Who?
Nope, don't know him...Is he a footballer or something?
What?
He was a pop star in the 80's..Oh that explains it.
Has-been looking for free publicity.
Purple rock geezer Prince has declared that the internetosphere has had its day, as he prepares to release his latest album exclusively on CD through UK newspaper the Daily Mirror. In a punctuation-light interview ahead of the unleashing of 20TEN in physical form, the Jehovah's Witness declared: "The internets completely over …
U2's 'No Line on the Horizon' album should've been given away with fish-n-chip wrappers too, it was terrible album and similarly only a trailer for their '360° Tour'.
I saw U2's Rose Bowl gig on Sky1 the other day and thought ... these songs are so rubbish and unmemorable that Bono has to sing other songs/lyrics over the top of them to stop the crowd dying of boredom! Surely Bono knows in his heart that it's rubbish, perhaps that's why he threw his back out? I doubt Eno/Lilywhite told him 'No Line on the Horizon' is crap, wouldn't want to kill their cash-cow, but perhaps that's why they fired Rick Rubin from the album?
Someone should tell Bono, Prince and others about "quitting at the top of your game" / "leaving on a high"; 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' should've been U2's swansong.
I think this is the second album that he's given away free with newspapers.
What is he going to do when the newspapers close down and go electronic?
How is anyone going to know about his next album if he has no website and there's no traditional publishing left to let more than 7 people know about it?
MTV was superseded by YouTube for technological reasons - it allowed people to watch what they want, when they wanted. Once a song dropped off MTV's playlist, you'd be lucky to see it once in a blue moon. And even when it was on the playlist, you'd have to sit through loads of crap before the songs you wanted came on. There wasn't really a proper market for buying videos, only the music.
By the same token, downloads have superseded CDs because of convenience. You don't have to go shopping and then manage all those discs every time you want to play another track. And both walkmans and discmans were a rubbish experience. The batteries didn't last long, and when you ran for the bus the music either cut out or wobbled like an old pub singer.
So this isn't a fad that people are going to get bored with. They're used to convenience and not having to put up with filler at a radio of 7:3, and will not go back.
Can anyone think of a next step after downloads? I can't. I can think of ways to streamline the process, improve the file formats and develop the software/device interfaces, but the basic principle of downloading music instead of buying physical media is surely a final step... until they invent a way to transmit the music directly into your brain!
"downloads have superseded CDs" (sic)
Really ? The last time I checked, which admittedly was a few months ago, sales of physical media vastly out-weighed downloads.
Or do you mean illegal downloads, which is a completely unquantified and unquantifiable amount. It also, whether you agree with the full spiel from the associated music production companies or not, will limit the amount of new music eventually, especially if they have no real way to make money from what they are doing.
That's not what the word means. Superseded means it has rendered the old method or form obselete or antiquated.
e.g. Vauxhall have just launched the new Astra (think it's Astra G now) which supersedes the previous model. Obviously nobody would claim that there are more new Astras on the road than all the previous models though.
I'd certainly buy more legitimate downloads if they were consistently cheaper than the CD. Quite often the download is the same price/more than the CD, so I might as well express about 2 days of patience and have the thing delivered. Then file the "backup" somewhere safe.
I don't care if I'm not supposed to rip my own discs (lawlol) - if I'm not sharing the files (which I don't) then nobody should really care what I do with them.
MTV got substituted by YouTube because MTV no longer shows videos at all. It had started the slippery slope into crap programming ever since they started putting boy band videos; then they went heavier on the whole "reality show" thing, so much that they are no longer a "video channel" at all. They've lost the 'M' in 'MTV'.
While discmans were shitty, the latest batch of walkmans had anti-shock systems that actually worked. Running and jumping wouldn't wobble the tape; they were very damn resilient for what they were worth. Hell, mine is still in perfect working order after 12 years! I agree on the Discmans though. The mp3-enabled ones were better, but an mp3 player fares much better in this field.
