I don't know about you," Prince exclaimed to the adoring masses at his March 28 Nokia Theater performance in L.A., "but I'm about to tear this place apart."
The Purple One applies the same principle to his business affairs: He has consistently torn down the established labels' sales model and built it back up in his own image.
While free file-sharing has eroded royalty accounting and emptied the wallets of many a pop icon, Prince has always been one step ahead of the game, dating back to 1997, when he became the first artist to sell an album ("Crystal Ball") directly to his fans over the Internet, for $50.
In the past few months, Prince has been at it again, revamping his business model by deciding to release the three-album set -- "LotusFlow3r," "MPLSound" and his protege Bria Valente's debut, "Elixer" -- on his own NPG Records and giving a facelift to his exclusive fan website, unplugged since 2006.
"The gatekeepers must change," Prince told the Los Angeles Times in January about his latest endeavor to work outside the record labels and other go-betweens.
Pulling off such a feat required the art of seduction that characterizes much of Prince's music. He began spending more time in L.A. than at his Minneapolis homestead, not only to sync up with the West Coast music scene but to court the media with private performances at his Beverly Park mansion. As the launch date for "LotusFlow3r" drew near, Prince played three back-to-back dates on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno"; headlined the most coveted, and funkiest, post-Oscar party, at the Avalon in Hollywood; and topped it all off with a record one-night, three-concert event at L.A. Live's Nokia Theater on March 28 that sold out in a record 7.7 seconds.
Nonetheless, his "gatekeeper" philosophy isn't a newfound one. The pop artist's angst with the labels dates back to 1996, when he ended his 20-year contract with Warner Bros. Records; one of the sticking points was that the company failed to release some of his material. Since then, Prince has partnered with labels on a project-by-project basis. His 2007 album "Planet Earth" was released through Columbia Records and sold close to 300,000 units -- a figure considerably below his previous partnership with the label on "Musicology," which went multiplatinum with the help of free giveaways at his concerts.
Prince's revamped Web domain, appropriately Lotusflow3r.com, gives his loyal followers exclusive access to an array of film footage and music from the Purple One's "Vault" -- a library that contains an immense amount of unreleased material. At a lofty annual subscription price of $77, fans also will be treated to such perks as live-cam concerts from the mansion and first dibs at tickets for last-minute, unannounced gigs, which have become a Prince trademark.
While some of the privileges are on par with Prince's previous html address, his Web designer, Scott Addison Clay, who has been behind such high-gloss movie sites as "The DarkKnight" and "Twilight," says Prince "felt his earlier fan site turned into MySpace. There were forums where fans could talk and see each other on the Internet." Lotusflow3r.com touts the highest-quality MP3s around at 320 kilobytes per second -- iTunes' typical average kbps is 192. There's also talk of a potential hookup with Microsoft's Xbox.
"Prince wanted (the) LotusFlow3r (website) to function like a videogame in its interactivity," says Clay, before adding, "but not in the way that you control Prince with jujitsu moves -- that wouldn't be appropriate."
Assuming that 1 million fans sign up worldwide, that's $77 million directly in the hands of the Prince empire -- untouched by a label's bookkeeper. The site's launch, coupled with his three-
concert L.A. event and the release of his three-disc album set exclusively through Target the morning after (at a price of $11.98) underscores Prince's MO to be a brand-name corporation unto himself, with money streams from publishing, touring, merchandising, advertising, ringtones, fashion and satellite radio gigs.
While the price that Target shelled out to Prince to sell his latest CD set is undisclosed, analysts put the amount at mid-six figures.
Sure, his recent album sales might be far from the 13 million "Purple Rain" benchmark, but it's not about being multiplatinum for Prince, rather multiplatform.
"When I'm taking all the proceeds, I don't worry about how well it does on the charts and I don't need a No. 1," Prince asserted at a 1997 Manhattan news conference pegged to his cyberspace foray. "I'm No. 1 at the bank.
