drumm23 said:

pyramidseye said:

When he appeared on Larry King on CNN, he had no idea that CNN belonged to WB.

CNN and WB are subsidiaries of TimeWarner Communications. If he had knowledge of the network's parent company, would that have been a justifiable reason to cancel the interview? I think not.

NorthC said:

Toadlips said:

Cloreen, I agree with you 100%. Back in the day when Prince was fighting to free himself from WB, I was stoked. Prince said he was gonna "free the music", and I believed him. Supposedly, WB wasn't letting him put out all of the stuff he wanted to, and when he released the 3-disc Emancipation with the promise that "this is what freedom sounds like", I actually thought things were going to work out great for the fans. It turned out to be hogwash, of course. Instead of freedom, we got crappy websites and dysfunctional music clubs. Instead of being easier to get Prince's music, it was harder.

More recently, Prince wanted us to join "Tidal" at a RIDICULOUS monthly rate in order to hear a paltry "purple pick of the week" and be left with nothing at the end of the subscription. Sorry, but I've been getting better picks of the week from bootlegs. Why is it that bootleggers are releasing better music than Prince himself? Why is Prince releasing a single live song (that wasn't the highlight of the show) from a 2 hour concert rather than the whole concert? Why was he so admant about getting the masters and then not capitalizing on them with a remaster? I just don't get it.

I'll agree with all of you who say that Prince was a musical genius, but he was no genius when it came to business. If the main reason for maintaining control over his music was to make a dollar, then he certainly missed the boat. If he thought that take down notices, overpriced fan clubs and rent-to-never-own streaming services were what freedom sounded like, then he was sorely mistaken.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002239/ His music is/was used everywhere .Do you mean not by him?

[Edited 5/7/16 7:46am]

BanishedBrian said:

Toadlips said:

Cloreen, I agree with you 100%. Back in the day when Prince was fighting to free himself from WB, I was stoked. Prince said he was gonna "free the music", and I believed him. Supposedly, WB wasn't letting him put out all of the stuff he wanted to, and when he released the 3-disc Emancipation with the promise that "this is what freedom sounds like", I actually thought things were going to work out great for the fans. It turned out to be hogwash, of course. Instead of freedom, we got crappy websites and dysfunctional music clubs. Instead of being easier to get Prince's music, it was harder.

More recently, Prince wanted us to join "Tidal" at a RIDICULOUS monthly rate in order to hear a paltry "purple pick of the week" and be left with nothing at the end of the subscription. Sorry, but I've been getting better picks of the week from bootlegs. Why is it that bootleggers are releasing better music than Prince himself? Why is Prince releasing a single live song (that wasn't the highlight of the show) from a 2 hour concert rather than the whole concert? Why was he so admant about getting the masters and then not capitalizing on them with a remaster? I just don't get it.

I'll agree with all of you who say that Prince was a musical genius, but he was no genius when it came to business. If the main reason for maintaining control over his music was to make a dollar, then he certainly missed the boat. If he thought that take down notices, overpriced fan clubs and rent-to-never-own streaming services were what freedom sounded like, then he was sorely mistaken.

Amen,Amen but,what bothers me is that these celebs pay 10% to an agent and 15% to a manager.So they aren't without blame.But,we all knew prince did his own thing.

He's only going to be known forever as The musical genius of his era, his name associated with a colour and his very own symbol, a body of work that stretches as far as the eye can see, leaving a mountain of iconic imagery for future generations to refer to forever and a day.

But he "blew it"????

Good one.

Aerogram said:

He's only going to be known forever as The musical genius of his era, his name associated with a colour and his very own symbol, a body of work that stretches as far as the eye can see, leaving a mountain of iconic imagery for future generations to refer to forever and a day.

But he "blew it"????

Good one.

Aerogram, Who doesn't know that.I think she was asking about a time in his life about the video's.Prince knew his fans were upset.As a major fan i think we all knew he did what he felt he had to do.Dont get it twisted i named my daughter after him the greatest entertainer ever.My kids and grands know who he is.I just hope other generations continue to know his greatness.So the ones that didn't will prob know his by what he died of and it just breaks my heart

Aerogram said:

But he "blew it"????

Good one.

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Uhh, yes. After leaving Warner Brothers he never gave his longtime fans nor young people easy access to his his music. Simple as that.

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His gift was making music, his talent was making music. (Or did you really follow Prince for his talents as a film director?) Yet, he put up walls for people to climb over to get that music. On July 20th 2010 I was supposed to run to the airport, spend $900 on a plane ticket to England, and once there buy a copy of "The Daily Mirror" because that was the only way to get Prince's new album. (Oh, and spend another $900 for a plane ticket home.) Prince hated bootlegs, unofficial releases, or others making money off his releases, but he seriously expected his fans to spend two thousand dollars for a round trip ticket to England just to get his latest official album so we wouldn't download it off a torrent site? How exactly were Prince music fans supposed to get that album other than doing something Prince was opposed to -- buying a bootleg of it?

