Prince, our man, did try to be a digital pioneer. He did have high hopes for the technology. I believe at first sight, he found it to be a way to make sales without cutting disc, reducing cost, cutting out the middle man who he may have felt imprisoned him, and liberating his name from any and all contract agreements.

What Prince found out is what we all have. To make it in the digital realm, you have to be super smart. There is a certain irony with e-sales. It is easy to sale a teddy bear through an e-store, but very difficult to sale anything digital, even though the format is digital. Why? Piracy of course.

What would be a solution to this? Is this it for the technology? Has it found a wall that it can not get around in solving the issue of piracy on digital media?

he could actually sell his albums in stores?

It's a catch-22.

But you know, he could be getting his music out there, making some money off of the fans who will buy it, rather than making no money from it at all and hanging on to it forever.

"when it comes time to download your work into your fans computers,

you can't have any other contractual obligations" - from exodus

"when it comes time to download your work into your fans computers,

you should have a solid bussiness plan and actually follow thu" - isten

Why cant he make exlusivity based deals with really smart people like itunes

hollywooddove said:

What Prince found out is what we all have. To make it in the digital realm, you have to be super smart. There is a certain irony with e-sales. It is easy to sale a teddy bear through an e-store, but very difficult to sale anything digital, even though the format is digital. Why? Piracy of course.

What would be a solution to this? Is this it for the technology? Has it found a wall that it can not get around in solving the issue of piracy on digital media?

I don't understand.

There's nothing difficult about selling digital music. Loads of bands/artists are doing just fine through their own repsective websites. Even un-signed bands are doing their own thing.

And I'm quite certain it has nada to do with piracy. Everyone has to accept it these days - and most bands/artists do. I think it's more down to Prince himself not really wanting to get all that music out there to us, as he kept preaching about in the latter years of the 90's. You would think an artist of his calibre would/could/should by now have an established website that would be his direct link to his fans base.

I do think it speaks volumes that he hasn't really succeeded in the digital age. There have been epsiodes, of course, but it's the beginning of 2011, and where is he (net wise)?

boscho said:

hollywooddove said:

What Prince found out is what we all have. To make it in the digital realm, you have to be super smart. There is a certain irony with e-sales. It is easy to sale a teddy bear through an e-store, but very difficult to sale anything digital, even though the format is digital. Why? Piracy of course.

What would be a solution to this? Is this it for the technology? Has it found a wall that it can not get around in solving the issue of piracy on digital media?

I don't understand.

There's nothing difficult about selling digital music. Loads of bands/artists are doing just fine through their own repsective websites. Even un-signed bands are doing their own thing.

And I'm quite certain it has nada to do with piracy. Everyone has to accept it these days - and most bands/artists do. I think it's more down to Prince himself not really wanting to get all that music out there to us, as he kept preaching about in the latter years of the 90's. You would think an artist of his calibre would/could/should by now have an established website that would be his direct link to his fans base.

I do think it speaks volumes that he hasn't really succeeded in the digital age. There have been epsiodes, of course, but it's the beginning of 2011, and where is he (net wise)?

Indeed, as you state, the fact that a multi million selling artist in his third decade of the business does not have an official functioning website is laughable.

Yes he was a web pioneer of sorts before, but he should have a well oiled site now.

[Edited 2/2/11 11:01am]

hollywooddove said:

Prince, our man, did try to be a digital pioneer.

I don't think he did. He just liked to *talk* about being a digital pioneer.

From the very beginning, he overpromised and underdelivered. It's the constant theme of every online thing he's ever done.

Piracy has little to do with it. There were very few fans who weren't willing to pay for the goods, even if they could get them for free. The vast majority of us have ethics.

The ultimate problem was that he never gave us a chance to buy what we wanted. If he'd opened up the vault, and also made live shows available (like Pearl Jam did at one point), there are plenty of us who would have paid through the nose for it.

