http://www.thestar.com/NA...9483191630


Prince airs out some music and opinions at MuchMoreMusic yesterday, prior to the second of his Air Canada Centre concerts.

Prince has Much to say about music
Does 3 songs plus chat for television
Techno harming live music, he says


ASHANTE INFANTRY
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER

Prince brought a whole lot of teasing and good-natured laughter to Chum Television headquarters on Queen St. W. yesterday afternoon, but there was a moment when His Purple Badness didn't seem entirely amused.

Shortly after wrapping up a three-song performance with his band, the New Power Generation, the entertainer perched on a bar chair for a taped Q&A with MuchMoreMusic host Bill Welychka.

Two questions into the segment, which airs Sunday at 9 p.m., Prince rotated the microphone in his palm while zoning in on the TV station's logo, which blazed from three sides in varying hues.

"These are pretty cool," he said, in a manner devoid of appreciation. "They just got me doing an advertisement, whether I want to or not."

It was as if the play-by-my-rules, media-phobic pop superstar, who exerted complete control over every aspect of publicity around his back-to-back Toronto concerts, suddenly realized he'd been co-opted.

It had all gone so well to that point. The master songwriter, record producer and Oscar-winning composer managed to sell out both of his Air Canada Centre dates, although he granted just one interview to a Canadian media outlet in the lead-up; the opening show was widely covered despite a ban on media photography; and the MuchMoreMusic visit was supposed to be off-limits to the press.

The notoriously reticent artist seeks to exercise the same control over dissemination of his image as he does his music.

After a bitter feud with his longtime label Warner Bros. he established his own record label, NPG, and began releasing music online in 1997. Although his latest disc Musicology is manufactured and distributed by Sony Music's Columbia Records, he's still vehement on the subject of restrictive recording contracts.

"I was recording the albums myself in my own studio, so the way I looked at it, I owned the work because I paid for it and I did all the work. I created it, so I felt like it should belong to me," he said yesterday.

"That said, the companies felt otherwise and they would always hold this contract up and say, `Well, you signed it.' And I said, `I understand that. It's not like I want to leave. I just want to, you know, talk about this thing and see if we can't make it more fair. Of course they wouldn't change because if they changed, they wouldn't really exist, and that's kind of the situation we're in today. They're not going to exist much longer ...

"Kids today, I mean, they're so talented and sophisticated, they can create their albums on laptops; they can do the artwork themselves; they can deliver it through the Internet; they can be their own distribution service. I mean what do we really need record companies for?

"It's not like we're against them or anything like that. The idea is that we find better ways of working with one another. It shouldn't be a situation where they own the album or the work. We're talking about intellectual copyrights. If they're going to, indeed, be a delivery service, then that's fine. But even Fedex doesn't say that they own the thing that they ship, right?"

Clad in a white winter hat, Vince Carter jersey and track pants, the singer also spoke to 200 audience members about his other pet peeve — the current state of music.

"I think everybody knows, the audience even at this point, that a lot of music that comes out now is pre-packaged pop and it's made with computers and it's real evident when people play live that there's some trouble going on.

"I think kids need to hear live music so that they know what it's really about and then hopefully they'll pick up an instrument and keep this thing going.

"If kids don't learn the craft of songwriting and playing an instrument, real instruments and making real music, then we're going to lose this art form."

Additional articles by Ashante Infantry

Thanks for posting, matey.

Why won't he build a school where kids can learn how to play instruments. He could easily hire some music teachers or someone who could teach those kids how to play an instrument or whatever. Or he could even set up a music learning center or something.
He's got the money to do it.
It's cool he's voicing his opinion, but if he really feels strongly about it, shouldn't he do something about it?