Thom Hartmann needs to school his punk ass:

MIRvmn said:

I think this sopa thing explains why Prince hasent give out any album in 2011, he wanted 2 wait and see how things turned out b4 he released anything. Look what we got, a 2 almost 3 year old Song on a remix ep, nothing really new. An old song in a new version, Extraloveable. But why the hell no new album with new music? He just gaved us the the remix ep & old song new version just 2 please us until he sees the resault of sopa/pipa.

I think you're being really generous, when it comes to ascribing motives to Prince. I don't think it's that deep for him. In the end, neither of us could know for sure without one of us being Prince.

MIRvmn said:

I think this sopa thing explains why Prince hasent give out any album in 2011, he wanted 2 wait and see how things turned out b4 he released anything. Look what we got, a 2 almost 3 year old Song on a remix ep, nothing really new. An old song in a new version, Extraloveable. But why the hell no new album with new music? He just gaved us the the remix ep & old song new version just 2 please us until he sees the resault of sopa/pipa.

Calm down In due course he will release the love when the time is ripe. Remember, many mainstream artists do not release but every few years, and 1 thing for sure is Prince does not have a shortage of music.

As for Sopa, and as an artist, there is no 2 ways about it affecting his decisions. He's been in the bid-ness for years, doing things his own way consistently - but, he acknowledges the environment he is in, who participates and all.

A lot of this has to do with: how much control should artists have over their copyright. Publically, Prince went through this battle with WB > "slave" He freed himself.

Now, there are people out there - and I separate "fans" from these, who strictly use & abuse artist's music, such as Prince - for financial reasons. People market / sell bootlegs, etc and make money off of this

Now, should these people "non-fans" be able to do this? Should people like Mr. Dotcom be allowed to accumulate massive wealth, 18 luxury cars - because of the same types of issues that affect Prince?

The questions are deliberatly left open-ended

Image source

As far as Im concerned, as good a musician as he is, if people are pirating and illegally downloading Prince material, he only has himself to blame.

He must be the only prominent active recording artist in the world who doesnt have an official website. And his whole attitude towards some sites is wrong. If anything, Youtube can be a great source for people to discover things about Artists they are perhaps not familiar with.

I personally know teenagers who have discovered Prince by seeing some of his music videos and a couple of live clips on Youtube. The only problem for them now is figuring out how to purchase half of his back catalogue....which also due partly to Prince and his attitude towards record labels, is incredibly hard to find in the legal avenues....e.g. record stores.

Any recording artist in the world needs to use promotion to get their work out there. This is mostly dont through music videos, releasing singles, print and electronic media advertising, and more often than not this is done by a record label which is set up to promote and distribute the artists product. The artist or the record label will set up an official website that fans can access, and these days, may also use social media to promote its artists and their work, such as Facebook and the like.

Prince seemingly these days has none of this, and now even the most hardcore of Prince fans can be totally oblivious to something new that has been released by Prince. Perhaps thats the reason why he is reduced to doing free giveaways with Newspapers just to get people to take his albums home.

DFUNK said:

As far as Im concerned, as good a musician as he is, if people are pirating and illegally downloading Prince material, he only has himself to blame.

He must be the only prominent active recording artist in the world who doesnt have an official website. And his whole attitude towards some sites is wrong. If anything, Youtube can be a great source for people to discover things about Artists they are perhaps not familiar with.

I personally know teenagers who have discovered Prince by seeing some of his music videos and a couple of live clips on Youtube. The only problem for them now is figuring out how to purchase half of his back catalogue....which also due partly to Prince and his attitude towards record labels, is incredibly hard to find in the legal avenues....e.g. record stores.

Any recording artist in the world needs to use promotion to get their work out there. This is mostly dont through music videos, releasing singles, print and electronic media advertising, and more often than not this is done by a record label which is set up to promote and distribute the artists product. The artist or the record label will set up an official website that fans can access, and these days, may also use social media to promote its artists and their work, such as Facebook and the like.

Prince seemingly these days has none of this, and now even the most hardcore of Prince fans can be totally oblivious to something new that has been released by Prince. Perhaps thats the reason why he is reduced to doing free giveaways with Newspapers just to get people to take his albums home.