.

The guy chose not to share his music readily. He kept making it, but for some reason he made his fans jump through hoops to get it. Or worse, he led us to illegally download his stuff.

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And I didn't even talk here about how he left no option at all for new fans, for young people to discover, obtain, and cherish his music.

xRachx said:

But hey, if you wanted to hear Prince just buy the record.

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But you couldn't, that's the problem.

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Oh, sure you could buy "Purple Rain" and other old stuff thanks to Warner Brothers and amazon. But how the heck were you to "just buy the record" if in 2004 you wanted to buy Prince's latest release? Join his website club, pay annual membership fees, and then pay for an album that you had no idea what it sounded like at all because it had no presence on radio or on youtube. Young people, new fans looking for the latest Prince had to jump through all those hoops and buy a completely unheard record. Hell, the old guard like us did it, but was a 17 year old kid supposed to join a webclub to buy "The Chocolate Invasion" without ever hearing a single song off it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/prog...s/p02m3sfd Not sure if this relates exactly to what your saying.But,look at this article in the link about his vault.This is before he passed away.

I don't blame Prince, he wanted to have full control of what he created. Honeslty, I wish WB intially had let Prince have full control of the releases, they shouldn't have created any barriers for him. He made them so much money over the years, even if he wanted to release 10 albums a year they should have let him. Smart business move or not, atleast they would be more available.

destinyc1 said:

Hence the word uncredited.thats why i said that he allowed.

PurpleColossus said:

I don't blame Prince, he wanted to have full control of what he created. Honeslty, I wish WB intially had let Prince have full control of the releases, they shouldn't have created any barriers for him. He made them so much money over the years, even if he wanted to release 10 albums a year they should have let him. Smart business move or not, atleast they would be more available.

No rational-thinking label president is going to permit any artist to over saturate the market with 10 album a year. The marketing and promotion costs alone would be astronomical.

Prince blew nothing but the top off the limits of art. He did what he did because he believed in his own flow of his art, artists' rights and he had the guts, power and daredevil spirit to do it. No one was like Prince and no one ever will be.

.

I sincerely doubt artists of today are still going to be making incredible music in 35-40 years. His catalogue will go on and be enjoyed for decades to come. If you call that 'blown' then so be it. Rather narrow minded.

Prince measured his success by what HE thought was important. He didnt want to fit into everyone elses freaking box of metrics and every GREAT also has spectacular missteps. So he wasnt consistent, and if he was hed be BORING. He wasnt a business machine he was a MUSIC MACHINE who used business to his own very specific ends.

HE BECAME AND IS THE BEST THERE EVER WAS ANYWAY.

Knock it off with 'Prince blew it'. NO HE DID NOT. HE DID EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED AND THAT IS NOT BLOWING IT BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.

ugh with that bs.

Identity said:

PurpleColossus said:

I don't blame Prince, he wanted to have full control of what he created. Honeslty, I wish WB intially had let Prince have full control of the releases, they shouldn't have created any barriers for him. He made them so much money over the years, even if he wanted to release 10 albums a year they should have let him. Smart business move or not, atleast they would be more available.

No rational-thinking label president is going to permit any artist to over saturate the market with 10 album a year. The marketing and promotion costs alone would be astronomical.

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10 is probably too much..I'm kind of exaggerating

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It may not be smart business but I feel they owed Prince full control of his releases considering all the money he made for them. Wouldn't the sales/tours have covered all the costs?

Cloreen said:

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In the wake of Prince's passing, something has dawned on me: Prince and his offbeat behavior with the caretaking of his music really cost him an opportunity to be a very special and extremely beloved entertainer.

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OK, I have no problem with Prince and his desire for privacy. Rare interviews with media, shut in at his home, few appearances outside of gigs...that's his choice and his lifestyle. More power to him. But it was his behavior regarding his music and its accessibility to the people that really seems like such a bad decision now.

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The outpouring of emotion after his death was really stunning. His death cut through all segments of our society. From the higher-ups to the guy in the slums; from celeb to average Joe; black, white, Puerto Rican, straight or gay... Prince reached us all. And all seemed to express great sadnes upon his passing. Newscasters all over TV wearing purple the next day, musical tributes from every artist performing, a statement from The President of The United States, a porno site named Pornhub replaced the P in its name with ! My God, the top of the Empire State Building was lit purple upon his passing! Great sadness and love was expressed worldwide. The kind of reaction a real Prince or Princess (Diana) would get.

