awareness about Prince, what he did as an artist and who he was as a man as well. I have had the amazing privilege to meet him and he gave me such a thrill and honour by inviting me on his stage, I now want to return the gesture by helping bring a little more light on the wonderful soul that Prince was and forever will be.

I think it is very sad that (for many different reasons) most of his legacy remains unknown to so many – especially after all his years of dedicated efforts - and I am sure there are many out there young and old who still haven’t had the opportunity to hear a fraction of it and who would be amazed to discover some of the tracks from his later eras or anything they haven’t heard yet from his purple epoch. Opinions differ of course, but I believe that his music holds something very special that many people could benefit from.

To answer your questions, the number one goal for this campaign is to try and get Prince to chart in several countries by getting as many fans as possible to purchase the same track during the chart week that coincides with 21st April. There is no real difference with our last campaign except that it was restricted to the UK simply because the Christmas Chart is a big deal over here, so that was our main target. The bar was placed rather high I must admit as we weren’t the only fans celebrating a lost hero...

This time, the occasion is the obvious commemoration and we are basically inviting anyone who feels inclined to participate, without any geographical restrictions. This means that if all the US fans wanted to download / stream the track, then that track could chart in the US too, and the same in France and so on. I am currently in process of contacting other Prince fans websites around Europe and will also be tweeting in different languages soon in order to spread the message further and to reach more people (any multi-linguists out there?).

As for Sometimes It Snows In April, this is a tricky one. I know that the track entered the charts in some European countries last year after his passing and as you know because we supported the track in our Prince4Christmas campaign, we saw it go up in the sales lists over Christmas which means that many people did indeed download the track (I believe our campaign had a lot to do with it since 3 of the tracks we supported were all climbing up at the same time).

This was a good way to observe the impact one small campaign can have but that also means there are now few outlets that the UK participants will be able to download it from a second time. The UK being currently our main source of support, we would probably reduce our chances of success if we supported that same track again.

That said, these are my views only and no one can say for sure how many fans downloaded it, or how many more could download it this time round. There are absolutely no ways of telling because many of the participants who supported us did not systematically report to us about it. So as I said before, this track would be a bit of a gamble.

I agree that When Doves Cry is a good choice that would appeal to a varied range of audiences and that is also currently still played by some radio stations (at least in the UK). It may not be the highest selling track in the UK compared to Purple Rain but it is not too low either so it wouldn’t take too much effort to just give it that final boost to reach the top, so yes, a very strong contender indeed.

Many thanks again for your support!

[Edited 1/8/17 15:55pm]

Do you have a little meme or splash page write up (like a banner or something like that) we could tweet and tag various major radio stations, and also reach out to the most followed other Prince groups/handles/pages to do the same. I think it's better to choose three new songs like you are saying CM rather than the same three as last time - as this will encourage people to actually PURCHASE it instead of being like...'I already have that' and not bother.

Are you selecting based on which one is suggested the most?

If I can help out just let me know

We did a few for our last campaign and I am in process of making the new ones so will be tweeting them v. soon.

I really appreciate your help, thank you FP!

RODSERLING said:

CherryMoon57 said:

from.

To answer your questions, the number one goal for this campaign is to try and get Prince to chart in several countries by getting as many fans as possible to purchase the same track during the chart week that coincides with 21st April. There is no real difference with our last campaign except that it was restricted to the UK simply because the Christmas Chart is a big deal over here, so that was our main target. The bar was placed rather high I must admit as we weren’t the only fans celebrating a lost hero...

[Edited 1/8/17 15:55pm]

Wow, I didn't get that ! I thought it was only in the UK...I don't want to be annoying, but this will split the potential of going higher in the UK.

.

France market is small indeed (PURPLE RAIN was #1 last year with 10.000 dl, SOMETIMES IT SNOWS was #14 with only 5000 dl !) but you won't get so much people in France now (and as a French, I know what I'm talking about). But you could get french people to make it higher in the Uk.

.

French reaction to your campaign is so disappointing :

http://www.schkopi.com/forum/stop-the-press-infos/appel-aux-fans-monde-entier-t18671.html.

Nobody wants to paticipate in any form.

.

I know this forum a lot, I was even fired from it for no reason : they don't like to talk about charts and sales. That doesn't interest them, for the large majority. Of course, I hope it will change in the following weeks. I hope Raphy, the owner of this forum, will support this campaign.

.

As for the USa, it is too large a market !

.

These are just my personnal advice, we will follow you whatever you chose.