I'm sure those mediums you mention could and have helped Prince. Perhaps he's satisfied with the way things are - in terms of who is getting to know him. Even though he creates the impression that he has contempt for mainstream industry, deep down I think Prince appreciates being acknowledged and respected.

Praxis said:

DFUNK said:

As far as Im concerned, as good a musician as he is, if people are pirating and illegally downloading Prince material, he only has himself to blame.

He must be the only prominent active recording artist in the world who doesnt have an official website. And his whole attitude towards some sites is wrong. If anything, Youtube can be a great source for people to discover things about Artists they are perhaps not familiar with.

I personally know teenagers who have discovered Prince by seeing some of his music videos and a couple of live clips on Youtube. The only problem for them now is figuring out how to purchase half of his back catalogue....which also due partly to Prince and his attitude towards record labels, is incredibly hard to find in the legal avenues....e.g. record stores.

Any recording artist in the world needs to use promotion to get their work out there. This is mostly dont through music videos, releasing singles, print and electronic media advertising, and more often than not this is done by a record label which is set up to promote and distribute the artists product. The artist or the record label will set up an official website that fans can access, and these days, may also use social media to promote its artists and their work, such as Facebook and the like.

Prince seemingly these days has none of this, and now even the most hardcore of Prince fans can be totally oblivious to something new that has been released by Prince. Perhaps thats the reason why he is reduced to doing free giveaways with Newspapers just to get people to take his albums home.

I'm sure those mediums you mention could and have helped Prince. Perhaps he's satisfied with the way things are - in terms of who is getting to know him. Even though he creates the impression that he has contempt for mainstream industry, deep down I think Prince appreciates being acknowledged and respected.

Im sure he does appreciate being respected and acknowledged. But considering that in pretty much every interview he has done for the last 2 years, he sees fit to mention "artists not making enough money" clearly he isnt happy with his recent successes, or lack of them.

its strange to see him so bitter about his lack of success when he conducts business the way he does. i guess he still has that 'change the rules and do whatever i want to do' attitude

DFUNK said:

Praxis said:

I'm sure those mediums you mention could and have helped Prince. Perhaps he's satisfied with the way things are - in terms of who is getting to know him. Even though he creates the impression that he has contempt for mainstream industry, deep down I think Prince appreciates being acknowledged and respected.

Im sure he does appreciate being respected and acknowledged. But considering that in pretty much every interview he has done for the last 2 years, he sees fit to mention "artists not making enough money" clearly he isnt happy with his recent successes, or lack of them.

c'mon DFunk Prince is getting paid, and we love it ... when he's happy, we're happy . But, that's slightly off-topic and simultaneously related. Because when it comes to the sensitive issue of his live recordings being sold / distributed without his permission, then it does actually hit him in the pocket. i mean, he might not want 2 tour extensively each year, and use a cd to share his grooves with others...but - if there are others "non-fans" who are making huge bucks off his sound, the purpose is kindof defeated...it's like "there goes the principle of trying to live by making an honest living."

Okay, this is kinda weird. I browsed through the org archive and bumped into a topic from 2005 with this image:

Favorite Guitarists of th...ears or so ( http://prince.org/msg/8/146014 )

[Edited 1/22/12 7:32am]

DFUNK said:

Shango said:

Okay, this is kinda weird. I browsed through the org archive and bumped into a topic from 2005 with this image:

Favorite Guitarists of th...ears or so ( http://prince.org/msg/8/146014 )

[Edited 1/22/12 7:32am]

that's crazy-cool thx for sharing the link also...

Praxis said: that's crazy-cool thx for sharing the link also...

Pomade said:

Praxis said:

Well, Prince is well aware his music, especially, live...is all over the web; he could be making a huge fuss, but he's actually quiet if U think about it. I don't think he's that insensitive as some may think...in relationship to the digital garden

What do you mean? He's steadily removing videos from YouTube or having audio stripped from videos. That's a fuss.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2011/06/prince-wont-record-new-music-until-internet-under.html

So, I placed this on the bootleg thread also but it is more closely related to the comments above. The article addresses

Prince's frustration with piracy. In the article he states he is going to the White House to discuss the matter.

The question is: did he or did he not go to the Feds with his complaints about piracy and YouTube downloads and

copying? If he did, it would represent a big stab in the back to his fans.

You guys do know that Prince hates the org.