I checked spotify today out of curiosity and noticed that besides the obvious (Purple Rain, SOTT, Diamonds and Pearls), these albums have the highest numbers of streamed songs in no particular order:

My pleasant surprise was seeing Art Official Age doing so well !

-For you

-Prince

-Dirty Mind

-1999

-Around the World in a day

-Parade

-Batman

-The Gold Experience

-Art Official Age

Controversy, Originals and Welcome 2 America, Planet Earth are getting up there.

Surprisingly very low numbers :

Musicology

Lovesexy

3121

Lotusflower

As for the rest, I'm not surprised by their low numbers.

paisleyparkgirl said:

I checked spotify today out of curiosity and noticed that besides the obvious (Purple Rain, SOTT, Diamonds and Pearls), these albums have the highest numbers of streamed songs:

My pleasant surprise was seeing Art Official Age doing so good !

-For you

-Prince

-Dirty Mind

-1999

-Around the World in a day

-Parade

-Batman

-The Gold Experience

-Art Official Age

Controversy, Originals and Welcome 2 America, Planet Earth are getting up there.

Surprisingly very low numbers :

Musicology

Lovesexy

3121

Lotusflower

As for the rest, I'm not surprised by their low numbers.

I love AOA, so I'm also happy it's doing well.

I'm surpsied For You is doing so well. I like it, but it's probaby the most dated sounding album in his catalogue.

Is Lovesexy a single continuous track or broken up? If it's one track, that might explain its lack of plays.

I wonder if the casual fan looking for Prince songs expects dance/pop/R&B and is turned off by the artsy rock of Lotusflow3r?

bwaaatch said:

This list sounds wrong. What are the chances that it runs in chronological order like that, And excludes Purple Rain. Or am I missing something?

It's not an official list nor is it in chronological number. I was looking at streaming numbers per album.

I did mention Purple Rain, SOTT and Diamonds and Pearls being the top streamed albums

lurker316 said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

I checked spotify today out of curiosity and noticed that besides the obvious (Purple Rain, SOTT, Diamonds and Pearls), these albums have the highest numbers of streamed songs:

My pleasant surprise was seeing Art Official Age doing so good !

-For you

-Prince

-Dirty Mind

-1999

-Around the World in a day

-Parade

-Batman

-The Gold Experience

-Art Official Age

Controversy, Originals and Welcome 2 America, Planet Earth are getting up there.

Surprisingly very low numbers :

Musicology

Lovesexy

3121

Lotusflower

As for the rest, I'm not surprised by their low numbers.

Is Lovesexy a single continuous track or broken up? If it's one track, that might explain its lack of plays.

It's broken up on Spotify.

I am always streaming "For You". I think it´s extremely underrated by the fans, because Prince was still very influenced by disco, but it´s fascinating to think that a 19 year old guy created everything there. Such a cohesive album.

GustavoRibas said:

I am always streaming "For You". I think it´s extremely underrated by the fans, because Prince was still very influenced by disco, but it´s fascinating to think that a 19 year old guy created everything there. Such a cohesive album.

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

paisleyparkgirl said:

GustavoRibas said:

I am always streaming "For You". I think it´s extremely underrated by the fans, because Prince was still very influenced by disco, but it´s fascinating to think that a 19 year old guy created everything there. Such a cohesive album.

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

.

- Love 3121, but I am more surprised about Musicology, because it was his ´comeback´album, very pop, and lots of people had the CD because they bought tickets.

.

In the case of ´For You´, maybe it´s because some people want to know Prince´s career from the beginning, but I am still surprised. For the casual fans, it makes a lot more sense that they stay with the 80s classics with Revolution and SOTT.

GustavoRibas said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

.

. For the casual fans, it makes a lot more sense that they stay with the 80s classics with Revolution and SOTT.

Even more surprised that Art Official Age is doing well.

paisleyparkgirl said:

GustavoRibas said:

I am always streaming "For You". I think it´s extremely underrated by the fans, because Prince was still very influenced by disco, but it´s fascinating to think that a 19 year old guy created everything there. Such a cohesive album.

