Prince Sez No Digital Tunes 4 U!

For many people, digital music stopped being a revolution – or even something to debate – a long time ago. Apple’s iTunes is the largest music retailer, and more and more sites seek a piece of the ever-growing digital music pie.

But not THIS guy:

Prince, in an interview with the UK paper the Daily Mirror said:

“The internet’s completely over,” Prince told the paper. “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.”

Ah … so back to money and control, as always. But ironically just before that he said:

I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music.

OK, now I’m confused and intrigued … I have written a bunch of times about pay-what-you-want and other ways artists are using to get their material to audiences, let alone the ever-growing high-quality digital market with enhanced video and graphic art material that comes through things like iTunes LP. So I wonder what amazing new innovation Prince has come up with?

His idea of ‘finding new ways’? Giving away the recording to readers of the Daily Mirror for one day. Sort of how computer game magazines have had demo disk pack-ins (and occasionally full game freebies) since before Prince met the Revolution? Yeah, like that.

Every bit as interesting is his internet analogy:

“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 At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.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.”

Two thoughts:

• Has anyone clued him in about the use of digital technology (i.e. computers and gadgets) that are essential and will be used throughout getting his recording from his ‘taping’ all the way through retail?
• What about piracy? Anyone want to bet on how quickly those Daily Mirror copies will be ripped and uploaded? Prince should realize that his recording *will* be available digitally … he just won’t see a penny from it – but WILL see his sales diminish as a result.

Finally, his MTV analogy made me laugh … especially as we ran across the end of Purple Rain on cable recently, and my kids commented on how outdated it all was. And it is true – sorry Prince, for the majority of music-lovers, you are some old guy who had the misfortune to end up as second-string pop superstar behind Michael Jackson, and taking a stance that berates the key audience you need to convince that you have relevance beyond 1999 (the song and the year) is not likely to change that.

Source: Mirror.uk via AppScout