https://medium.com/@ScottGYourListen/that-time-prince-called-23a2d8cdbe3b

Prince aint having it. Prince has been consistent on his disdain for piracy of his music for decades and although I believe some of his efforts to combat this problem is a little short-sighted, it's his music and lifetime of blood, sweat and tears that he feels so passionately about protecting. It is interesting that for each album the last 10 years, he gives interview around a project about the business of music like intellectual copyright, publishing, legalese, masters etc. Wouldn't surprise me if Prince gave a concert with half of it being a lecture on digital music streaming sites and how little it pays artists.

I understand his frustration with piracy and the minimal revenue artists receive from streaming, but I don't understand what Prince wants instead. He wants us to pay for his music; fine, I've purchased everything he's ever released. But he often doesn't make his one-off singles available for purchase. He's deleted his catalogue from the internet and most of it is unavailable in the (rapidly disappearing) physical record shops. It's as though he wants us to hear his music but then wants to take it back from us. If he would just make it avaliable, for purchase on a site that won't vanish in a few months' time, I'd be very happy to throw wads of cash at him.

I know that I am in the minority, but if P releasesd his music on physical media. I will buy it without fail.

No matter how shit his music is. And believe me, it has been shit of late!

That February 2014 press conference was bullshit anyway from Lianne La Havas apartment. I always got the impression when he said those things about owning some of Lianne's bootlegs and it was cool to him for fans to share his music that he said so in a sardonic way as if rolling his eyes at the thought. I had to chuckle at Prince cutting off the site owner at the very thought of an alternative solution to Prince's gripes.

Why won't Prince make his own streaming site and strip all of his music from every other streaming site? Then he'll see how little the advertising on websites pays for his music to be streamed because his music isn't HOT meaning I don't he will ever have a song with 150 million views/listens like the HOT music does. Warner Brothers has a few of his songs on YouTube officially and the most views/listens he has is around 950K for a concert he did in '82. If he were to be paid 14 cents per 1000 views that means he would make 950,000 views/1000 x $0.14 = $133 off that youtube site. So if he had his whole catalog officially on Youtube he wouldn't make the money he is accustomed to receiving because none of his songs would warrant 150 million views...

just my 14 cents

jaawwnn said:

Wouldn't it be great if this stopped all those people who still insist on thinking it's prince leaking his music himself?

Prince leaking his music and him sharing his music with people who leak are two different circumstances.

Besides, he's a hypocrite anyway on this matter. His stridency and primitive approach to this problem is only restablished in this article and will only continue to be a problem for him.

So Prince is still on a quest to end online copyright infringements. But upon talking to the owner of yourlisten.com, he isn't interested in listening to anything the owner of the company has to say.

<Sigh>

"This could b us" (yet another ballad) has been released as a single. I'd have bought it if my 99p was subtracted from the cost of the album. But it isn't. You have to pay twice if you want both.

While he does have a valid point, his reactionary standpoint and refusal to get involved just makes him sound like a dinosaur. "People are stealing my music and it's someone else's job to stop them!"

This article illustrates to me that Prince needs some advice from people who understand the digital music economy. He should give me a call next time

Militant said:

This article illustrates to me that Prince needs some advice from people who understand the digital music economy. He should give me a call next time

What would you recommend he do then, Mr expert Not being sarcastic btw, just interested to hear a different perspective on this.

bluegangsta said:

purplepolitician said:

medium.com/@ScottGYourLis...a2d8cdbe3b So folks could just click

Really?!? Somebody provides an address, but, because you have to copy & paste instead of clicking as a link you complain? Wow! Just sayin'...

Noodled24 said:

"This could b us" (yet another ballad) has been released as a single. I'd have bought it if my 99p was subtracted from the cost of the album. But it isn't. You have to pay twice if you want both.

This has ALWAYS been the case. Back in the day when I bought the Kiss 7" single the price wasn't subtracted from the cost when I bought the 12" single a month later and the price for neither was subtracted from the cost when I bought Parade on cassette a few weeks after that.

Granted, we usually got extra tracks in the form of b-sides & extended versions back then (something he should consider with digital singles) but this was not always the case, especially not with all artists.

Perhaps an alternative solution would be pre-orders where we could pre-pay for an album and receive the single in advance as a bonus.

DAMN .. That Blows !!!

Thats a Nice Web SITE !!!

prince !!

djThunderfunk said:

Prince - please take 5% of what you've spent on lawyers and build yourself a REAL WEBSITE on which you can sell songs to people who want them so badly that they steal them from you.

