Prince is a hall of fame musician, and I respect his decision to get back into the public eye again.No doubt I beleive that he has everything in line to make a "comeback" right now I think music these days is insufferable.But he has stadiums to fill and cds to sell competing against rap crap thugs and I wonder how well he can relate this time to a younger crowd.I saw him in concert before I think he is the most talented out there, how willing do you feel the masses will be on the uptake?

HisRoyalBadness07 said:

I'm not basing this on anything other than my opinion but I think the tour will be reasonably successful. Certainly not to the degree of recent tours by Springsteen, McCartney and the Stones but it should do ok. The album I think will tank. I don't think it will even go gold (500,000 units sold). Hey, wait just a darn minute! Maybe that's why Prince is giving away so many free cd's. He is trying to get a platinum certified album! I think I'm on to something here.

Without some hot tracks on the album, it ain't goin nowhere.

Reply to 'when its all said and done,how successful do you think musicology will be??'

It depends on how many people get to actually hear the music on it.
With the wave of the Hall of Fame and the 20th anniversary of Purple Rain
and if the music sounds good to most people. It will be fine. It should be cool.

EvilWhiteMale said:

Yeah, that too.

I think most of the music on TRC was quite promising, maybe not all of the lyrics, but the music was very interesting again ( except for The Work and Everlasting Now and 1+1+1, can´t stand them, but he has like 2 or 3 unlistenable songs on a couple of albums), I loved the c-note tracks Tokyo and Osaka and some of the stuff on Xpectation and News, and I think a lot of the TRC material, like Digital Garden, could´ve been great with more accessible lyrics.
I´m not too excited about the song Musicology itself, it´s really boring and cheesy but who knows what he´s created in his studio in the past 2 or 3 years....Prince is making people curious again, and it might work out if he does what he can do best instead of chasing the latest trend. He´s a very unique person / artist and not to be written off yet, just had a lot of bad luck in the last years, so I don´t really think it makes sense to compare him with other aging artists, whether they be Stevie Wonder or Springsteen or McCartney or Sting or whoever..
Prince is, was and always will be special but he seems a bit lost sometimes ( i.e funk nostalgia, coversongs etc.)...he could be much more

when its all said and done,how successful do you think musicology will be??

Financially for Prince: Very lucrative.
Musically: Very diverse.
For fans: Very mixed response.
For memory lane: Very promising to start with and then... (to be completed this time next year).

_____
[This message was edited Fri Mar 5 17:18:20 2004 by Haystack]

Rialb-

I mentioned this on another thread, but I agree: I think all the "giveaways" are to guarantee a platinum album. That's 1 million, so with all the concerts, the new "movie" premiere, and the buying public in general it should do pretty well. I don't know about 1 million, but it should be close . . .

Let's not forget the Hall Of Fame induction: usually they sell the artists' most recents works in the Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, and they'll probably be selling them after the ceremony in New York.

The tour I think will rake in tons of cash, period. I'm pretty sure ALL of his tours have been huge moneymakers.

But, I agree with EWM -- without some SERIOUS hits (or even one hit that is a classic, and not just a rehash) -- this album won't have much staying power. If I were Prince, I'd do a one-two punch, and have another CD waiting for IMMEDIATE release around Christmas. Two albums and a tour in the same year! YEAH!

See, he's got people curious again, but if he fucks this up with a lame album, he could really lose a hell of a lot more fans. Most people out there have already gotten tired of him, so he really needs to impress them if he wants them to come back.

EvilWhiteMale said:

I agree. I would prefer if Prince took off a year and made a really great album rather than churn out a good album every year. Surely if the man just slowed down a little he could come up with another kick ass album.

I think he could release an absofuckinglutely brilliant album and the casual fans/mainstream audience/whateveryawannacallit wouldn't give a toss...I think to "the masses", Prince has done his thing already, and his remaining appeal is his classic hits and his showmanship. Someone who's not a fan and is going to the Musicology tour on a fluke probably isn't even aware that there's a new album coming out.

Anxiety said:

I say fuck the masses, fuck these bitches that want u to sing Purple Rain all the time, fuck these cry baby asses that say RAINBOW CHILDREN is lame(they a dayum lie), fuck making hits, fuck tryin to go Gold or platinum. fuck trying to apeal to young people, fuck what people say. fuck people wanting yo to make the music they want you to make..PRINCE do what u gonna do and have been doing since 78.....THE FUCK WHAT U WANNA DO!!

too early to tell.

DigitalGardin said:

Well, yes, okay. Fuck all that indeed. But I was speaking to how it would do in terms of mainstream acceptance. I don't give a toss about what "the masses" want either, but that doesn't mean I can't speculate on it. Cool?