"
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002627.html?categoryid=16&cs=1
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Mickey's Chocolate Model
Pretty entertaining mash-up: download it here.
Prince - Chocolate Box
Kraftwerk - The Model
Toni Basil - Mickey
Prince - Chocolate Box
Kraftwerk - The Model
Toni Basil - Mickey
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Fulltank Sweetens Chocolate Box Music Video for Prince
Santa Monica, CA (April 13, 2009) -- Creative production studio Fulltank announced today that it provided visual effects, including on-set supervision, for a CGI-intensive promo for "Chocolate Box," the new single from Prince's "MPLSoUND" album released on March 29th. The video, helmed by music video director P.R. Brown, features an all-digital fantasy world inspired by the dark urban aesthetic of SIN CITY. To view the music video, visit: http://www.fulltank.tv/pri/.
"When I started the process of bringing Prince's vision for the video to life, I was fortunate to have found the guys at Fulltank," said Director P.R. Brown of Bau-Da Design. "Throughout the project, their passion for the video was clear and they went well beyond what I thought could be produced given the time we had. It was a pleasure working with them, and they really helped bring to life the hyper stylized vision I had for the piece."
In the promo for "Chocolate Box," Prince is an all-seeing Orwellian figure, whose gaze looms over a shadowy cityscape as projected onto the sides of skyscrapers and a psychedelic airship. Rapper Q-Tip - who collaborated with Prince on the track - stars as a man in pursuit of a beautiful and mysterious woman. Their athletic hunter-hunted game of parcour takes them across rooftops and buildings. When they finally meet, the video goes from a black and white palette accented by occasional flashes of color, and crescendos into a technicolor explosion of surreal graphical elements. Neon jellyfish bob in mid-air, a giant fuchsia sphere pulsates with otherworldly energy (and Prince's omnipotent visage), and lightning zigzags across the sky. The video closes with "To be continued."
In addition to providing on-set visual effects supervision for the one-day shoot at the SOURCE film studio's greenscreen stage in Hollywood, Fulltank Creative Director Chris Do and Executive Producer Ben Morris and a team of nine artists oversaw 190 visual effects shots over the course of five very short weeks, using live-action material captured with the RED camera at 4K.
Because of this truncated timetable, Fulltank developed a workflow based more on a feature film, rather than commercial production pipeline. Instead of working shot by shot, Fulltank set very particular daily milestones, sending files through to the render farm every evening for testing in the morning. Said Chris Do, Creative Director, Fulltank, "This video pushed us to develop a custom production pipeline that we're using on future Fulltank projects. That's an opportunity rarely awarded to smaller creative shops, which aren't often able to allocate the time and resources for in-house R&D."
Despite the obvious challenge of this tight deadline, Fulltank was given almost 100 percent creative control over the VFX - an amazing opportunity to develop the look and feel of the video with director P.R. Brown. Added Do, "We were so fortunate to work with such an intuitive and organic director, who also has an extensive visual effects background. This enabled us collaborate very closely because he understood the process, and the vibe that Prince wanted to achieve."
Fulltank relied on a software toolkit comprising primarily of Adobe After Effects and Apple Shake for compositing, with Autodesk Maya and MAXON Cinema 4D for modeling, all running on Macintosh and Windows platforms on a 15 quad core render farm.
About Fulltank
Fulltank was conceived by Executive Producer Ben Morris with the core idea of building a creative production studio that captures emotion through engaging visuals and narratives. Fulltank's creative team uses its diverse background in print, illustration, typography, photography, cell-animation, design, concepting, directing and storytelling to produce imagery and ideas that deliver strong creative messages. www.fulltank.tv.
Production Credits:
DIRECTOR/EDITORIAL: P.R. Brown
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Chris Do
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ben Morris
PRODUCER: Sean Deveaux
ART DIRECTORS: Jonathan Kim, Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka.
