The Amazing Prince Giveawaye… that was the heading of the insert in London’s Daily Mirror that announced Prince’s latesest phase of ‘man against the machine’. Back in 1996 Prince released his Emancipation album which celebrated his release from his contract with Warner Brothers Records (the machine). This time the machine is the internet. Anyway, if you’re still kinda confused about what this all means, let me clear it up. Last week, my man Prince gave… I repeat, gave (in this this context, the term being synonymous with free) his latest album 2010 away in a newspaper. There’ll be no downloads anywhere in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet abuses. Prince, while expressing that he believes in finding new ways to distribute his music said, “… It’s the best way to go. No charts, no internet piracy and no stress. Period.”
I tend to study Prince’s moves very closely as far as industry matters go. Dude is always on the cutting edge.. and as far as I’m concerned any artist that wants to be the poster child for maintaining total control of their artistry and money is alright with me. However, I must admit, this time I’m having a hard time keeping up. prince 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. Now, this is during a time when most artist are embracing the internet as standard tools of the trade, dude goes and throws a curve ball like this. Prince goes on to say ….”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 At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.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.”
We’ll just have to sit back and see how prophetic the Sage one really is on this one. Meanwhile, I had a friend grab me up a couple of copies…..you’ll have to get your own.
".. no myyyy bruthaaa, you'll have to get your own..."