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

I'm not sure that's true. 'Megafans' on the go are still likely to be using their chosen streaming service these days, and often at home too. TIDAL is my preferred streamer of choice, but Spotify is by far the most popular, so it's the best way of sharing music with friends and family.

leecaldon said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

I'm not sure that's true. 'Megafans' on the go are still likely to be using their chosen streaming service these days, and often at home too. TIDAL is my preferred streamer of choice, but Spotify is by far the most popular, so it's the best way of sharing music with friends and family.

I needed to be more specific, i was referring to older Gen-X and baby boomers megafans as they are the majority of Prince fans. There was a Prince spotify thread on reddit and this demographic claimed that they did not use spotify to listen to Prince.

leecaldon said:

paisleyparkgirl said:

The interesting thing is that Spotify is mostly for the casual fans, as the megafans prefer to play their cd's or vinyls, that's why I found surprising that 3121's numbers aren't higher (with the exception of the song Black Sweat) because I thought it was popular.

I'm not sure that's true. 'Megafans' on the go are still likely to be using their chosen streaming service these days, and often at home too. TIDAL is my preferred streamer of choice, but Spotify is by far the most popular, so it's the best way of sharing music with friends and family.

I'm an older Prince mega-fan. I do not subscribe to any streaming service.

Even if I were, I can't imagine a scenario where I would use it to share music with friends and family.

lurker316 said:

leecaldon said:

I'm not sure that's true. 'Megafans' on the go are still likely to be using their chosen streaming service these days, and often at home too. TIDAL is my preferred streamer of choice, but Spotify is by far the most popular, so it's the best way of sharing music with friends and family.

I'm an older Prince mega-fan. I do not subscribe to any streaming service.

Even if I were, I can't imagine a scenario where I would use it to share music with friends and family.

This is what I was saying in my previous post (I don't know why the letters got so small), but the average Prince megafan is older and doesn't care for Spotify.

paisleyparkgirl said:

lurker316 said:

I'm an older Prince mega-fan. I do not subscribe to any streaming service.

Even if I were, I can't imagine a scenario where I would use it to share music with friends and family.

This is what I was saying in my previous post (I don't know why the letters got so small), but the average Prince megafan is older and doesn't care for Spotify.

I know plenty of people in their 60s who stream music. And it must surely be the most popular way for people under 60 to listen to music.

I've recently found that sharing music in collaborative playlists with friends and family is a wonderful way of sharing music, especially over the long distances that are between those I know. As a teenager, it might have been great bringing a new record/CD/tape to a friend's house, but it is rather limiting.

sexton said:

How do Prince fans who stream his music listen to the many Prince albums not available on any streaming platforms? How do you listen to Vanity 6, The Family, Jill Jones, Madhouse, The Black Album and Exodus? This is one reason why I listen to my own digital files when I’m not at home and don’t subscribe to any streaming service.

That is a good point. Literally half of my Prince collection is not availale on streaming.

I think it's very cool to still have to give a friend a "mix tape"

(cd-r, usb, cassette)

sexton said:

How do Prince fans who stream his music listen to the many Prince albums not available on any streaming platforms? How do you listen to Vanity 6, The Family, Jill Jones, Madhouse, The Black Album and Exodus? This is one reason why I listen to my own digital files when I’m not at home and don’t subscribe to any streaming service.

.

- I still have an Ipod and I usually listen to the official albums on Spotify and those projects and live bootlegs on the Ipod.

FunkJam said:

Art Official Age?! Is there a worse album? Maybe HnR 1. So glad neither of them were his last album. Little love for Symbol album, it seems. [Edited 3/31/23 2:39am]

It's doing waaaaaaaaaaay better than Lovesexy and this is how you know most of the Spotify listeners are casual Prince fans and not megagans.

The music is speaking on the Web.

>

I'll say that Spotify streamers are either shaking their rump, on the go, or just having some background sounds going and those Prince albums where he's storytelling or expressing some concept arent going to get may hits among the subscribers. It's head material--confusing, so it's not surprising some of these haven't been popular to jam to.

>

Any of the albums from whatever time period with singles hits or possibly "hit-worthy" songs will get the click-on. Musicology, no matter how popular it might have been back in the day I think covered zero new ground in style or substance, and if you were maybe a slightly-backward-looking youth you might grab a listen, but largely there's not much there to grab an interest by the demographic beyond "my momma used 2 jam to that...."

lurker316 said:

Is Lovesexy a single continuous track or broken up? If it's one track, that might explain its lack of plays.