Downloads? Hm... only if you count allofmp3, coz the eyeTunes store is way too overpriced for me. I do agree that I'm more likely to rip my legally purchased CDs and slap them on my Blackberry, but that isn't quite 'downloading'. And I'd rather own a physical BluRay disc than depending on a streaming service when my internet link might go down.
...even the cheapest of the discmans as far back as 2003/4 had a cache to store a limited amount of music in case of jolts. Obviously you couldn't go jogging with them but they were quite effective. I had one that even had a circuit in it so you could power up rechargeable batteries between uses using the mains cable - great idea!
Oh and Prince is a knob!
Prince? Faded pop star and psycologically unstable pint-sized prat decides to release an album through a paper with possibly the fastest falling circulation outside of Team England Supporters Daily. No doubt it will be available on p2p before the paperboy gets to school.
Yup, first class marketing.
What a wonderful gimmick that would be even more wonderful if he hadn't done it all before, I suppose he's switched from the Mail on Sunday which is a step in the right direction.
A real shame, he used to be a brilliant artist who just seems to be gradually turning into a parody of himself...
He is saying these stupid, overly dramatic and controversial things (like a lot of celebrities (people often with a Histrionic Personality Disorder) who are in need of attention) so he and many like him can keep getting more attention and through endless self promotion they then go on to have big well publicised concerts which earn them an additional fortune. (There is something very two faced about this attention seeking behaviour where they say one thing but are really seeking attention through their actions).
Another example like him (i.e. a HPD attention seeking celebrity) is Lady Gaga who in attention seeking terms is like a female version of him with a lobster on her head or whatever). Its all about attention. Plus people who seek attention hold these very effective attention seekers up as their role models. (Which explains Lady Gaga's 10M facebook record).
Its an endless need for attention attention attention with them. (Take away people's attention on them and they go to pieces … which is when they turn to drink and drugs to suppress their troubling thoughts, because they can't cope with no attention).
So giving the CD away in the Daily mirror is also another way to get attention.
Also this giving the music away (how much is the mirror paying for this exclusive) does also show a business model that will work online where musicians give their music away as promotional material to then earn their living from performances in concerts (exactly as musicians have done for centuries). But then the music publishers won't like that as they are no longer needed and they could very well be part of his game plan with this CD release, as he has had battles with music publishers in the past (Sony) trying to get a bigger slice of the money, so by taking this action he is publicly bypassing the music publishers.
So on the surface it appears stupid, but its actually far more devious, two faced and manipulative once you see why they do the things they do.
"Prince just needs attention, like Lady Gaga"
I know it takes more time to write a short letter (according to Mark Twain), but you're taking the p*ss here.
My own opinion of Prince? Unprintable, but to adopt your longhand style, remove one "r" from "Repetitive Strain Injury" and you'll have some idea..
I saw him at the O2, and he *was* phemonenal.
But yes his recorded output of recent years has been throwaway bilge - we got a free CD of his last album at the gig, listened to it maybe 3 times, and that was ENOUGH!
His God comment at the end may just explain some of that downfall of course...
Oh dear goodness, why did I click the link to the interview? I was tempted to register an account just so that I could berate the so called journalist on their appalling use of language. For fucks sake, haven't these semi-literate baboon children ever heard of a fucking apostrophe?! Or the correct use of quotation marks perhaps? Or even how to use a semi-colon without looking like a dick?
Paris, because she's much easier on the eyes than that third rate pre-GCSE quality excuse for a piece of journalism.
tidy this up a little.
Old:
For fucks sake, haven't these semi-literate baboon children ever heard of a fucking apostrophe?! Or the correct use of quotation marks perhaps? Or even how to use a semi-colon without looking like a dick?
New
For fuck's sake! Haven't these semi-literate baboon children ever heard of a fucking apostrophe, the correct use of quotation marks or even how to use a semi-colon without looking like a dick?
There, that's better.
I suspect that punctuation will become increasingly optional in written language, and the apostrophe will be the first up against the wall. Which is criminal, in my not so humble opinion, but you can't stand in the way of progress, can you?
