After reading a recent interview with Prince on Mirror.co.uk, there’s only one conclusion I can come up with about him: Prince is a f@#&ing moron!
Seriously though, I like Prince and I like a lot of his music (mostly his older stuff). Yes, he’s eccentric as hell (and truly a bit on the weird side) but I’ve never seen or read anything that made him out to be a bad guy. Never heard about him bad mouthing or hurting anyone, which more or less backs up his faith in God (he is a Jehovah’s Witness after all!).
No doubt—the man is a highly talented and gifted musician, but this recent interview has me thinking that he’s also “gifted” in other ways (if you know what I mean!). Given his views about the internet, Prince is “special” in more ways than one.
Think about this: If Prince had his way, none of his music would be sold electronically. In fact, his last album “LOtUSFLOW3R” is only available on CD and isn’t available at all on Amazon or iTunes. Chances are, his new album “20TEN” probably won’t even be available via retail any time soon since it’s being given away for free in the UK only in the Daily Mirror. No word on when that album will be available in the US because Prince doesn’t even have a website. His battle over online piracy is no secret. He even tried to prevent a woman from posting a YouTube video of her baby dancing to “Let’s Go Crazy”!
If that weren’t enough…checkout what he said during the interview:
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.
Why would Amazon, iTunes, or any other online music retailer pay Prince an advance on something that hasn’t proven to be a good seller yet? That doesn’t make any sense. You get what ever other artist gets: a cut of the profits off the total sales. Take it or leave it! (Which, in Prince’s case, it’s safe to say he already chose to leave it. Moron.)
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 At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.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.
Hmm…you know…Prince is right but only a teeny-tiny bit. Look around and you’ll notice there’s a lot of people (especially kids) with their faces buried in a desktop, laptop, mobile phone and such just texting, tweeting, Facebooking away and not paying any attention to the rest of the world. It concerns me a bit and makes me wonder if any of these people have any social skills at all. Will the future leaders of the world lead in 140 character increments? Really?
While there are certainly plenty of folks whose heads are filled with numbers, the rest of us understand that the internet is just a tool and a highly powerful tool at that. And, just like any tool, it can be abused. Some of us abuse the tools we use more often than not. We can avoid some of these abuses by simply designing better ways of using these technologies.
Beyond that, it’s been proven time and time again that online piracy has been curbed to a greater degree thanks to a surge in online music sales. Too many people use MP3 players and simply don’t want to hassle with physical media like CD’s. It’s just so much more convenient to simply download an album and load it onto an iPod. Based on that, the fact that Prince is not allowing his new music to be distributed via iTunes and Amazon actually promotes more piracy and translates to even more lost sales. Plus, not having an official website translates to a lot of fans being out of touch as to what Prince is up to. It’s a bad business decision through and through.
The last five years of internet innovation has shown us that we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. We’re discovering new and innovative ways to present media. And, thanks to an explosion in smart phone technology and devices like the iPad, people are starting to absorb and use media in more exciting ways. The internet is far from over. It’s actually only just begun.