[Edited 1/9/17 0:41am]

Hi Rodserling!

Thank you for your comments. I'm afraid French purchases would have no impact whatsoever on the UK single chart as it only relates to the UK sales. Sales are usually filtered and any payment made from a foreign bank is (alledgedly) excluded from the countries' count and allocated towards the charts of each respective countries.

It is still early days on Schkopi and we have to let it sink in for a while. It usually takes some time for people to fully grasp what our mission is about and the initial reaction to the word 'sales' or 'charts' is totally normal.

The US market doesn't frighten me (I do like a challenge!) so I'll have a go anyway. It is Prince's country of birth and still the land of Paisley Park after all!

MattyJam said:

It has to be Purple Rain. The song is legendary but never reached number one in the UK, I think it peaked at number 7. We know the song has the power to resonate with large groups of people, and you could market the campaign by saying that PR never reached number 1 and that it is time to right that wrong.

True, this is quite a surprising fact considering the popularity of the song and an important point to put accross if we support that song, as many probably aren't aware of it. That said the PR album still spent 24 weeks at Number 1 on the US Billboard charts. Prince has always been better at selling albums than singles.

ForeverPaisley said:

I basically just mentioned this without getting through the replies, and just wanted to say how much I agree!! Great song selection as well Dibbiekins

Your choice - Funknroll - was one of my top ones too! Great track - and a memorable name! Plus there is recent footage of him performing it on the Arsenio Hall show (2014) available on YouTube which always helps, I think!

CherryMoon57 said:

MattyJam said:

It has to be Purple Rain. The song is legendary but never reached number one in the UK, I think it peaked at number 7. We know the song has the power to resonate with large groups of people, and you could market the campaign by saying that PR never reached number 1 and that it is time to right that wrong.

True, this is quite a surprising fact considering the popularity of the song and an important point to put accross if we support that song, as many probably aren't aware of it. That said the PR album still spent 24 weeks at Number 1 on the US Billboard charts. Prince has always been better at selling albums than singles.

I know matty talked about UK chart, but PURPLE RAIN was in fact #1 2 weeks consecutively in digital sales last year .But with streaming added, Prince couldn't be #1 in the hot 100 (and still can't).

Moreover, an old track is not allowed to chart in the hot 100, unless it gets on the top 50.

In the Uk last year, PURPLE RAIN peaked at #2 in digital sales. Streaming added, it peaked at #6.

In fact Prince charted 20 songs in the digital sales chart, with a new peak for I WOULD DIE 4 U :

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/20160429/7509/

[Edited 1/9/17 11:50am]

RODSERLING said:

CherryMoon57 said:

True, this is quite a surprising fact considering the popularity of the song and an important point to put accross if we support that song, as many probably aren't aware of it. That said the PR album still spent 24 weeks at Number 1 on the US Billboard charts. Prince has always been better at selling albums than singles.

I know matty talked about UK chart, but PURPLE RAIN was in fact #1 2 weeks consecutively in digital sales last year .But with streaming added, Prince couldn't be #1 in the hot 100 (and still can't).

Moreover, an old track is not allowed to chart in the hot 100, unless it gets on the top 50.

In the Uk last year, PURPLE RAIN peaked at #2 in digital sales. Streaming added, it peaked at #6.

In fact Prince charted 20 songs in the digital sales chart, with a new peak for I WOULD DIE 4 U :

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/20160429/7509/

[Edited 1/9/17 11:50am]

This is useful information, thanks Rosderling!

RODSERLING said:

CherryMoon57 said:

True, this is quite a surprising fact considering the popularity of the song and an important point to put accross if we support that song, as many probably aren't aware of it. That said the PR album still spent 24 weeks at Number 1 on the US Billboard charts. Prince has always been better at selling albums than singles.

I know matty talked about UK chart, but PURPLE RAIN was in fact #1 2 weeks consecutively in digital sales last year .But with streaming added, Prince couldn't be #1 in the hot 100 (and still can't).

Moreover, an old track is not allowed to chart in the hot 100, unless it gets on the top 50.

In the Uk last year, PURPLE RAIN peaked at #2 in digital sales. Streaming added, it peaked at #6.