.

Now here's where Prince blew it for all those years. Why release music only via download, or joining his club, or only overseas? I don't care that some of those records were jazz instrumentals -- he's an artist and all artists may craft what they please. But to limit the ability of people to obtain that music was flat out wrong. Look at all the Prince fans there truly are. These past two weeks have shown all those PURPLE RAIN fans were still out there loving Prince and his music. But he releases an album that can only be obtained in the newspapers of Europe. WTF? Oh, and if you want his new album "Chocolate Invasion"...go to his website, pay a one hundred dollar yearly fee, and then you can get his music. Is it any wonder that fans did not hear his music? One of his records once sold 14 million copies! The fan base was clearly there, yet he chose not to give them a fair chance at hearing his music.

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But the real problem was his Stalin-like paranoia over youtube. Go there now and read the comments on all the Prince videos. Nothing but love, love, love and tons of "I haven't seen this in twenty years! Oh, I missed this so much!" Prince kept the joy of his music from fans who loved his music. Heck, I'm a Prince fanatic and I haven't seen that "Batdance" video in decades. That should never have been the case. Never. He also kept that great music from young people who use youtube to discover music. Radio doesn't break artists anymore...and radio sure wasn't playing any Prince music the past 20 years. youtube is radio nowadays. Prince essentially took himself off the air! He hurt the people and he hurt himself. Prince's battle with youtube showed that he was extremely selfish and shortsighted.

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Prince was great, one of America's greatest artists in any artistic field...but he could have been so much more had he made his music available for the people to hear. Clearly he was beloved. Why didn't he see that? Why didn't he see that were weren't trying to rip him off...we just wanted to hear the music he made which is the music millions and millions and millions loved?

The short answer is he didn't blow anything. Once again, another post from someone that's astonished that Prince didn't try to hoarde EVERY SINGLE FAN possible; he made the choices he wanted to.

And even despite those choices, he released 39 studio albums.

There had to be 5 terabytes of easy to get to "bootleg" music - BEFORE HE DIED.

Anybody that wanted to hear most of Prince's available music would have had hardly any trouble, if they bothered just a little bit. Maybe 10 of those 39 studio albums took just a little bit of effort to get to (a search and download), but nothing too difficult if they were a big fan.

I know this also boils down to another post looking down on new fans after death. So, what? They didn't follow Prince when he was alive. They [possibly] love him now. Does that change your "relationship" with Prince?

Difficult with fans? Really? Calling fans on stage to dance, performing multiple shows in the same night, putting out more music than realistically be consumed for 30+ years, helping the community (not just his own), etc.

Create your own work if you want to give it away or put it on Youtube or allow another company or fan to make money off your work.

Bohemian67 said:

Quite simply...no. Prince did not blow it with fans. If I want to hear new music or bootlegs I'm gonna get my fix...as a fan. Prince put up many walls at times. I simply climbed over them and got what I wanted when I wanted without issue. That was me. I'm sure that is many others here as well. This is the likely nature of the hardcore fan. So him being difficult did not blow it for someone like me.

Now, the next question...did he blow it for potentially new fans not privy to a fan's perspective or recommendation? Oh, most definitely yes. The walls that he would put up are not going to be climbed by fickle young ears. And you can argue that young ears who aren't willing to listen should not be privy to his genius. Sure, that's fine. But the reality is that if the music is not readily available to predictable means, it won't be heard by new ears. If I hear of a new artist and I am curious about a new single I run to youtube. Plain and simple. And I'm 43 years old. A 20 something will most definitely do that.

We can make all the points and counterpoints about whether prince wanted to do that or needed to do that, but in this short attention span music world we live in, constant exposure is necessary to open the ears of the young. And Prince did not readily play that game. So bythat basis, towards new ears, yes...he indeed closed doors. Or in other words...blew it.

jdcxc said:

Bohemian67 said:

Prince blew nothing but the top off the limits of art. He did what he did because he believed in his own flow of his art, artists' rights and he had the guts, power and daredevil spirit to do it. No one was like Prince and no one ever will be.

.

I sincerely doubt artists of today are still going to be making incredible music in 35-40 years. His catalogue will go on and be enjoyed for decades to come. If you call that 'blown' then so be it. Rather narrow minded.

Excellent points. True fans always knew where to go for his wealth of material and performance. They would rather have a neatly packaged pop star for the lazy consumer. How many "stars" today can truly bring it on the stage? Give me a break.

EXACTLY....