COMEBACK TIME

Are u all blind? People are TALKING ABOUT PRINCE AGAIN! He's back, and he's never done it like this. This is more than he did for Emancipation, and that was alot.

This is better. It's more about the music. He ahs been kicking ass on TV! I work with people who saw him on Ellen and are diggin thru their old Prince collection again, asking me if there's sumthin new coming.

The public doesnt know from TRC, they dont know from Rave. This one's for the masses and I for one think he's doing it right, publicicty wise.

I dont think Diamonds and Pearls was a very good album, it's one of my least favorites, but it sold 5 million. This will do the same and hopefully with better music, too!

Mark my words! DAIMAONDS AND PEARLS NUMBERS.

he'll
tour....

only
NPGMC
members
will buy
it and
believe
it
changed
the
world.

joshmos said:

D&P had a proper extensive Arena World Tour AND 3 MASSIVE mainstream hits (Gett Off / Cream / D&P), plus the 'backless pants' MTV moment.

very different scale to be honest.

JC said:

I think you're pretty on point with that statement.

Haystack said:

Really? Then wtf is Prince going to give away Musicology at his tour stops and at the Regal Theater premieres?

NME said:

Diamonds & Pearls sold around 6.5 Million, actually. And if that tour was so proper, then why did he skip North America that year?

Musicology isn't going to sell shit without any hit singles and so far, I don't hear any.

Haystack said:

All of this for an album that's not even out!!!

TheGoldExperience said:

I'm talking about the whole Musicology 'thing'. The CD, the tour and the Musicology store.

I'm pretty sure that Prince wouldn't be doing the whole Musicology thing if he didn't think it was going to be making $$$ and, with all these public appearances happening left, right and centre, I think he's off to a better start with this project than he has done for some time.

And with regards to giving away the CD at the Theater premieres? Well, that's just so he can gather a load of quotes from NPGMC members saying how 'fantastic, life-changing and beautiful' the album is, as a way to promote it when it finally gets an official release.

And if he gives the CD away to everybody who attends a concert, then there's bound to be a certain percentage of those people who'll listen to the CD and then either join the Club and/or buy more of his music.

And the Musicology Store is going to be open to non-members, so on the assumption that the album will be available for downloading, then he'll stand to make money out of that, too.

Prince claimed that he made a lot of money from New Power Soul, so it's safe to say that he'll probably be making a hell of a lot more from Musicology.

klaatu said:[quote]

Haystack said:

I think all four of my comments are pretty safe things to say.

joshmos said:

I don't mean to knock you but are you crazy! The only way Prince could approach 5 million units is if all these cd's he's giving away are counted, which I'm sure they won't be. I don't think you apreciate how hard it would be for Prince to sell 5 million albums today. 50 Cent had the best selling album of 2003. I believe he sold over 6 million copies of Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. Do you really think Prince can come anywhere near that?

the single will get flop
but the album will sell about 3 million worldwide, not bad by his standards

I don't believe that free cd's given away at concerts counts toward the certification of a platinum album. The Billboard album chart only reflects albums sold, not given away free, at least to the best of my knoweledge.
Otherwise, any nut with a truckload of cash who wanted to break Thriller's all-time record could mail 40 million cd's to 40 million homes for free.

Not very.

If the title track is anything to go by, it'll probably be another Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic-level "success".

Listen .

IF Prince signs with a major (i.e. Warners) he could be the Santana of 2004.
It does not matter what "quality" the music is because the majority of people who buy albums buy because of the video.

If the RECORD COMPANY wants you to have a #1 record you will have one .
Plain & simple.

this will be his most widely distributed post Warner Bros album. The single will get tons of airplay too. My hunch is the single will be released to radio and video on March 16th and will get immediate airplay because of the hall of fame induction. How would a station not play a new song from someone just inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame the night before?

Who cares if the "free" copies of the album given away at the concerts and at the Regal simulcast count towards "official" sales or not - the fact remains that to get those "free" copies, people have to spend money. Price will gross at least $50 million in the US alone from this tour without extending beyond the 40 or so stops already known. Close to a million copies of the CD will be handed out at those stops. Many people will get extra copies that the will sell or give away to others, getting his new music in front of a wider audience than anything he's released since leaving warner bros.

It's up to Prince to deliver with quality music on the album. I don't think he'll let us down. Well, there are some who would complain about anything he released, but I expect 90% of the people here will be thrilled with the new album. And that's going to spread to the mainstream once the music gets out there.