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Take another 5% of what you've spent on lawyers and hire someone whose job is to keep you focused on why the website matters to you. Listen to them and don't discount their advice. Don't let it be a fleeting idea that you abandon in a couple years.

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Take the other 90% of what you've spent on lawyers and start a foundation to preserve everything you've recorded and your message to other artists regarding ownership so that your message can live on for a very long time.

[Edited 8/28/15 11:03am]

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

purplepolitician said:

djThunderfunk said:

Really?!? Somebody provides an address, but, because you have to copy & paste instead of clicking as a link you complain? Wow! Just sayin'...

I was on my phone n it's a pain . Was tryna help really . Wasn't rude about it like others :kcooleyeroll:

True!

Militant said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

What would you recommend he do then, Mr expert Not being sarcastic btw, just interested to hear a different perspective on this.

Well, it's a difficult question because it depends on the aim of the artist. I have consulted many bands on digital strategy, and I've also guest lectured at one of my city's university to the music business degree classes, where the head lecturer is the guy who literally wrote the book on digital music (his writing was the direct inspiration for the guys who made Bandcamp and he consults for them). So while I said that tongue-in-cheek, I'm ready for P to call too The first question I'd ask would be if Tidal paid him an upfront cost, if so how much, and if money upfront is his primary motivator for picking a partner. Depending on his answer I'd suggest an all encompassing digital strategy on a tier-based system that supported both free and paid tiers as well as merchandise with back order support and full social integration and simple analytics. No heavy graphical content, no paywalls. He could invest into building his own platform, but also provide the "main material" to all other platforms. So while "the new album" could be streamed everywhere, bonus tracks and merchandise would be exclusive to his own site. Case point - a few years back Trent Reznor offered a limited edition coffee table art book with the NIN Ghosts set. There was only something like 500 of them made and they went for $300 each. They sold out in 3 days and this was only one of the options available. Prince could do a deluxe set of the album with a book similar to the 21 nights one, package it with some bonus material (a disc of outtakes maybe)? and easily sell a thousand of those at $300 each. What a lot of artists are struggling with is the concept that audio has essentially been rendered worthless by filesharing, but many miss that physical, tangible art is still high value to fans. Damn near everyone here would buy a Prince CD for ten bucks, right? What about a double disc with some really great packaging? We'd all pay 20 bucks for that. What about a collector edition box set of the new album, like the ONA live set - most people here would be happy to pay 50 bucks for that. Accept that 80% of your audience will hear the music for free - one way or another. Focus on the 20% that are happy to pay you the right price for the right product - and remember that 20% of THOSE people are big enough fans to pay more money for a more premium, limited edition collectors item. Prince can phone up the CEO of YouListen if he wants to. But tomorrow, there will be a new YouListen, and it might be based in Korea, or some island somewhere, and good luck getting them to remove any audio. It's digital whack-a-mole. The funny thing is that, DRM aside, Prince was doing the right thing with NPGMC - he won a Webby award for it, come on! And now it's like that never happened and he looks like Metallica trying to sue Napster in 1999. Whomever is advising Prince right now knows jack-all about digital music. They're scrambling in the dirt for ideas and strategies and calling all over themselves. Look at the reaction to the TIDAL news - the fanbase was unified for once, because 99% of us agreed it's a pretty terrible idea. I love Prince and he's done some pioneering shit with innovative music distribution in the past. But right now he's struggling with the digital landscape - Yes, there are battles to be fought, but he's not fighting the right battles right now.

Some great ideas there, Militant, but, the guy at YourListen might have some great ideas too. The problem is, Prince doesn't seem interested in listening to them. His main two goals seem to be controlling what/where/how his material is available and getting paid upfront. I don't see evidence that he's interested in realistic advice or innovative ideas that involve accepting the reality and making the most of it.

"Scott piracy is something we can and will put to an end."

If Prince really believes this, and his past actions indicate he does, then your advice, no matter how sound, is not something he would listen to much less follow.

