From the Denver Rocky Mountain News (April 23, 2001):



The man who should be king

Despite ridicule, Prince still ahead of the game

By Mark Brown, News Popular Music Critic



In 1993, Prince lost his mind.

At least fans thought he did when he changed his name to a symbol and began doing everything he could to alienate himself from the recording industry, be it releasing half-thought-out albums or appearing on TV with slave written across his face.



Eight years later, you have to look at him and realize he knew exactly what he was doing, and now he's exactly where he wanted to be.



This isn't news to Prince. He told us years ago exactly what he was going to do. On The Gold Experience -- a brilliant 1995 album he had to force Warner Bros. to release -- he spelled out his mission and his commitment to art and to not repeating himself in the lyrics of the song Gold: "Everybody wants to sell what's already been sold / Everybody wants the tale that's already been told / But what's the use of money if you ain't gonna break the mold?"



Since then he's done nothing but break the mold -- artistically, financially, contractually.



After signing a record deal (and signing away most of his rights) at age 19, he's now his own man, in a musical and business sense. True, he sells far fewer albums these days than at his 14 million Purple Rain peak. He arguably makes more money, however, mostly because he puts out his albums himself rather than through a major label, to which he'd been forced to tithe 85 percent of sales.



What's suffered is his public image, already skewed way weird to begin with.



Hard-core fans have held on; despite getting virtually no radio airplay, putting out erratic albums and cultivating a schizophrenic public image, tickets for his Tuesday-night show at the Magness Arena sold out in minutes. That's a feat that radio stalwarts and hot stars such as matchbox twenty and Christina Aguilera didn't match in their recent appearances in the same venue. Both sold out, but it took weeks, not minutes.



What's galling to fans is that Prince has endured ridicule because he's stayed true to the music. He made groundbreaking albums such as Controversy and 1999 before breaking through huge with Purple Rain. For many, his artistic peak was the Sign o' the Times in 1987, a double-disc with literally not a bad note on it.



It was after that, when he wanted to put out more music than Warner Bros. was willing to release, that things went downhill with the record label. He took his battles public and finally broke free of his contract, with Warners finally glad to see him go.



So who won?



Warners still controls and promotes his back catalog. Prince makes money; the record company makes more.



And at 42, he still writes, produces and plays more music and better shows than nearly anyone. He's released the music he wanted, the way he wanted, when he wanted. And from of those albums, he's been able to pay himself huge royalty rates, keeping up to 80 percent of the cash, in some estimates. Even off small sellers, he can make more money than the 15 percent to 20 percent royalty rate he'd get from a major label.



Want proof that he's as good as or better than ever? Buy his DVD Rave Un2 the Year 2000, where he's playing the daylights out of his best work, from an epic Purple Rain to The Cross.



Yet that's not what gets the spotlight. Prince was recently ridiculed for charging $100 a year for fans to download exclusive music through his new Web site, www.npgmusicclub.com. Think about it, though -- that's only a little over $8 a month, and the songs he's already made available for free show that there's a depth and quality there well worth the price. Hard-core fans pay $25 per disc for low-grade bootlegs; $8 a month for high-quality, new music is a bargain.



Besides, when bands such as The Grateful Dead do the same thing later this year or next, people will hail it as brilliant. Prince is merely ahead of the game yet again.



A recent profile in Inside magazine finally set the ridicule straight. The truth is that he's smarter than the record industry will ever be, and the proof may be in Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, an album stocked with ringers and guest stars. This 1999 Arista album was the brainchild of producer Clive Davis, who had revived Carlos Santana's career with the same gimmick a year earlier. It was Prince's only true artistic and financial failure since walking away from the industry.



He won't make that mistake again




http://www.rockymountainn...95,00.html