Very cool of Prince to do that... He opened by performing Musicology, then did a 15 min. or so speech/Q&A.... announced the tour (a world tour, then back again), the new album (which is in negotiations to be distributed by EVERY record label), a 77 cent per song downloading system thru the NPGMC (no specifics... damn!), discussed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some festivals that he'll be playing (Essence), and that he's gonna retire the hits after this tour for a bit to make room for some new stuff.

then he played (in no particular order): Kiss, Take Me With U, Sign O The Times, Question Of U/The One/Fallin' and Let's Work.

He brought a bunch of people to dance on stage, he was funky as hell for it being 11.30 in the morning.

Then he left and they showed the full video to "Musicology."

Discuss.....

Are you kidding me? The album is in "negotiations to be distributed by EVERY record label"?
Or was it that he is in negotiations with every label and then one will release it?

Good idea with the pay-per-dl.

Is this true?? Cool Press conference if it is!

How many cameras were there? Any noticeable ones?

So thas' it !!! LOL.

There is no way Musicology's gonna be in the charts with no proper major to promote it. MTV will not play it as well as radio stations.

So basically he organized a press conference to tell us something we knew alrrady :
- Musicology is the new album
- A new tour starts in a month from now

Woaw...yawn...

Clubkid said:[quote]Very cool of Prince to do that... He opened by performing Musicology, then did a 15 min. or so speech/Q&A.... announced the tour (a world tour, then back again), the new album (which is in negotiations to be distributed by EVERY record label), a 77 cent per song downloading system thru the NPGMC (no specifics... damn!), discussed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some festivals that he'll be playing (Essence), and that he's gonna retire the hits after this tour for a bit to make room for some new stuff.



damn! all this time i believed whoeevr it was who said at a meet and greet he said it was promoter hype, now he says it himself! fair enough to play the game or whatever but still, thats quite annoying!

BTW, has Prince ever said or hinted at that Musicology is supposed to hit high in the charts?

calldapplwondery83 said:

No he said he wanted his music not be heard by a minimum of people and you can say that he has succeeded.

Now we have the answer...Musicology will be a commercial failure. Fair enough.

Now I agrre that the only thing that matters is that this new cd turns out to be good.

Only problem is : how Prince's gonna fill these big venues everywhere in the States without a huge promotion from a major ? Dunno...when you think that back in 1988 during the Lovesexy tour some of the venues were far from being sold out.

It smells good in here.
[This message was edited Wed Feb 25 3:29:09 2004 by TonyWilliams]

VINCENT said:

Actually, I don't know why you say that no major will be behind it. Witness reports hint otherwise.

I though ClearChannel was promoting the tour?

Why tour now with the name "Musicology?" Why not just do this so-called "greatest hits" tour now, release the album, let it hopefully gain some new fans by actually promoting it properly via singles and video releases, and then next year do a Musicology tour. I just don't understand calling it the Musicology tour without the album, just like I didn't quite understand calling his last tour the One Nite Alone tour named after an album that no one buy total hardcore fans got to hear.

I'm excited, but would have been moreso had a release date for the album been included in the details.

TheBigBang said:

Hasn't it been reported that concertgoers would get a CD at the show? Musicology?

.
[This message was edited Tue Feb 24 13:20:57 2004 by Universaluv]

Universaluv said:

Meaning you get the album for free at the concert? Well, gee, that'll make it a bestseller.

Doesn't sound too promising...

He meant he's still discussing with ALL the majors to release the material. That's bad as his 'moment' was a week ago, post grammy's. NO major NEEDS a 'Prince' right now (without the 'Hits'), especially if he's still on a Jazz tip. I would've hoped that IF he was going th Major route, he'd have inked the deal before telling them all he's in negotiations with all thier competitors...

to be honest souds more like a cheap stunt to drum interest as he's not been offered the deal he wants (wants to have cake and eat it) and is hoping a Major that hasn't really been listening, starts.

secondly this download deal... great, but it costs a fortune (Apple's iTunes music store, which is the biggest most advertised, fastest growing, etc.... IS A LOSS LEADER even at 99cents a track and it's only available in US. Apple does this to drive sales of the iPOD).

Prince ain't gonna give up the premium 'The Vault' material at a loss when he could swallow pride and get a FAT advance cheque from WARNERS for all access... which they use to re package / remaster his classics.

