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Prince says "The Internet is Over"

bouche

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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Prince goes slowly batshit insane

Why does he not realize that this disc is just going to get shared for free all over the torrent sites? He could put it out as an iTunes release and make some money, or he could use amazon, and all the other online music stores.

Why is he only releasing this through UK papers?

Or....maybe he's just so smart that he took a HUGE payout that wouldn't come close to what he'd make via internet channels. Maybe he's got a very smart management team that worked out some crazy marketing model.

Whatever the case, "The Internet Is Over" is a pretty odd statement. It is a headline grabber though.

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Northern Wish Newbie

Northern Wish

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Isn't this one of those stunts where each copy is part of a purchase, so each newspaper sold actually winds up as a sold album by Prince on Sound Scan?

And though the statement "the internet is over" is completely ludicrous- I can't help but feel it has certainly jumped the shark. When was the last time you searched google for a hotel, product etc. and actually got to the site you were looking for in the first page of 'hits'. There is too much of a good thing....

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Northern Wish Newbie

Northern Wish

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Releasing the cd through the paper = guaranteed to debut at #1 on the charts.

So he's just basically gaming the system. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's still a genius.

He already did this one, and gave his cd away to ticket buyers once. I'd have to say "Prince, your publicity stunts are over"

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hamilton Newbie

hamilton

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When's he going to put out another good album?

He doesn't need to. He's already put out many more great albums than Genesis.

That's setting the bar pretty low. ONE great album is all any artist needs to release in order to surpass the total of great albums by Genesis.

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Northern Wish Newbie

Northern Wish

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Lefsetz had this to say:

Princes Nonsense

If only they were talking about his music.

I haven't seen an artist this out of touch since Metallica sued Napster. And even though the heavy metal foursome has been doing mea culpas for years, giving away music, innovating online, they've never been able to erase the taint that came from being out of touch.

Remember when artists were cool? Hipper than the rest of us in the room? We looked to musicians to tell us which way the wind blew, or that the vandals took the handles. Today, we're laughing at Prince.

Actually, the hysteria began yesterday and hasn't ceased yet. Word is bouncing all over the web, from the "Mirror" to "Boing Boing" to "Mashable" to Twitter to e-mail. This is the kind of promotion you don't want. It's the kind that killed Jessica Simpson's singing career and Lindsay Lohan's acting career. Suddenly, you're a laughingstock. And it's doubtful you can ever recover. It's kind of like being labeled a nerd in high school. Your only chance is to start all over again in college. Then again, the old college Facebook is now ubiquitous. Commit career suicide online and everybody knows and it lasts forever.

Forget that Prince is plain wrong. (What's next, is he going to rail against telephones and automobiles? Or tell us to stop using cell phones?) It's the fact that he's so out of touch that has us laughing at him, something no one banking on cool to succeed should ever want.

You can't stop progress. Change happens. And it's not good for everyone. Sure, it's hard being an artist and getting paid in the Internet era, but that doesn't mean you should become a Luddite and sign off. It's not necessary to utilize Foursquare, but when you rail against Twitter and other new media you just look like a square.

So, keep up to date with technology, or shut up!

But it's worse. You build your career online today, it's almost as if Prince were railing against record shops in the eighties, when he broke through. If you weren't in the shop, you don't mean diddly squat, if you're not online, you're out of the discussion.

Giving away his CD with the newspaper was cool the last time he did it, years ago, but now it's a stunt equivalent to spinning a Hula-Hoop in Times Square. Huh? So you get paid and no one listens.

It would be dumb for Prince to follow Radiohead, but if I were the diminutive star I'd trumpet how many people actually downloaded and listened to my music as opposed to how many discs were given away (and ultimately thrown out!) with the newspaper. An old format coupled with a dying medium. How innovative!

If Prince were smart and in touch, he would have utilized new media to deliver buzz about his album.