DESIGN: Jonathan Kim, Jon Gutman, Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka
COMPOSITORS: Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka, David Do, Martin Jung
MATTE PAINTINGS: Thomas Yamaoka
LEAD 3D DIRECTION: Jon Gutman
3D/ANIMATION: Omar Gatica, Ian Rufuss, Alex Ceglia, Billy Maloney, Martin
Jung
http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=3631a5a1&atype=news&id=27197
"When I started the process of bringing Prince's vision for the video to life, I was fortunate to have found the guys at Fulltank," said Director P.R. Brown of Bau-Da Design. "Throughout the project, their passion for the video was clear and they went well beyond what I thought could be produced given the time we had. It was a pleasure working with them, and they really helped bring to life the hyper stylized vision I had for the piece."
In the promo for "Chocolate Box," Prince is an all-seeing Orwellian figure, whose gaze looms over a shadowy cityscape as projected onto the sides of skyscrapers and a psychedelic airship. Rapper Q-Tip - who collaborated with Prince on the track - stars as a man in pursuit of a beautiful and mysterious woman. Their athletic hunter-hunted game of parcour takes them across rooftops and buildings. When they finally meet, the video goes from a black and white palette accented by occasional flashes of color, and crescendos into a technicolor explosion of surreal graphical elements. Neon jellyfish bob in mid-air, a giant fuchsia sphere pulsates with otherworldly energy (and Prince's omnipotent visage), and lightning zigzags across the sky. The video closes with "To be continued."
In addition to providing on-set visual effects supervision for the one-day shoot at the SOURCE film studio's greenscreen stage in Hollywood, Fulltank Creative Director Chris Do and Executive Producer Ben Morris and a team of nine artists oversaw 190 visual effects shots over the course of five very short weeks, using live-action material captured with the RED camera at 4K.
Because of this truncated timetable, Fulltank developed a workflow based more on a feature film, rather than commercial production pipeline. Instead of working shot by shot, Fulltank set very particular daily milestones, sending files through to the render farm every evening for testing in the morning. Said Chris Do, Creative Director, Fulltank, "This video pushed us to develop a custom production pipeline that we're using on future Fulltank projects. That's an opportunity rarely awarded to smaller creative shops, which aren't often able to allocate the time and resources for in-house R&D."
Despite the obvious challenge of this tight deadline, Fulltank was given almost 100 percent creative control over the VFX - an amazing opportunity to develop the look and feel of the video with director P.R. Brown. Added Do, "We were so fortunate to work with such an intuitive and organic director, who also has an extensive visual effects background. This enabled us collaborate very closely because he understood the process, and the vibe that Prince wanted to achieve."
Fulltank relied on a software toolkit comprising primarily of Adobe After Effects and Apple Shake for compositing, with Autodesk Maya and MAXON Cinema 4D for modeling, all running on Macintosh and Windows platforms on a 15 quad core render farm.
About Fulltank
Fulltank was conceived by Executive Producer Ben Morris with the core idea of building a creative production studio that captures emotion through engaging visuals and narratives. Fulltank's creative team uses its diverse background in print, illustration, typography, photography, cell-animation, design, concepting, directing and storytelling to produce imagery and ideas that deliver strong creative messages. www.fulltank.tv.
Production Credits:
DIRECTOR/EDITORIAL: P.R. Brown
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Chris Do
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Ben Morris
PRODUCER: Sean Deveaux
ART DIRECTORS: Jonathan Kim, Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka.
DESIGN: Jonathan Kim, Jon Gutman, Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka
COMPOSITORS: Matt Collarafice, Takashi Takeoka, David Do, Martin Jung
MATTE PAINTINGS: Thomas Yamaoka
LEAD 3D DIRECTION: Jon Gutman
3D/ANIMATION: Omar Gatica, Ian Rufuss, Alex Ceglia, Billy Maloney, Martin
Jung
http://www.vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=3631a5a1&atype=news&id=27197
Monday, April 13, 2009
30 Years of Hip Hop in 60 Minutes
Not Prince related, but this should appeal to most music fans, the BBC has put together an astonishing megamix of 538 songs covering 30 years of Hip Hop.