Not sure what you mean, he actually released more music post Warners (through physical and online means) and even did more friendly interviews and appearances and opened up Paisley Park to fans at times. Seems like he toured more too. I sat front row center at an ONA pre-concert Q&A, walked right by him at Paisley Park at a "celebration". He was more reclusive n the 80's and early 90's with Warners in my opinion.

Cloreen said:

Aerogram said:

But he "blew it"????

Good one.

.

Uhh, yes. After leaving Warner Brothers he never gave his longtime fans nor young people easy access to his his music. Simple as that.

.

His gift was making music, his talent was making music. (Or did you really follow Prince for his talents as a film director?) Yet, he put up walls for people to climb over to get that music. On July 20th 2010 I was supposed to run to the airport, spend $900 on a plane ticket to England, and once there buy a copy of "The Daily Mirror" because that was the only way to get Prince's new album. (Oh, and spend another $900 for a plane ticket home.) Prince hated bootlegs, unofficial releases, or others making money off his releases, but he seriously expected his fans to spend two thousand dollars for a round trip ticket to England just to get his latest official album so we wouldn't download it off a torrent site? How exactly were Prince music fans supposed to get that album other than doing something Prince was opposed to -- buying a bootleg of it?

.

The guy chose not to share his music readily. He kept making it, but for some reason he made his fans jump through hoops to get it. Or worse, he led us to illegally download his stuff.

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And I didn't even talk here about how he left no option at all for new fans, for young people to discover, obtain, and cherish his music.

You are on a roll.

Your argument is laughable.

Because you have to have every piece of anything Prince released you get upset with him for releasing material that you can't easily get to? I guess he was being difficult with the fans in other cities when he performed in places you couldn't or didn't get a ticket to? So what if he released a few records by mediums you couldn't or wouldn't utilize? At last check you still had 30+ albums to tide yourself over with, not to mention several TBs of "bootleg" music, no matter that he didn't approve. It was there, and anybody who cared to look for it looked at it, listened to it, and/or downloaded it... and I'm pretty sure that includes you.

Any of those young people you're so concerned about could have done the same.

Fans didn't have to jump through hoops for anything; the music he wanted you to have, you got. Just because we wanted more doesn't mean a bit. That's our problem, not his.

1nonly said:

Quite simply...no. Prince did not blow it with fans. If I want to hear new music or bootlegs I'm gonna get my fix...as a fan. Prince put up many walls at times. I simply climbed over them and got what I wanted when I wanted without issue. That was me. I'm sure that is many others here as well. This is the likely nature of the hardcore fan. So him being difficult did not blow it for someone like me.

Now, the next question...did he blow it for potentially new fans not privy to a fan's perspective or recommendation? Oh, most definitely yes. The walls that he would put up are not going to be climbed by fickle young ears. And you can argue that young ears who aren't willing to listen should not be privy to his genius. Sure, that's fine. But the reality is that if the music is not readily available to predictable means, it won't be heard by new ears. If I hear of a new artist and I am curious about a new single I run to youtube. Plain and simple. And I'm 43 years old. A 20 something will most definitely do that.

We can make all the points and counterpoints about whether prince wanted to do that or needed to do that, but in this short attention span music world we live in, constant exposure is necessary to open the ears of the young. And Prince did not readily play that game. So bythat basis, towards new ears, yes...he indeed closed doors. Or in other words...blew it.

I disagree completely. Apathy is the only thing that closed doors to anyone that couldn't get 95% of Prince's offical output (and many hard drives of unofficial music). It's not as though Prince was not a household name to 20 somethings (meaning they didn't know he was still around). If you can't Google or MSN "Prince new music" or "Prince discography" and see if he has music you might want and don't have, you just don't want it that much. That goes for a 20 year old or a 60 year old.

http://www.goldiesparade....eneration/ This is a refresher for those that didn't know the entire situation about prince and wb.So he had one concert that had to be cancelled because he wasn't or didn't sing any of his popular songs.

@Cloreen

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Before you start throwing huge judgments around go and search for Youtube threads, specifically the poster Germanegro. He explained Prince's stance the best. It goes into much more detail that youtube or just this thread. When you've read all of that, come back and see if you're ready to be so judgmental again.

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And by the way 'No one forces you to download music for free'. That is a personal choice. Take responsiblity and stop blaming Prince.

The vast, vast majority of "true fans" became so because they heard his songs on the radio, then could go to a record store and easily find and buy his records. They could watch his movies and/or see him perform on television and/or buy tickets to his concerts.

Prince didn't garner "true fans" because we're special, superior people who woke up one day knowing the secrets to locating his music. A huge and influential record company spent a lot of money spoon-feeding Prince to the mainstream market to garner most of his "true fans".