I know it's been discussed a lot, but it really is too bad Prince doesn't allow his music on Youtube. The exposure he loses I feel is severe and really limits young people from discovering him.

Youtube is how a lot of young people find music today.

We are getting a foreign exchange student from Italy and my wife and I have been chatting with her. Getting to know her. I mentioned that I liked Prince and she responded that she's never heard of him. It's a shame that I can't send her a youtube link to hear "Kiss" or "When Doves Cry" or something.

But how would she (a young person from Italy, but it applies to the US, anywhere) know Prince when he's not a current radio artist and he pulls all of his stuff off the internet?

Anyways... just had to vent.

[Edited 7/31/15 14:59pm]

Jackzilla said:

I know it's been discussed a lot, but it really is too bad Prince doesn't allow his music on Youtube. The exposure he loses I feel is severe and really limits young people from discovering him.

Youtube is how a lot of young people find music today.

We are getting a foreign exchange student from Italy and my wife and I have been chatting with her. Getting to know her. I mentioned that I liked Prince and she responded that she's never heard of him. It's a shame that I can't send her a youtube link to hear "Kiss" or "When Doves Cry" or something.

But how would she (a young person from Italy, but it applies to the US, anywhere) know Prince when he's not a current radio artist and he pulls all of his stuff off the internet?

Anyways... just had to vent.

[Edited 7/31/15 14:59pm]

Social media as a whole... He's losing his exposure faster than any artist I would be confident to stand by that claim.

He's one of the best, musical genius's that in 10 15 years that generation... How will they know about him? Buying his cd's or vinyl's with only a minimal catalouge from the 80's still available...

It's the generation gap especially at this place, when it comes to the new sound of Prince as well as the new distribution. So many people slam streaming, yet how old are they?? Yes they have their cd's and vinyl's, good for them, but that's not the point. The point is accessability to MUSIC in this day in age where everything is diposed by the push of a button... The more he keeps playing this games, he will be irrelevant to the general public, even more so, than of those who argues he was already irrelevant to the general public long ago...

Without Youtube, streaming and proper social media engagments he is really really HURTING his exposue... How many people bought Plectrum Electrum?? Less than 64,000... In the whole WORLD.

Jackzilla said:

pureTsexy said:

I converted many people to fans through his videos on YouTube. The younger generation have no idea how well rounded this guy truly is. Prince's fan base is dying out, and he's doing absolutely nothing to gain more fans. In fact, it seems he's trying to do all he can to prevent getting new fans. No youtube presence, no twitter, no facebook, no iTunes, most of his albums are out of print, little to no promo on new albums, etc etc.. there's just no logical explanation for this

In 10 years... Man he's done, for the new generation... The old fans here are fine, they have the boots, the cd's, vinyls, dvd's, concert footage, but after that next generation and the generation after... I hate to say this but the only way this will all change in terms of remasters, concert footage, social media and YouTube is the day he... Passes...

DAV123 said:

^^^^^ Shocking statement....but I also stated this last week to a co-worker. [Edited 8/1/15 4:52am]

Same here - a friend who is trying to get into Prince wanted to see some videos and he asked basically WTF.

feeluupp said:

pureTsexy said:

I converted many people to fans through his videos on YouTube. The younger generation have no idea how well rounded this guy truly is. Prince's fan base is dying out, and he's doing absolutely nothing to gain more fans. In fact, it seems he's trying to do all he can to prevent getting new fans. No youtube presence, no twitter, no facebook, no iTunes, most of his albums are out of print, little to no promo on new albums, etc etc.. there's just no logical explanation for this

In 10 years... Man he's done, for the new generation... The old fans here are fine, they have the boots, the cd's, vinyls, dvd's, concert footage, but after that next generation and the generation after... I hate to say this but the only way this will all change in terms of remasters, concert footage, social media and YouTube is the day he... Passes...

You have a point. But look at it another way. There's too much over-exposure to information these days because of the Internet. There's too much information available, which somehow takes away from the thrill of stumbling upon something new or hunting up something which is not readily available to all.

So it could be a smart move for Prince: become a sort of a cult hero by avoiding mainstream social media, and let future generations of music lovers hunt you up, and get obsessed with your music in the process. Those who will have knowledge about popular music history in the future will always know about Prince.

Yes, the move will not let every 10-year-old groove to his music on youtube, but maybe Prince doesn't want this. He always wants to be this culture hero with enough of an aura of mysticism to remain a cult sub-culture. This way, he gets exactly that.

Are people who are doting on justin bieber or lady gaga also listening to Robert Johnson or blind lemon jefferson? No. When they want to listen to them, they will hunt them up.

There's another side to it: notable public personas who oppose mainstream mass mentality aren't always wrong. The streaming and youtube culture has destroyed the music industry to an extent that the artists get very little of the revenue share. No one buys the physical product anymore, they just license an inferior compressed sound, if at that. Most will watch a video on youtube and move on. How many times do you buy a movie after watching it on youtube?

Every music industry mass marketing move has involved an improvement in sound quality, or at least kept sound quality at uncompressed, acceptable lossless levels: with the digital mainstream, this isn't the case. Yet. The day everything is hi-res, you will have to pay for it.

We're all taken in by the entertainment freebie culture so much as part of the internet-lovestruck masses, we lose sight of the fact that this whole free music thing on the internet too could be a passing trend as internet penetration grows worldwide.

So these are the two counter-arguments. I believe Prince has thought it through. By the way, youtube doesn't have the full version of the beatles rooftop concert anymore. Will the concert disappear from our awareness because of that? Not in the least.

And yet he admits to finding the members of 3rd Eye Girl on Youtube.

As well as Judith Hill.

(As well as The Golden Hippie, FKATwigs, Harts & several other new artists he's talked up in recent years.)

So it's okay for him to use Youtube to find out about musicians & artists, but he doesn't want to afford anyone the same opportunity when it comes to himself.

VelvetKittyKat said:

And yet he admits to finding the members of 3rd Eye Girl on Youtube.

As well as Judith Hill.

(As well as The Golden Hippie, FKATwigs, Harts & several other new artists he's talked up in recent years.)

So it's okay for him to use Youtube to find out about musicians & artists, but he doesn't want to afford anyone the same opportunity when it comes to himself.

I guess

I created a blog that embeds all the Prince videos that are currently officially online on official Youtube channels (Vevo, Prince himself, related artists accounts or authorized third parties). I'm still waiting for mods approval to post a link here but drop me an orgnote if u want the link

I know it's been discussed a lot, but it really is too bad Prince doesn't allow his music on Youtube. The exposure he loses I feel is severe and really limits young people from discovering him.

Youtube is how a lot of young people find music today.

We are getting a foreign exchange student from Italy and my wife and I have been chatting with her. Getting to know her. I mentioned that I liked Prince and she responded that she's never heard of him. It's a shame that I can't send her a youtube link to hear "Kiss" or "When Doves Cry" or something.

But how would she (a young person from Italy, but it applies to the US, anywhere) know Prince when he's not a current radio artist and he pulls all of his stuff off the internet?

Anyways... just had to vent.

[Edit

The internet is your friend and plenty of Prince can be viewed or listened to. Buying it is a good idea. L

a dumb stance, but hey...his new music isn't exactly flying off store shelves, so he might as well continue to boycott youtube.

Scarfo said:

Se7en said:

It's just about money. I think Prince is looking at youtube like radio, whereas people arguing he should allow his stuff on YT are saying it's more like MTV or a billboard advertising his music. Both sides make sense - a lot of younger people do just listen to youtube as a jukebox or radio, but also it does give his music exposure like radio never could these days - it's just if one outweighs the other.

I guess it's difficult to quantify if the exposure youtube gives is worth more in sales than he would be "losing" (or not making enough of) in per click/view revenue from youtube. Since he's selling concert tickets without the exposure of youtube and his albums only sell moderately these days any way what is he really missing by not being buddies with youtube? You might argue that a generation is not being exposed to his music, I don't believe that - his name is still out there and you can find his music elsewhere online easy enough When he dies it will make the news and not just as an "...and finally" piece, they will continue to release music with his name on for years to come after and it will probably sell way more than they do now as is often the case with deceased stars - so if that what you mean by legacy - that's locked in, no worried there.

he is in a twist that someone may make a little money off his work...