funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

prince is/was a very big cult artist

but he did not have the massive global pop appeal of an MJ, or a madonna.

just facts.

This. Prince has a hardcore fan following. And he is incredibly respected within the music industry. But outside of a brief period in 1984 (Purple Rain), he never had the mass global appeal of those other stars.

With that said, 100 years from now I think MJ and Madonna will be remembered for their commerical success and cultural impact. Prince, on the other hand, will be remembered for his music.

jaawwnn said:

1) The Hits/The B-sides was 3CDs and very expensive, it sold well for a triple album though. Having Hits 1 and 2 available separately only diluted sales.

2) The Very Best of Prince came out years after his last hit, was a repeat of The Hits, and downloading was already starting to make mince meat of CD sales. It still sold a lot of copies though.

Everything after that was deep into downloading or streaming.

This is spot on.

lurker316 said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

prince is/was a very big cult artist

but he did not have the massive global pop appeal of an MJ, or a madonna.

just facts.

This. Prince has a hardcore fan following. And he is incredibly respected within the music industry. But outside of a brief period in 1984 (Purple Rain), he never had the mass global appeal of those other stars.

With that said, 100 years from now I think MJ and Madonna will be remembered for their commerical success and cultural impact. Prince, on the other hand, will be remembered for his music.

His touring sales would suggest that this simply isn't true.

I'd put my money on media coverage and label support, with label support being the biggest culprit. Prince's war with Warner Bros in his prime years and for many years after cost him fan loyalty and years of consistent coverage and exposure.

I think mainly because most of Prince's fans have bought every album and,with streaming and using computers to curate your own playlists, Greatest Hits albums are not as popular without exclusive outtakes,etc.

SOme fans of other artists may not want the outtakes but just songs

I also think Prince was more of an ablum artists than a singles artist, even though he had some great singles. Madonna, MJ. and Whiitney seemed motivated to have as many big singles as possible, not to say they didn't have some big albums. Prince seemed this way only for the Diamonds and Pearls album, and perhaps unsuccsessfully for the Rave album.