Another worth noting that it's very difficult to properly promote an album while on tour. TV / Radio shows record on certain days... you can't 'fit them in' to the days off... and this tour is supposed to go round the world...

would you sign Prince in this situation.?

NME said:

True, but bare in mind that Apple have to pay the artist and labels out of each download which is the main reason they make a loss - Prince of course would keep all this himself and would only have to pay for the actual webserver etc side of things.

NME said:

Um, to quote the great Scooby Doo - "AROO?!?"

Touring is an IDEAL way of raking in publicity - you're going from town to town and getting local coverage, it's fanfreakinTASTIC publicity. Weren't tours originally called "promotional tours"?

Geez If Prince could only please each and every one of u fuckers,all of the
negative shit here just proves that Prince fans are spoiled brats! be happy that
there is NEW music coming,and that he is hitting the road C'MON!!!!!

JAMIESTARR said:

it's just like i said a few posts above: it's hard to be enthused when you've been in the know all along.

bryanpage said:

You're absolutley right. But as i understand it it's not a huge royalty. If he did it on 'the cheap' he could offer Mp3's that are not security protected (which is a lot of the expence due to the development of the technology). But that kind of defeats the purpose if a 4 year old can d/load it and re-rip it so it can go on Kazaa for 100,000 people to steal for free....

who knows.

VINCENT said:

You'll never be satisfied. What was you expected, Prince coming to see you?

Anxiety said:

Yep. It's a great way to promote. But you have to be in town on the right day to get the big shows.... i'm not saying it's impossible, but not ideal. When a 'promotional tour' is set up the talent is EXACTLY where they need to be to get maximum exposure. that's all.

If he would just go with the iTunes Music Store instead of his own download, he'd get 66 cents for each download, would save the money it costs to set up his own distrubution system, get the DRM that Apple has developed, and would likely reach a larger audience. People who wouldn't think to come to the NPG Music Club would see Prince on the iTunes front page if the song is popular.

Maybe he's going to use iTunes too - I just don't see the point in doign his own NPG Music Store or whatever it's called when he could use iTunes. I've been collecting free songs to use from the Pepsi giveaway, so I hope he distrubutes through the iTunes store too.

JAMIESTARR said:

go jamiestarr !

ur right doesnt matter wot p does on here he'll alway's get stick ps they r not spoiled brats they r spoiled orgers ! lol ha ha .

danielboon said:

As a supportive fan, I AM GLAD to hear that there is going to be a NEW Album and a NEW tour. Why is this considered to be such tragic news to some people? The man has been in the business longer than anyone here - I think he has the right to do things however he wants them done. Prince has my support 100%, and I can't wait to see how things pan out this year!

NME said:

It was noted yesterday that Napster's administration is leaving and facing layoffs real soon. All this due to the fact that they have lost millions.

Apple's iTunes works because it sells iPods. The money that Apple makes is only 33 cents per song. Apple has reportedly sold close to 30 million songs so far. Do the math, and that comes out to $9,900,000.00. Not alot of money for a huge corporation. Steve Jobs said at the beginning that there was no money to be made in downloadable content. He said all the money was to be made in selling the hardware. If you take an average price of $350.00 for an iPod, Apple has made $700,000,000.00 in selling 2 million iPods

I don't know how Prince hope to make money from this. But IF it happens, I WILL JOIN THE CLUB ONCE AGAIN. I have been gone since Year Two.

I disagree. I have I-Tunes on all my computers, I buy music from I-Tunes, but i don't have an Ipod. 33-cents per song is a HELL of a profit.

sounds interesting. maybe he'll even play MN

otan said:

lol man, do you know how much it takes to run a service like this? Besides that's 33 cents BACK, not profit. Apple iTunes pays for ALL iTunes services. Record companies do not pay anything.

otan said:

you couldn't even pay for the electricity needed to run the board, lights, amps, etc in the studio to make the friggin record for that type of money.....

herb55105 said:

I don't think it's tragic news it's just that some people are optimistic and some are not. The Forum in Inglewood, CA a few years ago when we'd paid $150 to see him. (But I'd already seen him that year at the Gorge in WA...beautiful). I am optimistic in that it seems like he's listening to his publicists for once, and you know, when you get older, wisdom does start to set in, and you realize what you have to do. He made such a big stink about getting his masters back, well...this is the year you set it up again to make your masters work for you, slave!

I'm excited he's doing the 80s hits because the 80s are basically back and he needs to school the yunguns how to do it right!