yeah i know theres already other threads on this but i just heard,does anyone think prince is a dick for doing this,doesnt it support him in the long run,the youtube videos and audio are reduced quality,its not like anyones gonna convert the youtube videos to dvd or mp3s and make money off of him,in effect he will be losing money with this descision cause youtube is a great promotion for artists,i mean prince sells buggerall records these days as it is.doesnt he need all the promotion he can get,type in michael jackson he has nearly 100 thousand videos on there,he sells more records then prince he dont care about people uploading his stuff,and anyone in the music biz knows mj is a good businessman,if he thought he would be losing sales he would pull his stuff to,alot of people have no idea how talented prince is and what hes achieved and now thats hes pulled his videos he will go further into obscurity,i know for prince this about control,but its impossible to control it over the net people can share his stuff in many other other ways like ftp etc....u have to work with the system not against it,prince is gonna feel the backlash of this descision,mark my words,luckily i downloaded all his videos before they were removed

riverdean7 said:

I think it also reveals that he is an accomplished artist, he has nothing to prove to anybody anymore (a bit arrogant some people could think).
His name is easily associated to wonderful artists such as James Brown, George Clinton, Parliament, Sly and the family Stone and so many other talented people...
I am sure the Internet helped him to get known by younger fans which is a positive thing.
I use You Tube a lot myself mainly for music and it allowed me to discover some very talented artists or to watch musical videos or documentaries before I was born. If we only rely on the maintream music these days,the musical world and musical knowledge would be very poor.
I agree with you it is a shame especially for his fans or people who know very little about him.
The best thing is to share the passion for music.
I think I mention his name every day to people trying to convert them, let's hope the word of mouth will work for a long time.

nb: sorry for my writing style but English is not my first language

it isnt about money.
it isnt about publicity.

it is about having 100% control over anything remotely related to Prince, including a simple photograph of him. He believes no music, video or photo should be shown without his approval. I agree with this to an extent. Unpublished music should not be out there. That is his right. However, published music and videos, as well as photographs, are in the public domain and he should not try to control that 100%.

He made the choice to become a celebrity. That puts you into the public eye. Not saying he should have his privacy invaded, but if someone wants to take and post a picture of you while in a public place, then you open yourself up to that.

If it was only about the music, He should have been a ghost writer and played in inconspicous night clubs, not a musical celebrity!

Celebrity status is nothing new, nor was it back in 1978.

well we know prince is one of the most bootlegged artists,i think this though will turn out to be one of the worst moves in his career,when u consider how big youtube is and the amount of people u can reach on there,like i said u cant control the internet,u can control the big sites but small sites are just gonna pop up everywhere,and it will go underground,i mean if u were to take a worldwide poll i bet a major majority of his fans will want his stuff on there so in effect he is working against his employees,his fans and whenever u work against something rather then with u will suffer in the long run

I think this has to be the most ridiculously assinine thing Prince has done and I've been around for all 29 years, I've watched him do some dumb things!! This takes the cake! It just really does!

Fuck youtube

Prince needs help.I don't know if he's seeing anyone professionally but he really should. He obviously have control issues that he should deal with. I'm glad he's as musically gifted as he is because if he wasn't who knows what these issues would cause him to be or worst do, Before anyone jump on me or do a search for my past posts, yeah I said aliens created humans and say lots of things people may misconstrew as "crazy" but atleast I recognize that I'm not working with a full deck.

This issue is all about Prince's massive ego which may be justifiably so but it doesn't excuse the fact that he's his own worst enemy. It's like this, we look at it and it makes sense of how ridiculous attacking youtube is because we're somewhat sane (or saner than Prince atleast) because it exposes him to a new generation who couldnt see or listen to his older work the first time around and will gain him a new fan base. Prince is so arrogant that he sees it like this, Prince believes his newer work can attract new fans far better than his older work. That's why he's in new hurry to release old concerts or remaster his catalog or anything. He believes he's as good or better than he ever was so what's the point in doing any of that.

The simple fact of the matter is that's not true. Me personally (I'm 25 by the way) I like his 21st century stuff better than anything he released in the past century. I think it's more musically well bounded has a certain maturity about it that stands out like a sore thumb in comparison to his past stuff. Again I'm 25 and I'm not working with a full deck. The fans who drive up record sells are younger than me and his older stuff will appeal to them more, so much more that they'll check out his newer stuff and maybe even grow more as far as their musical perception goes for doing so. Prince should really respect his past more and leave Youtube alone because not only would it hurt him (as far as attracting new, younger fans) but people whi don't give a damn about him would start to hate him if youtube is changed, people who aren't much aware of him now but maybe down the road may be fans would never give him a chance if he's viewed as the person who killed youtube (killed in the sense of the way it use to be). This is a fight he should just drop, or upload his older stuff intentionally. Is he ashamed for wearing leg warmers and bikini's in a trench coat? He shouldn't be, that was a part of his past that helped him become the person he is today rather it was something he regretted it or not he grew from it. You can't run from the past and that's what he's trying to do I think. Freud is dead, Spock is dead, I guess the best we have is Dr. Phil so maybe Prince should go on Dr. Phil and try to get help for his issues.

i agree i mean can u imagine any young hip people liking any songs from the planet earth album,i cant the old songs are the best way for new fans to discover him.maybe now that prince is a jesus and bible freak hes embarrased by some of the old prince,who knows i think the 2 worst descisions in his life are this youtube thing and joining the jehovahs witnesses,by the way i dont think your aliens created humans thing is that far out,ive read alot of david icke and zecharia sitchin