Its an amazing mix, i suggest you download it.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Prince Opus
Want a Prince-themed ipod?
Want to pay $2000+ for it?
Head on over to Prince's Opus page and check it out...
Monday, April 6, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Prince's 'Lotusflow3r' Off To Strong Sales Start
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April 01, 2009 05:52 PM ET
Yet, the album may not finish the week at No. 1.
Why? The Building Chart reflected unweighted sales through the close of business on Tuesday, March 31. Which means that new releases -- which almost always bow on Tuesday -- usually only have one day's worth of sales included on the Building Chart that is released on Wednesday of each week. However, Prince's album dropped on Sunday, so the Building Chart actually reflects the set's first three days worth of sales.
We'll have a better gauge on how next week's official Billboard 200 chart will shake out on Friday, April 3, when SoundScan releases its next Building Chart. As it stands now, Prince's album is ahead of the No. 2 set, Keith Urban's new "Defying Gravity" (Capitol Nashville), by a very wide margin.
Billboard estimates the seven merchants who report to Nielsen SoundScan's Building chart -- Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, iTunes, Starbucks, Borders, Target and Anderson Merchandisers -- comprise about 60% of all U.S. album sales.
Other albums looking good for a top 10 debut on next week's Billboard 200 chart include UGK's "UGK For Life" (UGK/Jive/JLG), Diana Krall's "Quiet Nights" (Verve) and Flo Rida's "R.O.O.T.S." (Poe Boy/Atlantic).
Nielsen SoundScan's sales tracking week, as reflected in the official Billboard 200 chart, runs from Monday through Sunday of each week. The newest Billboard 200 chart, released today (April 1) -- where the "Now 30" compilation debuted at No. 1 with 146,000 -- reflected the week that ended on Sunday, March 29.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/prince-s-lotusflow3r-off-to-strong-sales-1003958005.story
Monday, March 30, 2009
Prince performs three L.A. shows in one night
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Funk rocker Prince blasted a concert promotion giant for its poor sound equipment as he struggled to perform three concerts in one night at separate venues in Los Angeles.
The man who once sang about traveling "Around the World in a Day," shuttled among three venues on Saturday at a new downtown entertainment complex operated by AEG Live.
But his ambitious promotion for an upcoming album hit a snag soon after he hit the stage at the 7,100-capacity Nokia Theater. He had problems with the monitors, and constant pleas to the venue's crew to fix them never had much impact.
"This is my celebration. I don't care what goes wrong," he said midway through the 90-minute set, before scrunching up his nose in disgust.
The second show, at the 1,100-capacity Conga Room, began with a five-minute soundcheck and lasted about an hour. Each of the shows was promoted as being "full-length."
The third show, scheduled to begin at midnight, kicked off an hour late as Prince and his crew grappled with sound issues, forcing fans to wait in a long line outside the 2,300-capacity Club Nokia. He began the show before many entered the venue.
Toward the end of the show, he mentioned a few AEG executives by name, and told fans to complain to them about the buzzing speakers.
"I came to see Alicia Keys here, and it was the worst sound I've ever heard," Prince said, noting that the AEG had spent plenty of money on seating and lighting.
"If you fix the sound, I'll be here every night, and I'll do it for free."
Prince played most of his hits, like "1999," "Kiss" and "Let's Go Crazy," at the first show, which was attended by celebrities like basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. The set lists and the bands were different for each show.
Prince's new album, the three-disc set "Lotusflow3r," will be released on Sunday exclusively at big-box retailer Target Corp and on his Web site.
Officials at AEG did not reply to a late-night email seeking reaction to Prince's criticisms. The firm is owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52S0QZ20090329
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