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Prince Abruptly Closes Official Web Site

Posted Jul 11th 2006 5:34PM by TMZ Staff

PrincePrince's official Web site, NPGMusicClub.com, closed suddenly last week with no advanced notice. The club simply sent around an email that said, in part, they decided to "put the club on hiatus until further notice."

The announcement went on to say, "In its current [form] there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go." It ended, "The future holds nothing but endless opportunity and we plan on seizing it wholeheartedly. Don't u want 2 come?"

In a possibly related story, Prince filed for a trademark on the mark "NPG Music Club" last year. An opposition was filed against that claim by HM Publishers Holding Limited, which owns the Nature Publishing Group, or NPG. The opposition was filed on the same day that NPGMusicClub.com was put on "hiatus."


An attorney for Prince's company, Paisley Park Enterprises, told TMZ that the two incidents were not related, to the best of his knowledge, and that the "opposition will be resolved shortly."

Prince has been one of the pioneers of music on the Internet. He was the first major artist to release an entire album -- 1997's "Crystal Ball" -- exclusively on the Web. The NPG Music Club had boasted several full-length CDs of music that were unavailable anywhere else.

He was honored last month with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award. "Besides being a musical genius, Prince is a visionary who recognized early on that the web would completely change how we experience music," said Tiffany Shlain, founder of The Webby Awards. "For more than a decade, he has tapped the power of the Web to forge a deeper connection with his fans and push the boundaries of technology and art."

Related link:
Inside Prince's Secret Late Night Concert

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1. Thought NPG stood for 'no, prince gone'?

Posted at 8:34PM on Jul 11th 2006 by doug

2. ...this could b the reason the site went down,...but this has been going on behind the scenes 4 quite some time. & as most of us know already, Prince has made it publically known that he is a "baptized JEHOVAH'S Witness" & the Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, b4 the 4th of July, there was a 3-day World-Wide JEHOVAH'S Witness convention & throughout the convention there were things that were very pointed . like 4 xample,... the Internet is 1 of satan's biggest tools these days, 2 distract our minds from GOD, & keeping our minds focused away from Jehovah GOD & HIS xpectations of HIS followers. but, i will add this, the Internet can also b a good thing, n many ways 4 many uses n our lives 2day, & just the same there is a Web site 4 the Witnesses.
the points that were brought out @ the Convention were very clear & direct, as 4 the Witnesses, saying that, since satan, is n fact, the ruler of "this wicked system of things", as JEHOVAH'S Witnesses U can either b a part of "the world & it's demonic ruler" or U can b "no part of it" & live a life, as close 2 the 1 that was set 4th like the Perfect Example, JESUS CHRIST...."no straddling the fence"!
& as they once said, up until recently, "we r living n the last days", that has been changed 2 "we r living n the last hour".
& even on the BET Awards, on Prince's last performance of his title cd song "3121", normally the song says, (n the middle & @ the very end of it),...."it's goin' down ya'll, like the Wall of Berlin", Prince sang, "it's goin' down ya'll, like this system of things"!?!....
Prince's religion spills over n2 his music, if U listen 2 his latest "3121" album, with songs such as "The Word" & "Get On The Boat" ( IMHO, which relates 2 the modern day Ark of NOAH's day)..... just take time 2 listen 2 the words of that song!
on all the "Unofficial" websites that r devoted 2 Prince, others want 2 believe something as flimsy as this "NPG" name disputes, but it was going on all this time without us knowing it, but ppl wanna believe something so small & trivial rather than something Prince believes n "Whole-heartedly" & something that is a very HUGE part of his life....but who am i 2 say???? i'm just a "fam"
fam, replaces the word fan, which Prince has been known 2 say, ne does not like that word (fan), because it comes from the word fanatic!! peace 2 all...
rillyG/scandalous128

Posted at 4:02AM on Jul 12th 2006 by scandalous128/rillyG

3. They haven't responded to the myspace Prince site either for friend requests, mine has been outstanding since May. Wish he could hire someone just to specifically rep him on the web and get us a new site and start accepting myspace requests. What a talented man, I loved him when I was a teenager and 20 years later, he's still my dream man......... oh Prince, Prince, whereforarthou Prince?

Posted at 9:16AM on Jul 12th 2006 by Paula

4. candalous128/rillyG... you're an idiot. And learn how to spell.

What's so wrong with him singing about religion? Rappers sing about God all the time, why can't Prince throw a lyric in there?

Posted at 1:05AM on Jul 13th 2006 by asd

5. I just want to comment on the "rillyG/scandalous128" - as one of Jehovah's Witnesses's myself, that posting is absolutly true. Those points were brought out at the convention. rillyG/scandalous128 - thank you for bringing those points out because we are truly living in the last days and also Prince does not want to promote idolitry and I see alot of that happening on his website message boards. You can not be on the fence - as it were. If shutting down the website abruptly needed to happen to guard his sprituallity, then it has to be done. I support Prince 100%.

Posted at 11:04AM on Jul 20th 2006 by Yvonne