Pirate, because I'd rather do jail time for downloading the album illegally than be seen in public with the Daily Mirror. Not that I will be downloading it, 'cos it'll be shite.
GJC
Now if only he'd thought of some way to SUPPLY that nascent demand that's more convenient than having the bits painstakingly graven on a tablet, and then smashed into sub-bits by Royal Fail a week later.
Shhh... nobody tell him that CDs are all computerised up in the hizzizzy as well. He's probably still trying to find where to fit the stylus in his CD player.
Seriously...... is he having a laugh? Hopefully when purchasing the Daily Mirror we will be able to refuse the freebie, or perhaps I could take it and teach my dog how to Frisbee.
What has more chance of being over? Would it be the internet, or his career. It's a toughie
So he wants advance payment for his music does he? That then places the risk on the internet distributor.
The guy is loaded anyway, so what's the big deal with wanting an advance, can he not afford to wait for the royalties to come in?
Or is he really hoping that the distibutor will take the risk and lose and he profits by having a large upfront advance and the album fails to make enough money for the distributor?
"Is he still the artist previously known as Prince or did he become the artist known at Prince who was formerly known as something unpronouncable after formally being known as Prince?"
Given that the whole symbol thing was mocked in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, once upon a time, I think it's clear how dated the whole Prince business is.
Can't get what he wants, so declares electronic music distribution "over".
Smart move.
Oh, and how exactly does technology fill your head with numbers? And how can numbers affect your health?
I hate when the ignorant try to hide it by declaring things to be harmful/no good/stupid. Admit you don't know what you're talking about, you fuckers!
Also, why can't Prince be happy that he wrote some amazing pop songs in the 80s and 90s, and give thanks to his god for having had a day in the sun?
Fucking idiot.
He should get down to the library and do one of those computer course they run for elderly - he might realise that iTunes != The Internet.
BTW AC@13:56, I love your description of MTV and the fact that it also fits iTunes perfectly "one way platform designed to pipe corporate audio-visual feces" - even better, if you take out the audio-visual bit, it fits the Daily Mail perfectly too.
BTW2, I wonder if he could convince the Daily Mail to remove there Internet presence too, as an act of solidarity.
The logic of eschewing the internet is simply because he doesn't understand it, and those that don't understand it are compelled to jump on it like it's evil/bad/failed.
Aside from free promo, is it more likely the case that the album's crap, even he knows it is, and wants some cash up front so he can do a runner...?
Thing is, ignoring the messenger - and I think he is a twonk, and the idea of him being a great musician is laughable, no matter how many instruments he played on one album that took 18 months to make - I think he may have a point.
The balance on the internut is shifting from home-made, collaborative, genuinely interesting and creative to mass-produced, handed out to you, paid for, corporate pap. Just like everything else. Book shops are full of Tom Clancy dross, rather than samisdat manuscript subversive poetry, and the internut is drifitng the same way.
Regardless of my views on his music, I think he has often seen things the rest of us havn't. It's just that being a twonk we'd rather laugh at him than listen.
Oh look, is that icon a picture of him?
Maybe there's the truth.
But... ye Gods. He's dumping iTunes for the Mirror? Maybe there's more truth that he can't even make sales of his music, instead he'll get lots of albums shifted by, basically, having it be GIVEN away.
I notice the article saying he's a Jehovah's Witness now. So his hatred of the online world is really not out of character [take a gander at http://www.bible.ca/Jw-internet.htm].
The deep deep irony, however, is that said album will no doubt be ripped and posted to this horrible horrible virtual world within minutes.
Mmmm, weird article this. I could have sworn I just read an Orlowski piece about The Wired bringing us all world peace, or somesuch. Then, I guess an internet without wallies like squiggle-name probably would be more peaceful.
"Beyond download ...is interactive music"
Wrong way round.
Muso and multi-instumentalist tech geek Todd Rundgren did an interactive album a LONG time ago, and a website to go with it. No World Order was released in 1993 on Philips CD-i (i for interactive) format, and shortly afterwards on PC and Mac versions. Another interactive CD, The Individualist, came out in 1995.