Or, he could finally realize no one's listening to anything but his hits and if he wants us to pay attention once again, he's got to create another hit, another track so infectious, one listen makes the hair on your arm stand up and your feet run to the dance floor.

"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.'"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/07/05/prince-world-exclusive-interview-peter-willis-goes-inside-the-star-s-secret-world-115875-22382552/

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Kanada Kev Newbie

Kanada Kev

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That's setting the bar pretty low. ONE great album is all any artist needs to release in order to surpass the total of great albums by Genesis.

Maybe if a few more people would give their first 5 or 6 albums out they'd have a better understanding of how great a band they were (they changed dramatically when Hackett left)

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hamilton Newbie

hamilton

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Those first five or six albums are *exactly* what was wrong with Genesis. After Gabriel and Hackett left, Genesis became a pop-rock band and made some decent music (I admit that Abacab and Duke aren't entirely awful) and a lot of dreck. Making mediocre pop rock is forgivable.

But those first five or six albums are bad rock masquerading as pretentious literary high art: "Now, I will write a song-cycle about battling my own personal demons, which I will metaphorically convey through the story of a young man who journeys to the underworld to fight with monsters. We can employ many tricky time-signature changes, and onstage I can change costumes to match each of the characters in my opera! And stop referring to my "lyrics" - this is a libretto, if you please." (See also: 2112 ; Tommy)

Bleeeeachhh. Sure, they were technically skilled musicians, but so is Yngwie Malmsteen and nobody in their right mind wants to listen to him.

Anyway, Prince is clearly out of his mind. The internet isn't going anywhere.

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SaggyBalls Newbie

SaggyBalls

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I can get my head around what Prince is saying.

I think Prince was talking about the importance of the medium and the importance of maintaining a strong position.

Prince is all about clout - he knows where he stands and doesn't feel the need to cheapen his product by doing something not so special...he's especially particular and I think he just wants to put out some albums instead of having to employ something particularly special. Free copies in a limited run in one market? Clever. Irrelevant? Not entirely. I wonder what the headline's going to be that day.

Though a useful tool for many, aside from technological advances, it's not any more special than it ever was and with the changes that could be around the bend, faces decline.

Why would Prince want people to buy digital singles when he puts effort into making the album important?

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skelter Newbie

skelter

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Lefsetz is right on the money, as he quite often is.

Part of Prince's bitterness with Internet is that last year he launched his official website and it cost $77 to join (yes, that's SEVENTY SEVEN DOLLARS). Needless to say, very few people signed up, and Prince now has no 'official' web presence.

When he played Creep at Coachella a few years ago, youtube was on fire with it, and he went around and had each video removed (apparently he did it personally). It probably cost him more in time/effort/legal fees than any money he would have "lost" by letting a few videos stay available in order to give him some new cred.

He could use a good lesson from Dead/Phish-type bands in how to keep your fans happy.

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Esau. Contributor

Esau.

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Making the album unavailable to a larger percentage of your fan base not only encourages illegal digital distribution but also leaves the doors wide open for people to just ebay/sell the album. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a news article about Prince's outrage over ebayers or illegal uploaders of this album and within a year of release he'll put it on itunes or his website for sale.

Part of Prince's bitterness with Internet is that last year he launched his official website and it cost $77 to join (yes, that's SEVENTY SEVEN DOLLARS). Needless to say, very few people signed up, and Prince now has no 'official' web presence.

Funny thing is he launched that site the same year he had went on an internet wide hunt demanding all fan-websites remove not only all photographs of him but also any & all photos of fan artwork that bore his likeness: pics of drawings, pics of tattoos, pics of custom painted guitars and even pics of t-shirts.

No surprise his $77 to join fan-site didn't take off.

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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So you're thinking that Prince is just losing his shit NOW? Dude's been batshit crazy forever. That weirdo changed his name to a symbol over a decade ago ferchristsakes.

Long term crazy'd.

You might want to look up the reasons behind that.

The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to the Love Symbol. Prince is the name that my mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros... I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was the Love Symbol, a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name
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