In fact Prince charted 20 songs in the digital sales chart, with a new peak for I WOULD DIE 4 U :

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/20160429/7509/

[Edited 1/9/17 11:50am]

I think this is what you are referring to re. the US Billboard Hot 100:

Recurrents

Billboard, in an effort to allow the chart to remain as current as possible and to give proper representation to new and developing artists and tracks, has (since 1991) removed titles that have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number of weeks on the chart. Recurrent criteria have been modified several times and currently (as of 2015), a song is permanently moved to "recurrent status" if it has spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 and fallen below position number 50. Additionally, descending songs are removed from the chart if ranking below number 25 after 52 weeks.^[8] Exceptions are made to re-releases and sudden resurgence in popularity of tracks that have taken a very long time to gain mainstream success. These rare cases are handled on a case-by-case basis and ultimately determined by Billboard's chart managers and staff.

https://en.m.wikipedia.or...rd_Hot_100

CherryMoon57 said:

RODSERLING said:

I know matty talked about UK chart, but PURPLE RAIN was in fact #1 2 weeks consecutively in digital sales last year .But with streaming added, Prince couldn't be #1 in the hot 100 (and still can't).

Moreover, an old track is not allowed to chart in the hot 100, unless it gets on the top 50.

In the Uk last year, PURPLE RAIN peaked at #2 in digital sales. Streaming added, it peaked at #6.

In fact Prince charted 20 songs in the digital sales chart, with a new peak for I WOULD DIE 4 U :

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/20160429/7509/

[Edited 1/9/17 11:50am]

I think this is what you are referring to re. the US Billboard Hot 100:

Recurrents

Billboard, in an effort to allow the chart to remain as current as possible and to give proper representation to new and developing artists and tracks, has (since 1991) removed titles that have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number of weeks on the chart. Recurrent criteria have been modified several times and currently (as of 2015), a song is permanently moved to "recurrent status" if it has spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 and fallen below position number 50. Additionally, descending songs are removed from the chart if ranking below number 25 after 52 weeks.[8] Exceptions are made to re-releases and sudden resurgence in popularity of tracks that have taken a very long time to gain mainstream success. These rare cases are handled on a case-by-case basis and ultimately determined by Billboard's chart managers and staff.

https://en.m.wikipedia.or...rd_Hot_100

Yes. Billboard rules and the vast us market make a campaign impossible in this chart. That's why these rules are for...

Even if your campaign makes some noise in the whole country and make it to #1, you can be sure that the Billboard staff will prevent it from charting in the hot 100.

[Edited 1/10/17 1:49am]

RODSERLING said:

CherryMoon57 said:

I think this is what you are referring to re. the US Billboard Hot 100:

Recurrents

Billboard, in an effort to allow the chart to remain as current as possible and to give proper representation to new and developing artists and tracks, has (since 1991) removed titles that have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number of weeks on the chart. Recurrent criteria have been modified several times and currently (as of 2015), a song is permanently moved to "recurrent status" if it has spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 and fallen below position number 50. Additionally, descending songs are removed from the chart if ranking below number 25 after 52 weeks.[8] Exceptions are made to re-releases and sudden resurgence in popularity of tracks that have taken a very long time to gain mainstream success. These rare cases are handled on a case-by-case basis and ultimately determined by Billboard's chart managers and staff.

https://en.m.wikipedia.or...rd_Hot_100

Yes. Billboard rules and the vast us market make a campaign impossible in this chart. That's why these rules are for...

Even if your campaign makes some noise in the whole country and make it to #1, you can be sure that the Billboard staff will prevent it from charting in the hot 100.

[Edited 1/10/17 1:49am]

What if we used a recent track or one that has never entered the charts at all?

CherryMoon57 said:

RODSERLING said:

Yes. Billboard rules and the vast us market make a campaign impossible in this chart. That's why these rules are for...

Even if your campaign makes some noise in the whole country and make it to #1, you can be sure that the Billboard staff will prevent it from charting in the hot 100.

[Edited 1/10/17 1:49am]

What if we used a recent track or one that has never entered the charts at all?

lol if the Billboard staff see a Prince track on the hot 100, whatever it is, I think they're gonna tick et investigate about it.

I think a recent track could work indeed (less than 2 years).

RODSERLING said:

CherryMoon57 said:

What if we used a recent track or one that has never entered the charts at all?

lol if the Billboard staff see a Prince track on the hot 100, whatever it is, I think they're gonna tick et investigate about it.

I think a recent track could work indeed (less than 2 years).

I see what you mean lol. Well there is no harm in trying anyway... just to see what happens!

Incredible hatred from Schkopi :

http://www.schkopi.com/forum/stop-the-press-infos/appel-aux-fans-monde-entier-t18671.html

I knew already how disrespectful they are (on the site and "in real" ) but I wouldn't thought they were so dumb and selfish concerning their favourite artist.