So it's already been done, so long ago in fact that many readers of this site may be too young to know about it. There's a limited-quality off-air-recorded demo video from Discovery on a Todd fansite [1].
Actually the state of Todd's website at the moment somewhat supports Prince's case; how many websites out there besides that one are untouched for a matter of years?
The TR-i website and some of its associated websites and geekware (e.g. Patronet.com, and there was a weird PC music player gadget whose name I wish I could remember, it was two or three PCs ago) are long derelict.
Prince and Todd have a surprising amount in common, in some ways.
[0] http://www.seahaas.com/toddrundgren/videovault.html Todd Rundgren Video Vault
[1] http://www.seahaas.com/toddrundgren/nwopromo.wmv CD-i walkthrough and interview
I guess it's a peculiar hell when strangers use your "Let's Go Crazy" on their non-commercial birthday videos without paying a license fee. Mind you, it's expecting money from places where, heretofore, one never expected money, but thinking about that makes my brain hurt and the Writer Occasionally Known As Orlowski probably has a tard-appendage waiting in the wings for me.
A few years back, maybe 2005 or so, I was talking with an agent buddy who had Prince as a client and he was telling me that Prince was adamant about not putting tracks on iTunes. It was reported to me as Prince exacting some sort of vengeance on Steve Jobs. No doubt there was a back story, but details were not forthcoming. I didn't delve because, though I think very highly of the music, I can do with out the madnesses that occasionally accompany talent. I did express to my friend my point of view that Prince was nuts. I think Jobs figures a person/label that passes on iTunes is hurting themselves more than they hurt him.
As to today's comment about advances. I think Prince is talking about the way Wal-Mart or Best Buy will give an artist production money in return for a term of retail exclusivity. So Apple doesn't do that in general or do that in particular for Prince. Okay, he makes his choices and more power to him. But, I will not be begging his pardon as I scratch my head and wonder why Prince thinks he is entitled to an exclusivity deal. As one who pays for his music and who shops only at iTunes (yeah, I'm lazy), I guess none of my money will 70% go to Prince.
You have to admire a guy who takes a stand when it costs him money. So, Prince, Salute! Let me know if you put your catalog on iTunes, I seem to have misplaced one of my discs for "Sign o the Times" and I'd like to replace it.
"MTV was superseded by YouTube for technological reasons"
No it wasn't, at least here in the States, MTV was superseded because they quit showing ANY videos, ever, and just showed a bunch of crap shows. Then they put out M2 specifically to show videos -- guess what? It showed videos for like 6 months, then showed the same crap shows as MTV (cable and satellite promptly dropped it at that point.)
Don't get me wrong, it'd be done for by now, but they took themselves out of the equation well before Youtube was ever founded.
As for Prince -- well, he can do whatever he wants. Anyone who, for some misguided reason, wants his songs will probably get a free electronic copy since they can't buy one, his loss.
Step 1. Give CD away with large-circulation daily newspaper
Step 2. Count how many papers were printed that day (not necessarily sold, haha...)
Step 3. Claim newspaper's print run as actual album "sales"
Step 4. Claim instant chart-topping "album" with 500-umpty billion million sales in ONE DAY!
Step 6. There is NO step 5.
Step 7. Win crummy award for top sales, get Platinum-Uridium-Tungsten record
Step 8. PROFIT!
Step 9. Give all money to GOD
Step 10. Discover GOD is actually..... STEVE!
"They wont pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they cant get it."
Funniest thing I've heard from a musician in years. Proves that, for ageing transvestite relics of 1984, it truly IS all about the money.
I find it creepy that he also performs as a woman, in full drag and everything.... Not, mind you, that he ever behaved normally in the foirst place. And that whole "Symbol" thing, I won't even start on that....
Grenade, because this is one musician who definitely needs a recal-pineapple implant, stat!
pervades this article and its train of sniggering comments.
The notion of music as "relevant" is absurd. And ignorant. Either it appeals or it doesn't. De gustibus and all that.