Lovesexy was only made into broken up tracks back in 2021 when Sony acquired most of his catalogue, so it's recency may be a factor in that. Back when I was first getting into Prince it was still one track.

FunkJam said:

Art Official Age?! Is there a worse album? Maybe HnR 1. So glad neither of them were his last album. Little love for Symbol album, it seems. [Edited 3/31/23 2:39am]

Yes, there are plenty of worse albums: Diamonds & Pearls, Come, Emancipation, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Planet Earth, 20Ten.

AOA is actually a great album.

BridgeofGraffiti1220 said:

lurker316 said:

Is Lovesexy a single continuous track or broken up? If it's one track, that might explain its lack of plays.

Lovesexy was only made into broken up tracks back in 2021 when Sony acquired most of his catalogue, so it's recency may be a factor in that. Back when I was first getting into Prince it was still one track.

In the US was broken up only fairly recently, but it had been split into individual tracks in Europe for many years. I bought a German CD with individual tracks back in 2016, it I recall correctly.

lurker316 said:

FunkJam said:

Art Official Age?! Is there a worse album? Maybe HnR 1. So glad neither of them were his last album. Little love for Symbol album, it seems. [Edited 3/31/23 2:39am]

Yes, there are plenty of worse albums: Diamonds & Pearls, Come, Emancipation, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Planet Earth, 20Ten.

AOA is actually a great album.

.

.

Diamonds and Pearls is actually a great album when it comes to songwriting and a superb band. Many fans hate it because of the rappers, but if you think it has songs like Cream, Gett Off, Diamonds and Pearls, Money dont matter 2 night, Strollin, Willing and Able, Live 4 love, it´s real cool. That album isnt about ´Jughead´.

.

Emancipation, despite Kirky J´s production, had some great moments. Come had too.

.

AOA is interesting, specially because Prince wanted to make a cohesive album, but it´s mostly plain R&B

[Edited 3/31/23 17:29pm]

GustavoRibas said:.

Diamonds and Pearls is actually a great album when it comes to songwriting and a superb band. Many fans hate it because of the rappers, but if you think it has songs like Cream, Gett Off, Diamonds and Pearls, Money dont matter 2 night, Strollin, Willing and Able, Live 4 love, it´s real cool. That album isnt about ´Jughead´.

[Edited 3/31/23 17:29pm]

Yeah, classic songs; great performances. And I don't get the hate for the rap. I guess some of the lyrics are quite cheesy, but they fit the context, and the performances are matched very well with the songs. Tony M's voice is pretty smooth too.

Bashing the raps is basically a meme now. It's like half the people do it just for the hell of it!

People are legitimately out here putting AOA above D&P...

FunkJam said:

GustavoRibas said:.

Diamonds and Pearls is actually a great album when it comes to songwriting and a superb band. Many fans hate it because of the rappers, but if you think it has songs like Cream, Gett Off, Diamonds and Pearls, Money dont matter 2 night, Strollin, Willing and Able, Live 4 love, it´s real cool. That album isnt about ´Jughead´.

[Edited 3/31/23 17:29pm]

Yeah, classic songs; great performances. And I don't get the hate for the rap. I guess some of the lyrics are quite cheesy, but they fit the context, and the performances are matched very well with the songs. Tony M's voice is pretty smooth too.

Bashing the raps is basically a meme now. It's like half the people do it just for the hell of it!

People are legitimately out here putting AOA above D&P...

People have been bashing the rap on D&P since the day it was released. It's not a new trend people are jumping on.

Also, AOA is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than D&P.

lurker316 said:

FunkJam said:

Yeah, classic songs; great performances. And I don't get the hate for the rap. I guess some of the lyrics are quite cheesy, but they fit the context, and the performances are matched very well with the songs. Tony M's voice is pretty smooth too.

Bashing the raps is basically a meme now. It's like half the people do it just for the hell of it!

People are legitimately out here putting AOA above D&P...

People have been bashing the rap on D&P since the day it was released. It's not a new trend people are jumping on.

Also, AOA is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than D&P.

Yeah, it is, totally.

I adore AOA. It's one of Prince's most cohesive work.