Prince: No Music On The Internet; The Internet Is Over
from the maybe-if-we-made-the-internet-purple dept
Remember back in the day when it seemed like Prince was the musician who really had figured out these new digital-era business models? He had done all these interesting experiments, many of which focused on selling new and unique scarcities, and not worrying so much about the infinite goods in the music. Honestly, it seemed like he was the first real "rock star" to be willing not to just experiment, but to embrace the digital era. But all that came crashing down really, really quickly when a few things became apparent. First, while he loved to experiment with new business models, he didn't seem to actually pay attention to the results. In fact, it became evident that he had little follow through ability at all. He would just throw stuff out there, with promises to his fans, and then not follow through at all.Second, when it came to Prince and his music, he is all about control. Control is everything to him. And one thing that does not work in this new digital era is being ridiculously anal about controlling how others access or listen to your music. So, he went somewhat ballistic, suing various internet sites for copyright infringement, including YouTube and eBay, which were both odd choices. Since then, he's walled himself off further and further from the internet. Rather than embrace it, he seems to want to deny it exists all together.
And, it appears, he's now taking that to a new extreme.
Jeremy2020 points us to a recent interview with Prince by the Mirror out of the UK. Most of the interview just highlights the bizzaro "Prince World" that Prince lives in. On that subject, if you have never seen Kevin Smith's brilliant and hilarious half-hour discussion of his brief time in "Prince World," it's totally worth your time. Having seen that, the interview itself doesn't seem quite so bizarre, but does seem like "Prince-as-usual."
But, within the interview, Prince notes that his new album will only be released on CD, and not online. In fact, it looks like he's doing the exact same CD release strategy he's done before: release the album with a newspaper. If you subscribe to the newspaper, you get a free copy of the CD. The newspaper pays Prince a huge upfront, so he gets tons of guaranteed cash, and it helps the newspaper keep subscriptions. I actually think that part's pretty creative, even though he's done it before. But you would think that fits well with an internet strategy. Not according to Prince:
He explains that he decided the album will be released in CD format only in the Mirror. There'll be no downloads anywhere in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet abuses.Of course, this won't keep Prince's music offline. The music will be online in no time at all, and it'll be everywhere, except that Prince won't have any control or say in it whatsoever. But, of course, if he thinks it's over and outdated and no good at all, he won't notice that because he won't be online.
Unlike most other rock stars, he has banned YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music and has even closed down his own official website.
He says: "The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.
"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.
"They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."
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Filed Under: business models, internet, music, prince
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(Sorry, couldn't resist!)
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How is this any different?
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jul 6th, 2010 @ 7:41am
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Never liked it anyway
Never cared for his music much anyway.
This will be a good test to see how his sales do.
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Re: Never liked it anyway
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"The internet's completely over."
Hyperbole.
"They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it. "
Probably he got more money from the Mirror if it gets an exclusive deal.
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For example, the CD/newspaper release it pretty good for getting exposure and gets him income - presumably on a basis that nets him profit even if the newspaper itself doesn't sell.
But, I live in an area of Spain that's quite popular with British tourists in July. Due to copyright reasons, whenever a UK newspaper gives away a free DVD or CD, it's not available here (even though the paper sometimes costs 5x the price). So, tens or hundreds of thousands of tourists are going to be out of the country on the day the paper goes on sale. They miss that copy of the paper, and they're usually not available when they return from holiday. But, they want the Prince CD. What do they do?
"Pirate" it, of course! His refusal to licence the album online will INCREASE the "piracy" because there's literally no other way to get the CD! No residual income from iTunes, nobody is able to give him any more money from CD sales (though there will be a lot of 2nd hand ones on eBay). Very, very short-sighted.
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It still makes no sense. If he licensed digitally, all the people excluded from the paper would still be able to give him money, no matter how many people "pirated" the CD...
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Nice work if you can get it.
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If you are going that path, why not just release on 8-track? So much harder to rip
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Response to: Garrett on Jul 6th, 2010 @ 8:05am
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Reverse Psych?
What better way to get your name/cause/music blasted all over the interwebs than by making a case like this.
Perhaps its pure genius
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Re: Reverse Psych?
That's what I am thinking, too. He gets paid for his album, plus he gets tons of publicity.
If the idea is to give away the album for the exposure, he's done even better this way.
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Remember
I repeat, IDIOT!
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Re: Remember
In a way to mess with the record label, he did the minimal that his contract demanded. He would show up for presentations and have "Slave" written on his face. He changed his name to make it difficult for the record label. When his contract demanded that he produce a video he would. However the contract never stated that he had to release it. Just have one made. Which leads to the surreal experience that Kevin Smith ran into.
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Prince
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Purple Pain
So I guess I will have to buy it off eBay considering it was only as a giveaway in a newspaper. Oh, wait, Prince says eBay is evil for selling his music without compensating him. Then how the fuzzy am I meant to get it legitimately? Move to England?
This is the second time tonight I've read about this. All I can say is that in MY OPINION (which does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TechDirt although I hope they get a good laugh out of it) the reason Prince is so short is because he's got his head so far up his @$$
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Perhaps someone should tell prince that his CD's are full of 1 and 0's.
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Actually, I've been doing a lot of reading on Digital Mechanics/Philosophy, using it in the novel I'm now writing. Really, REALLY interesting stuff (if you can grasp the math at a basic level)....
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"Perhaps someone should tell Prince that his CD's are full of 1's and 0's" ~ Hephaestus, commenting on this story
Does anything else need to be said? Nope: That was brilliant!
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"God is dead.
-- Bill.
Bill is dead.
-- God."
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Re: Coach outlet
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For Prince, the internet IS over.
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Re: For Prince, the internet IS over.
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I'm pissed..
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Wanna bet?
>format only in the Mirror. There'll be no downloads anywhere
>in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet
>abuses.
Call me crazy, but I'm guessing there WILL be downloads of his music assuming it's worth downloading.
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NO PRINCE the BULLSHIT IS OVER
goto gene simmons and BUY a KISS casket and we can bury you and him together in it
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@7
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So where's the problem?
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Re: So where's the problem?
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Prince
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Smirk
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Just another example...
THE INTERNET IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE INTERNET!
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Internet Is Over
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Maybe not so stupid...
What better way to get free advertising on the internet than to come out and say "the internet is dead". Whether its stupid or brilliant, it's working.
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Re: Maybe not so stupid...
Yup.
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And a GREAT musician.
But, I also think, his disdain for "Internet Pirates" is quite real.
Easily equal to mine.
Go-Prince-Go!!
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Kudos to Prince-- for protecting Artist Control RIGHTS
Me : It is all about Artistic CONTROL not $$ , as I have been proclaiming here for a while.
Glad you agree Mike.
Kudos to Prince-- for protecting Artist Control RIGHTS
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Re: Kudos to Prince-- for protecting Artist Control RIGHTS
Fail.
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Re: Re: Kudos to Prince-- for protecting Artist Control RIGHTS
Your "words" are meaningless,
And out of step with the realities of how COPYRIGHTS give Musicians complete control over legal distribution of their music.
The Gov't & law will fight the Pirates for Prince [& me.]
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Prince = MJ
Prince doesn't like elephants and monkeys though.
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The Internet existed long before MP3s
Say MP3 could no longer exist there. Given the 'cut the cable move to hulu' articles and Spam - MP3s are not the biggest part of Internet traffic.
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prince undeniably the best entertainer next to Mr. Jackson
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