The notion that the "relevance" of music is related to the revenue it generates is frankly ludicrous. Three hundred years ago the world's highest-paid musician was Silvius Leopold Weiss. Johann Sebastian Bach was also around then, but made considerably less (and wasn't paid a penny for the Brandenburg Concertos).
The notion that a musician of the prodigious gifts that Prince demonstrates should somehow no longer be competent because he is a couple of decades older is illogical. Benny Waters was still playing live at 95 years old, I myself saw Les Paul playing crafty guitar when he was 92.
Prince was years ahead of the pack when it came to scepticism over the shenanigans of the record industry. He deliberately wore masks for TV interviews and changed his name to something awkward to print as a protest against his rapacious and unreasonable record contracts. So he went against the media. And what happens when you do that? You become a loony of course, because everybody plays the game except for loonies.
So to the majority of the commenters on this list: congratulations on the comprehensive regurgitation of three decades of NME slurs. Not a loony amongst you. You must all be so proud of yourselves!
Prince is such a crybaby. He proclaims he makes most of his money through tours, so why the hell is he complaining about how his album gets distributed. Is it likely that the newspaper is paying him more than a token fee for what is essentially self promotion anyway?
I can't deny he has written some good music but I don't think much of him as a person. I suspect he doesn't like the internet because he can't control it although that doesn't stop him trying. He unleashed his lawyers on b3ta.com, a small humour site who had the gall to be run an image competition about him. The image of a chihuahua straining to shit out the prince logo was worth it alone. I'm sure the image is still out there somewhere...
Knowing people on the internet, a rant such as this will cause his album to likely become the most internet-distributed album of all time....
....which is probably exactly what he wants, and exactly what it is designed to do.
So everyone, please just ignore the loudmouth little oik and move on....
"I think Jobs figures a person/label that passes on iTunes is hurting themselves more than they hurt him."
Do you think the other Apple (the Beatles music one) agrees with that? Last time I checked the Beatles stuff wasn't on iTunes.
It's a shame there's so much negativity here. Prince takes the opportunity to cut the pigopolist record companies out of the distribution chain, and almost no one has a good word to say?
Do you know who gets what on iTunes revenue? In particular, did you know that the record company get two thirds of the price? The record company get two thirds of the price? How on earth does that work?
"iTunes downloads cost 79p per track. Writer/publisher get 6p, Performer 6-8p, Visa/Mastercard 7p, Apple 12p, and Record Company almost 50p. Sod that. Help yourself to my songs & share them with your friends" (from http://www.tomrobinson.com/records/music/index.htm)
He could have said young people need more Xenu in their lives. This is just a combination of someone who will say and do anything for publicity mixed with someone who has been unsuccessfully fighting against YouTube for 3 years (and by fighting I mean making threats to sue but never actually following through).
Since Prince's popularity is currently in decline, and since his decision to make himself temporarily unnameable was at least annoying, I'm not surprised there is negativity. This seems like a bargain price for his CDs.
Of course, though, I don't see how a CD (as opposed to a vinyl LP) will fail to "fill one's head with numbers" just as much as an MP3 would. But then I don't understand the nature of his objection, given that my brain, at least, isn't wired into the data bus of my PC, at least not yet.
Prince is the one who is "over". His 02 show was a complete & utter joke! - and the free album I got? Pah! even tho it was 'free' i have never ever listened to it (since the first and only 'listen' confirmed that it was also utter shite of the type that can only be given away in a newspaper) He should shut the f*ck up and retire gracefuly the little god-bothering twerp.
I know his game, he thought: "i'm not relevent to pop now, and i cant switch genre or i'll look stupid... hmm.. I KNOW! i'll become a jesus convert and then i can sell any old crap I record to stupid christians for the next 20 years!" i bet that was it.
By extension, maths is evil. Because they fills your head with numbers. Whatever happened to religion, telling all the truth you ever need to know? When was it replaced with the lies of numbers? Number should be forbidden! Except from the Bible, which needs them.
*All the grammar errors above are intentional :)