In my not-so-humble opinion of course...

renfield said:

I understand his frustration with piracy and the minimal revenue artists receive from streaming, but I don't understand what Prince wants instead. He wants us to pay for his music; fine, I've purchased everything he's ever released. But he often doesn't make his one-off singles available for purchase. He's deleted his catalogue from the internet and most of it is unavailable in the (rapidly disappearing) physical record shops. It's as though he wants us to hear his music but then wants to take it back from us. If he would just make it avaliable, for purchase on a site that won't vanish in a few months' time, I'd be very happy to throw wads of cash at him.

this. all the way this i'm so sick and tired of him moaning and groaning when he can't

even be bothered to have his music in print or for sale on a website. he's like a broken
record at this point.

i'll start listening to him again when he's got all his stuff back online, on a decent site,

all albums, all one off songs, live shows and expanded remasters.

until then, i can't take prince seriously when he talks about ownership of his music, since
he obviously only cares about the 12 songs that make him money still and doesn't give a

fuck about the rest of his catalogue.

i'd be happy to have him prove me wrong though

but why does he do this ONLY when he's got sumptin cookin online elsewhere??

if he had his own site where u could search live songs or tracks ..THEN no one would need to go anywhere to hear unreleasesd stuff

so since he stopped these new sites from having his bootlegs ...people will NOW buy his Tidal products etc???

Prince just needs somethin' to bitch about. Somebody to blame for his problems. Some way for his ego to be stroked that day. This article could have been titled 'two narcissists stroke each other's egos with pointless bullshit phone conference'.

Wall Street is the entertainment industry's real enemy, not some wannabe web mogul. All these web streaming sites, are bullshit businesses. Hell all web-based business is essentially fraud against content providers and brick and mortar retailers. Like, the CEOs and web designers are all full of ego and think they are innovating new technology. In reality, they are allowed to exist mainly to sell bullshit tech hardware (tablets, phones, etc) to people who, without free music and tv, do not have a use for it. And also as cover, so that Wall Street can tear-up existing contracts, and avoid traditional regulations and accounting procedures. The profit margin on tech hardware is astronomicaly greater than Prince's latest bullshit cd, for example.

Web businesses all think they are above the law, because they exist between borders essentially. Amazon doesn't pay it's people. Netflix gives take-it-or-leave it deals to producers who have no way of knowing if 2 people are watching their shows or 20 milion, because Netflix has all the analytics and doesn't share them, so no one knows what to charge Netflix for content.

It's a shell game. Prince can make himself feel important by bigfooting some starstruck asshole who coded a site, but he will get nowhere. One site goes down, another will take it's place. People enjoy getting free shit, and the true powers that be are more than happy to look the other way. Content creators aren't getting paid. That's why everyone is maximizing their brand. Jessica Alba is a fucking BILLIONAIRE!?! Meanwhile Prince is pissing all over his brand fighting a 1990's-style losing battle against file sharing. SMH.

Militant said:

RaspBerryGirlFriend said:

What would you recommend he do then, Mr expert Not being sarcastic btw, just interested to hear a different perspective on this.

Well, it's a difficult question because it depends on the aim of the artist.

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No it isn't. Want to end piracy? Then make it easy and affordable for people to obtain your music. Don't force them to go to service A for track X and service B for track Y. Don't force them into DRM'ed formats. Etc.

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The first question I'd ask would be if Tidal paid him an upfront cost, if so how much, and if money upfront is his primary motivator for picking a partner.

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That's what Patreon is for.

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Damn near everyone here would buy a Prince CD for ten bucks, right? What about a double disc with some really great packaging? We'd all pay 20 bucks for that. What about a collector edition box set of the new album, like the ONA live set - most people here would be happy to pay 50 bucks for that.

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Not after being burned again and again. It worked for NIN and others because those artists have built up a lot of goodwill and have proven to deliver quality. Prince has proven over and over again that he'll hire incompetent fools and that he'll hype mediocre shite to heaven.

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Prince was doing the right thing with NPGMC - he won a Webby award for it, come on!

.

Pffft, a Webby.

I think the issue with Prince is that he literally doesn't want people listening to his outtakes and is probably ambivalent at best about people even listening to his back catalogue. He's willing to play digital whac-a-mole for as long as it takes, which clearly will be forever. He wants total control over all his music, and that also means stopping new people getting into old music.

I don't think he gets the idea that someone who is 20 might discover 40 years of music and will get into it and want to hear it all. He just wants them to listen to whatever his new stuff is and maybe grudgingly a greatest hits. As susan rogers said before, he has no idea what it's like to be a listener to prince music.

It's bizarre behaviour altogether.

[Edited 8/29/15 0:54am]

I think there are some really good points being made here. A standalone Prince website offering either downloads or streaming may be the answer. The problem with download sites is as soon as someone downloads the product it is often immediately shared with facebook groups, sharing sites etc.

It's almost inevitable that a lot of the revenue will be lost no matter how you sell your music but Official Prince product all in one place, a place that stays in one place, can only be a good thing. The fact that he has kept his Twitter account in one place for a bit has allowed that to grow to nearly 100,000. A permanent site could do well.

My 2 cents!

[Edited 8/29/15 1:53am]