[Edited 2/2/11 11:48am]

The internet is dead to Prince. He was a pioneer when all it was useful for was a propaganda tool. When it came time to actually use it for something else (making money, distributing music), he dropped the ball completely. And to him, the internet is dead because as a propaganda tool, it works completely against him. We're all much smarter than we were in 1996. He taught us too well to read through his bullshit as the cease & desist letters started flying.

I think Prince's failure with independence (particularly digital) in the long term is because the record company hid P's excentrisities from the fans.

Prince has delusions of grandeur on the highest scale. Up until 1996, WB had to deal with it, and to some degree, shielded the fans, putting marketing spin on pulled projects and concerts.

When Prince went independent, what I don't think he expected was a public that demanded a form of service. He wanted his fans to go along for the ride, but when he started pulling his stunts, such as forever cancelling and changing his mind, I think he became disappointed with his fan base.

He doesn't want to sign a contract for delivery, but he wants his fans to sign up to a subscription. But he doesn't wanted to commit to that subscription.

Its doomed to failure, because he promises too much and then doesn't deliver.

I totally agree he promises too much and doesn't deliver. Folks say that "he never promised anything", but in reality he dangles these carrots but offers little or no reward. The $77 lotusfailure "adventure" allowed everyone access to an $11 album and a $15 shirt. The rest of the money just sort of went into an abyss (and don't start telling me about those silly music videos everyone already had).

There is no digital curse. Piracy existed long before the post-napster generation and it will continue to exist. Who the piracy hurts the most now is the record industry because they didn't adapt their model quickly enough.

That's how you can go from Apple being in the red, to becoming the largest music store in the world--they quickly adapted to the new paradigm.

Prince probably had enjoyed an audience of at least 1 million people who will gladly fork out 10 bucks for a digital download of an album in high quality sound. Now, with all the failed websites, fans are either weary of his endeavors, or have taken a stance that they didn't get their moeny's worth before, so they'll stop paying now. Prince CHOSE to run his career like a business when he went independent, but he never developed a service-mind about himself. In Prince's universe there is only Prince, and the customer's expectations are not important.

The Internet and digital media is not a curse--Prince simply mismanaged his online presence much like he mismanaged himself throughout his career.

The very worse thing for me is that his websites (ALL OF THEM) are so amateurish feeling in design. lotusfailure felt like it was created in 1999! Dreadful. Offer a simple website, that everyone can access for free, and pay for items a la carte, and offer a good selection and quality products. Prince has what it takes to succeed. The only problem is ...Prince.

Prince could pay a college kid $1,000 to stick 20Ten up for sale on a Pulley or Google Checkout store and sell a couple hundred thousand units at $5 keeping somewhere between 97 and 98 percent of the pre-tax earnings. That’s not hard, doesn’t require smarts, and bootleggers and pirates have been giving him millions of dollars a year in free advertising for decades.

Prince’s digital problem is that Prince is crazy. He refuses to just build a simple music download site. Everything has to be some wacky conceptual subscription service that fails to live up to its promises, doesn’t work right, and works in a mix of religion and general wackiness. If Prince had the sense to just get a few Stanford grads to set up decent digital distribution system for him he could bring back the Paisley Park label and teach the music industry what a 21st century music magnate should be. If the original NPGMC had been run this way it might have lived up to the hype and he would have signed half the musicians in America by now.

There's no digital curse at all. Lots of musicians are making fans and themselves happy with internet.

The problem is Prince repeatedly used internet to scam and swindle his fans.

That's why now he had to invent that the internet is dead.

Of course: it's dead FOR HIM.

Why? Because HE KILLED IT.

Period.

Great points and I agree with just about all of them.

Prince doesn't want piracy with his digital music??.... what's the difference if someone shares his music online or buy the cd/tape and share copies of it or online??? We've been doing this for years.

Same thing, except Prince can cut out the middle man and have more $$ in his pocket.

Geez... just open up the vault already and share/sell that shit before you die and no one will hear it. Isn't that what you spouted in 93' - 96' ? Give your music to the fans... except if you he can't control it totally and make every penny on it- it doesn't work.