Raphy should be ashamed. They never understood anything about Prince and the music industry.

[Edited 1/10/17 5:34am]

[Snip - luv4u]

Bertrand said:

all initiatives can be good, respect. however, it sounds like a selling attempt. come, come, buy the music. Really?

Personally, I don't need Pricne4Everyone to come and tell me to buy Prince music.

Charts... nobody reads them, so who cares?

There are more people interested in charts in France, than there are people interested in Prince, that, is for sure. It is a good and interesting initiative to concile.

.

You're saying that "personnally you don't care" but it's not about you. That's the problem with the way this campaign was received in France.

[Snip - luv4u]

I think that should be te end of the discussion.

People on Schkopi and Prince.org can all have their opinions and all should be respectfully answered (what some find offensive may not be deemed offensive by others, that's the downfall of text, it can be easily misunderstood).

People will like the campaign and there will be people who don't. I just hope that the people who don't will no longer click the links as they should no longer have any interest in the topic.

Move on and look forward.

Google translate is not a good translator.

I think this thread should carry on with discussing your project/initiative now...

Spayne said:

I think that should be te end of the discussion.

People on Schkopi and Prince.org can all have their opinions and all should be respectfully answered (what some find offensive may not be deemed offensive by others, that's the downfall of text, it can be easily misunderstood).

People will like the campaign and there will be people who don't. I just hope that the people who don't will no longer click the links as they should no longer have any interest in the topic.

Move on and look forward.

Good news, I am now getting suggestions from new participants on that French website, I think I have just passed the initiation test!

Moonbeam said:

I admire Cherry a lot for putting this campaign together. It can be hard to drum up enthusiasm, and it's a real shame if a few people are being antagonistic about an effort to bring the Prince community together like this.

Thank you Moonbeam. It sure isn't easy when adversity strikes, but I am a fighter, and above all, a campaigner for truth and justice.

Please remember that you have until the end of this month to post your suggestions on here, FB or Twitter. We will also look closely at the actual availability for download and how the choices fit within all the criteria (relevance to the April commemorations, current sales rank, previous charts position and length of time in the charts, strength of sound, length of track, suitability for airplay, etc) before selecting the final tracks for our poll of February 4th.

[Edited 1/13/17 14:46pm]

Here is a revised list to include all the titles that have been mentioned so far and which includes all the votes from FB, Twitter, this thread and schkopi (the French Prince forum). This list is classed in order of popularity to date (within this campaign).

I have also boosted our main FB post to reach out to further fans around the world and I am already seeing new participants coming from Spain, Portugal and Italy and France.

🌍💜☮️

Paisley Park

Way Back Home

Sign O' The Times

Hardrocklover

Free Urself

When You Were Mine

Purple Rain

Nothing Compares 2 U

When Doves Cry

RocknRoll Love Affair

Black Muse

Kiss

Diamonds & Pearls

Chelsea Rodgers

Batdance

1999

If I Was Your Girlfriend

The X's Face

Anotherlove

Funknroll

The Beautiful Ones

Stare

Let's Go Crazy

What If (with 3rdEyeGirl)

Black Sweat

Ain't About To Stop

Like A Mack

1000 X's and 0's

June

Xtraloveable

Scandalous

Mountains

Foerever In My Life

U know

Anotherlove

Joy In Repetition

Anotherloverholenyohead

God Created Woman

Alphabet Street

Baltimore

U Got The Look

7

My Name Is Prince

I Would Die 4 U

Darling Nikki

Revelation

I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

Get Off

Baltimore

Pop Life

If you think that for any reason, one of these songs should not be included, please let us know and we will check if it is a valid point to take into account.

[Edited 1/13/17 18:18pm]

Just a quick update on the schkopi issues as it is a positive one:

A different website admin on schkopi has now stepped in and placed a clear warning in big red bold letters against trollers on the campaign thread.

The campaign has been progressing peacefully since.

^Thanks for the feedback Moonbeam

Someone recently suggested 'Anna Stesia' though I am not entirely sure that this song is widely available as a separate download, since Lovesexy is normally presented as one whole track containing the nine songs of the album. I know that there are later releases with the tracks not joined together, but are those available as downloads too? And apart from 'Glam Slam' and 'Alphabet Street' (both included in Prince4Ever), what else is there from Lovesexy that could be used for this campaign?

^Thank you Latin! It is all the lovely campaigners that make it all worthwhile.

[Edited 1/13/17 16:32pm]