For some time now, Prince has liked to do things differently. You may recall when he changed his name to a symbol, and then back again. In 2007, he banned YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay for their users sharing his music and threatened lawsuits. He won’t even play nice with eMusic or iTunes. He doesn’t even have an official website!
He recently gave an interview (of sorts) to the British publication the Daily Mirror, where he’ll be releasing his CD for free. That’s right, his new album 20TEN will be inserted into the Daily Mirror for free in the UK and in other publications throughout Europe. He may or may not let Warner Bros. records distribute the album in the U.S. – he might still be angry with them.
He told the Daily Mirror’s Peter Willis, “The Internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it, and then they get angry when they can’t get it.”
He isn’t a fan of digital gadgets either. “All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”
“The internet’s like MTV,” the star said to the Mirror’s correspondent. “At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated.” This quote was responded to in a Mashable.com article with the question:
“Suddenly,” a.k.a. around the time the Internet started taking off, perhaps?
While MTV continues to evolve and incorporate the use of the internet (see MTV.com) Prince’s record sales have declined. See an assessment on Prince.org and see if you think his hatred of delivering and promoting his music with internet speed have anything to do with it!