Various discussions have indicated that Prince has the cost of the free CD included in the price of a concert/movie ticket? Would these copies that are given away count as sales for the charts?

skywalker said:

My guess, and I'm pretty sure about this, is that its a NO. CDs must be scanned officially from stores like Amazon or Tower Records once bought to be entered in that counter(I forget the name) that keeps track of how many units are sold for an album. That's why they aren't very GOOD since "Mom & Pop" stores don't have them and thats where a lot of ppl buy their music from.

rudedog said:

The tracking method is SoundScan, that's how new albums can enter at #1.

If the tour is sponsored by a big company (such as Clear Channel) then there might be a work-around for this. Meaning, albums given away at the concerts might have technically been "purchased" by the sponsor, and then credited as sales.

OR, the "album" given away might actually be just a voucher, which you would redeem at, say, Best Buy or FYE. THEN, it would count as a sale, IMO.

No.

i dont know

maybe

skywalker said:

http://entertainment.hows...op-401.htm

My guess would be YES. Or at least *somehow*. I keep thinking of the Garth Brooks model. That's right, I mentioned Garth Brooks on prince.org. Anyway, when he put out that boxed set of his he wanted to get the title of "highest selling solo artist in history" or somesuch. So they worked it out so that each time he sold a box set it counted toward a sale of EACH ALBUM in the box set. In other words it counted as like 5 or 6 sales off of one "scan" or "sale". Everytime anyone bought one of the box sets the sales of ALL of his catalog went up a notch. And since most of the people buying the box set already had the albums (or at least some of them) they were duped into this charade! I believe Garth was successful in his quest to win the title, but if you ask me he cheated!

Anyway, I would imagine that something similar could be worked out for Prince where each ticket is "scanned" or whatever and counts as a CD sale. And even if the "official" charts don't recognize it he'll still be moving beacoup units and putting them in circulation. Personally I'm hitting the tour three times so I'll have three discs!!

So I guess I'm saying "maybe". They can certainly keep track of the sales via the tickets and I do believe there is a good chance the powers that be will recognize it. Of course Garth Brooks was at the peak of his power (and selling records by the boatload) when he asked for his "arrangement". Prince doesn't have that sort of clout today!

Just some more thoughts to muddy the waters!!

maybe if he included some harmonica music on it!!!

pointless thread. the answer is NO.

the reason that a double Cd can count as two, as IT IS 2 fucking discs. Celine Dion has a deal with Chrysler.... do you think every time you by fucking car it counts towards album sales..... or what about when i by a BigMac meal, do you think Justin Timberlake gets a platinum album...? NO.

when i buy soap i get bubbbles

NME said:

Pointless yet you responded. Oooh so ANGRY!!! Using the F word and everything.

I don't see why it wouldn't count as a CD sold.
It's easy enough to count the tickets sold for each concert.
The CD's are paid for, included in the concert ticket price.

Why not give him the sales numbers???
This CD will be the highest disputed sales figures of all...

I assume that purchasing a concert ticket is the price of the CD included...seems like that would be the case.

NME, What are you so angry about? And what does a freaking car have to do with music, and also a big mac for that matter. I have a suggestion, Put the crack pipe down and go get yourself some help.

Se7en said:

Never thought of that...hmm

Anxiety said:

ditto.

He wouldn't get credit for cd's through ticket purchases because they are just that:
"ticket" purchases.
The fact that a cd comes with purchase is irrelevant.
For example, P is charging $75 in most venues, not inckluding fees and taxes.
$75 is the dollar amount printed on the ticket, and that's entirely for the concert. Not say, a $60 amount printed, and another $15 being charged to you for the cd.
If P is to go anywhere near platinum with "Musicology", he will actually have to sell the cd, not a ticket.
And that's unlikely, given the amount he'll be giving away.
But the point here seems to be that P wants the masses to listen to him again, and what better way the giving away copies at an arena hits tour?
The key will be: will his first post-musicology album capitalize on this momentum?
The answer to that relies on a yes answer to the following to questions:
1) Is the album hot, with several hit singles?
2) Will it be on a major label?
Hope so, but recent history begs to demonstrate otherwise....

I actually think it will be an extended three track single anyways

That depends on how the sales of 'Musicology' will be measured. Normally retail sales are measured. And if I may add to that: Where did it say that the entire album was being given away? Perhabs it's just the single.
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[This message was edited Tue Mar 9 4:24:59 2004 by Abrazo]

LoveRobot said:

Yeah, one P track and the others by Larry and Chaka...



Anyways... the Garth Brooks scenario must appeal to P huh? No.1 at the bank and all that jazz....

LoveRobot said:

the mods on the npgmc have said its the album. if it was a single they would have said cd single (their words).

plus, no, this wont count towards sales, if it did dont you think more people would do it? a large tour would gaurantee a million sales straight off!

skywalker said:

the cd price is not included in the ticket price. Prices depend on the area where Prince plays and they are similar to former prince concerts or other artists' shows (hawai etc...) without any CD given.
[This message was edited Tue Mar 9 4:26:03 2004 by klaatu]

Do we have any confirmation that it is DEFINATELY going to be an album or just the single/maxi single of the same name?

Cus you mark my words, there aint NO WAY givin out free singles is gonna count as albums sold - that'd be cheetin'

NME said:

ROTFLMFAO

softandwet said:

LOL. It would be classic NPGMC shennanigans to tell people they are getting a CD, then only give them a single. They just got clocked on it beforehand this time around... People are used to their games.

No
Its no different then a magazine including a cd.
doesnt count

Revolution said:

Umm, hello?(Valley Girl voice) Like...two different databases...SoundScan and Tickermaster. Plus, the NPGMC is also selling tickets so there would be no way to link both databases so you couldn't get an accurate count.

rudedog said:

Leave it to Rudedog to weigh in on the all important sales figures. Why does it matter?

mochalox said: