.

[Edited 1/25/17 13:24pm]

lopez568 said:

What was his deal with his record company? How much he got paid and how much was paid for streaming are likely different figures.

lopez568 said:

I've just read this article about the songwriter of 'All About That Bass' only receiving $5679 with 178m streams http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...8m-streams

Now I'm wondering if Prince has made the right decision to not allow his videos on the site. I used to think he was just being difficult and perhaps damaging his own career/legacy by not engaging with younger/new fans. However, if there is no monetary benefit whatsoever then I can understand why he wouldn't want YouTube to profit from his hard work.

Thoughts?

The concept of pandering to "younger fans" on You Tube is almost complete bullshit regarding Prince. He doesn't owe any fans the right to allow to circulate his material freely when there are channels through which he can control distribution better. I always appluad Prince having the courage to exercise his rights on the internet and I still do.

.

[Edited 1/25/17 13:24pm]

Youtube can be a valuable promotional tool for artists who know how to benefit from it.In many ways,it has become the new MTV.

'younger fans' have grown up in an environment where copyright infringement/theft of copyrighted material is widespread. no one seems to even think twice about music piracy and folks get unduly upset over routine copyright protection measures. just my 2c

[Edited 9/25/15 6:42am]

Pretty sure Prince didn't make a dime out of me watching Let's Go Crazy on 'Video Hits' after school in 1984. These are promotional videos. They should be free. If the people can't watch him, they'll just watch somebody else...

The default cookie free edition of youtube from here appears to be Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran on landing so I can only assume a payola the actual girth of the moon would answer no to this question.

eyewishuheaven said:

Pretty sure Prince didn't make a dime out of me watching Let's Go Crazy on 'Video Hits' after school in 1984. These are promotional videos. They should be free. If the people can't watch him, they'll just watch somebody else...

Video Hits, every weekday on Channel 9? And Good Rockin Tonight every Friday night? *cheers*

[Edited 9/26/15 2:43am]

warning2all said:

I agree with Aerogram.
.
Prince is being a little short sighted on this maybe, although I can see why he's doing what he's doing, but the bigger picture is more important maybe. I don't think Prince is JUST being a penny-pincher here, I think it's more than just "I want $X for each view" - but like Aerogram says, having his old videos up on there in the most visible, accessible place possible is a fantastic promotional outlet that he's letting slip by because of other issues (which I'm not discounting as unimportant). I just think it benefits him long-term in mindshare to have his videos on there, and promotion right now - he's coming to town to play, he's mentioned on a TV show, they read an article online - people go on youtube to check out a few videos and get in to it, want to check out more etc. That's important too.

It's simple, his controlling nature, arrogance and ego are getting in the way of common sense. We have seen this throughout his career.

His stance is very hypocritical as well. He found his band on youtube, he found the bulk of his recent associated artists on youtube, he tweets links for influences of his or anything else he likes from youtube, etc, etc, etc.

[Edited 9/26/15 11:38am]

warning2all said:

warning2all said:

Music videos on YouTube are free advertising for your new music and old back catalog. How much better would have AOA sold with videos? It's not like Prince is doing himself any favors monitarily or to his legacy with his attitude to YouTube. He's very judgemental and harsh with his approach to YouTube when he should figure out how to use it to his advantage. He's not helping himself. He just comes off curmudgeonly and out of touch. It's ironic how in interviews it's mentioned how he queues up a YouTube video himself in front of the reporter. Or recruits band members he saw on YouTube.

Completely agree!!

He keeps making it harder and harder for his visibility to reach the masses in this day and age. Yes he's a legend, yes the old timers and musicians all know him. But the new generation that want to experience his greatness have to go through many leaps and bounds just to find some good footage of him back in his hay day.

Sinking album sales like HitnRun is proof that he's out of touch with the commercial market more so than ever.

anyone know how much he was paid for his videos airing on MTV back in the 80s? I don't know one way or the other, but do know that having those videos on MTV helped make him a superstar.

Exactly ^. MTV/videos were instrumental in Prince's success. I believe there was a list they released in the mid-90s of the biggest MTV stars and Prince was in the top 10, along with Madonna, Michael Jackson, George Michael, U2, Aerosmith, etc.. I think he should embrace Youtube.

[Edited 9/26/15 9:34am]

smokeverbs said:

eyewishuheaven said:

Pretty sure Prince didn't make a dime out of me watching Let's Go Crazy on 'Video Hits' after school in 1984. These are promotional videos. They should be free. If the people can't watch him, they'll just watch somebody else...

Video Hits, every weekday on Channel 9? And Good Rockin Tonight every Friday night? *cheers*

NouveauDance said:

I agree with Aerogram.
.
Prince is being a little short sighted on this maybe, although I can see why he's doing what he's doing, but the bigger picture is more important maybe. I don't think Prince is JUST being a penny-pincher here, I think it's more than just "I want $X for each view" - but like Aerogram says, having his old videos up on there in the most visible, accessible place possible is a fantastic promotional outlet that he's letting slip by because of other issues (which I'm not discounting as unimportant). I just think it benefits him long-term in mindshare to have his videos on there, and promotion right now - he's coming to town to play, he's mentioned on a TV show, they read an article online - people go on youtube to check out a few videos and get in to it, want to check out more etc. That's important too.

.

Note that you're talking about a guy who's failed to keep his post-WBR music in print. A guy who's gone through numerous websites. His absence from YouTube and other similar platforms is merely a symptom.

BartVanHemelen said:

NouveauDance said:

I agree with Aerogram.
.
Prince is being a little short sighted on this maybe, although I can see why he's doing what he's doing, but the bigger picture is more important maybe. I don't think Prince is JUST being a penny-pincher here, I think it's more than just "I want $X for each view" - but like Aerogram says, having his old videos up on there in the most visible, accessible place possible is a fantastic promotional outlet that he's letting slip by because of other issues (which I'm not discounting as unimportant). I just think it benefits him long-term in mindshare to have his videos on there, and promotion right now - he's coming to town to play, he's mentioned on a TV show, they read an article online - people go on youtube to check out a few videos and get in to it, want to check out more etc. That's important too.

.

Note that you're talking about a guy who's failed to keep his post-WBR music in print. A guy who's gone through numerous websites. His absence from YouTube and other similar platforms is merely a symptom.

I agree... Which is why Prince's career in terms of selling albums officially came to an end in 2015... YouTube and his lack of exposure has a lot to do with it.

If the new generation can talk to me about AC/DC yet they don't know who PRINCE is, he's only hurting himself.

lopez568 said:

I've just read this article about the songwriter of 'All About That Bass' only receiving $5679 with 178m streams http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...8m-streams

Now I'm wondering if Prince has made the right decision to not allow his videos on the site. I used to think he was just being difficult and perhaps damaging his own career/legacy by not engaging with younger/new fans. However, if there is no monetary benefit whatsoever then I can understand why he wouldn't want YouTube to profit from his hard work.

Thoughts?

Exactly. Youtube is a bad deal for professional content-creators.

kapo74 said:

Sure. If he does not want his music to reach the masses he has that right. Its his decision. The less popular he is I think the better because he just just keep cranking out the music. If he is popular he has to put out less and do the whole propmotional thing which slows down the output. I don't know why peple get so caught up with he has to have hits and sell millions. I would rather him keep releasing 3-4 albums a year and noone ever know except the die hards. Its great!!

trax said:

Sure. If he does not want his music to reach the masses he has that right. Its his decision. The less popular he is I think the better because he just just keep cranking out the music. If he is popular he has to put out less and do the whole propmotional thing which slows down the output. I don't know why peple get so caught up with he has to have hits and sell millions. I would rather him keep releasing 3-4 albums a year and noone ever know except the die hards. Its great!!

.

You're talking about a fantasy that has never existed.

Yes.

As a fan I'd love nothing more than for Prince to dump 3 weeks of videos on YouTube.

However there is no incentive for him to perform this data dump of music/videos that could well be considered his retirement fund. There will come a time when Prince can't or won't perform anymore. He will however still want a car to match his new shoes.

Nobody is falling over themselves to watch the video for 1999. Like most of Prince's music videos, it's dated, low budget and just not very good. Despite that, typing "Prince [insert song] video" into google will in most cases return search results which include a link to the videos. Just not via YouTube.

Where he has underutilized YouTube is in his promotion of 3EG. It's a great place to give the girls some experience on camera, so they don't "do a Prince" and fall appart when interviewed.

[Edited 9/27/15 7:06am]

having your vids on youtube is not the same as having them on mtv back in the day.

.

when your videos were on mtv, yes it was great advertising, and it did get people to go out and buy albums. the most you could do back then was record a video on to vhs, which was fuzzy at best, and if you tried to copy that to a cassatte tape to make the music protable, well..... were talking a very crappy sound by that point.

.

if you put your video on youtube, people have that on their computer, in their phone, their smart tv, everywhere they want, when they want, in pristine quality. you can even copy the video or music from youtube in pristine quality if you want it available offline. its hard to motivate people to go out and pay for it when its right there, in perfect quality. the precentage of people who buy music because of seeing it on youtube pales in comparison to the the number of people who bought albums after seeing it on mtv.

.

youtube is just another way to rip off artists. you either make nothing or next to nothing for it. then your seen as evil if you dont allow them to rip you off by posting them. youtube can be good exposure for artists just starting out, but it still doesnt mean it will amount to any type of sustainable career. this is partly why the world is over run by people making electronic music on their computer in their bedroom. real bands cant afford to exist anymore. im so gald im not a kid growing up in this world.

Noodled24 said:

Yes.

As a fan I'd love nothing more than for Prince to dump 3 weeks of videos on YouTube.

However there is no incentive for him to perform this data dump of music/videos that could well be considered his retirement fund. There will come a time when Prince can't or won't perform anymore. He will however still want a car to match his new shoes.

Nobody is falling over themselves to watch the video for 1999. Like most of Prince's music videos, it's dated, low budget and just not very good. Despite that, typing "Prince [insert song] video" into google will in most cases return search results which include a link to the videos. Just not via YouTube.

Where he has underutilized YouTube is in his promotion of 3EG. It's a great place to give the girls some experience on camera, so they don't "do a Prince" and fall appart when interviewed.

[Edited 9/27/15 7:06am]

... IT'S HIS LEGACY.

Everything is dated it's 2015, but 1999 is his legacy. Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, etc... That's his legacy NOT easily ACCESSABLE to the general public and the new genertaion.