RIP Prince

[Mithrandir]

"I wanna be your lover" was one of my first 45 purchases.

But he was a jerk for not allowing his music on Youtube.

[mjl]

He couldn't block this one at least.

[Rush]

He was prolific in producing new music, there is more music in his vaults than he ever released. Jimmy Jam was on a local MPLS on today and was talking about the quantity of music that Prince produced. He said that Prince would get an idea and write song after song, and the record companies of course didn't want to issue that much material. It would go in the vault, and Prince would never listen to it again because he'd be moving on to something new. Jimmy said Prince never looked back. For Prince, it was all about having control and ownership of his music.

[Fresno Bob]

Greatest Super Bowl halftime show ever......

[johnnya24]

While I do agree with the points that johnny made, I will say the entire generation you refer to could have at least gone out and bought a damn record.

"But it's not my fault! I didn't know about Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf...they weren't on youtube."

Yeah times sure have changed. Then again, it's rare that someone is going to go out and buy a random record by someone they've never heard of before. I bought a Buddy Guy record once, but only because I was could rent it for a week. Even the pre-Internet era, we bought records based on songs we heard on the radio, or MTV, or read about in articles or interviews. Youtube is all those things rolled into one ... you get the music, links of other related music, you google the artist.

I get the impression it's a power thing with Prince. He wants control over everything, and if he can't have it, he'll burn it all to the ground. He spent all that time fighting for control, then the changing technological conditions ripped it way from him again. I don't think his ego could stand that.

In the modern environment, exposure is more important than anything else. You need to appeal to a larger base, and extract revenues from multiple sources (rather than unit sales). Pulling music from the mega streaming sites is akin to boycotting radio airplay back in the day (i.e commercial suicide) ... it's a really naive, and in the long term, a counter productive response. The genie is not going back in the bottle.

I don't think looking at this revolution in terms of good / bad, better / worse is really helpful. The underlying conditions for how the industry works have fundamentally changed. Technology has transformed the entire fabric of the industry - creation, manufacture, promotion, distribution, sales, extraneous revenues. The record industry temporarily lost control of their product, and their inability to adapt opened the door to industry parasites (opportunists?) like Apple, Amazon, Spotify etc, all of whom intimately understand the new conditions, have muscled in on the profits, but give nothing back to the industry in terms of creation, discovery and risk/reward. A combination of incompetence and opportunism made the medium more important than the music, and that's the ultimate problem.

The Industry got fucked by Apple et al because of their own incompetence, and the Industry's response isn't to adapt, it's to do what they have always done, fuck the artists by stripping A&R funding and demanding artists sign 360 Degree clauses giving the record companies control over all revenue streams, not just sales (merchandise, streaming revenue, advertising, image rights, concert profits). "Artifact" is a really good documentary about the struggle Thirty Seconds to Mars had with the EMI (still on Netflix I think).

It's getting off topic, but I think Prince is certainly as guilty as the industry at large for failing to adapt, and it could severely effect his legacy (and the success of his back catalog) if the lawyers continue to firewall his music for future generations.

But then again ... maybe Prince just didn't care ... or did he care too much? I personally see Prince as an extraordinary once-in-a-generation artist and talent, who only fleetingly reached his potential. I don't think his musical legacy is as good as he thought it was (or could have been).

[Hornsby]

Great article here about Prince's troubled relationship with the internet...

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2016/03/08/469627962/poor-lonely-computer-princes-misunderstood-relationship-with-the-internet

[revo]

It's kind of sad these days that TMZ is easily the most reliable news outlet. Everyone else just follows along.


"Prince was treated for a drug overdose 6 days before his death ... multiple sources tell TMZ.

We broke the story ... Prince's private jet made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois last Friday, hours after he performed in Atlanta. At the time his reps said he was battling the flu ... something we questioned because his plane was only 48 minutes from home before the unscheduled landing.

Multiple sources in Moline tell us, Prince was rushed to a hospital and doctors gave him a "save shot" ... typically administered to counteract the effects of an opiate.
Our sources further say doctors advised Prince to stay in the hospital for 24 hours. His people demanded a private room, and when they were told that wasn't possible ... Prince and co. decided to bail. The singer was released 3 hours after arriving and flew home."


Read more: http://www.tmz.com/#ixzz46WTFru6X

[madducks]

Both shocking and sad. I grew up listening to Prince during the early 80's when he produced quite possibly his best work as 1999 & Purple Rain were both released during my high school years. At one point in 1984, Prince simultaneously had the No. 1 album, single, and film in the US. It was the first time a singer had achieved this feat.

With all of the unreleased music reportedly contained in his vaults, there may still be new music from Prince for years to come. Hopefully, more video footage gets released along with lightening up on the Youtube censorship.

[Lucky]

Yeah times sure have changed. Then again, it's rare that someone is going to go out and buy a random record by someone they've never heard of before. I bought a Buddy Guy record once, but only because I was could rent it for a week. Even the pre-Internet era, we bought records based on songs we heard on the radio, or MTV, or read about in articles or interviews. Youtube is all those things rolled into one ... you get the music, links of other related music, you google the artist.

I get the impression it's a power thing with Prince. He wants control over everything, and if he can't have it, he'll burn it all to the ground. He spent all that time fighting for control, then the changing technological conditions ripped it way from him again. I don't think his ego could stand that.

In the modern environment, exposure is more important than anything else. You need to appeal to a larger base, and extract revenues from multiple sources (rather than unit sales). Pulling music from the mega streaming sites is akin to boycotting radio airplay back in the day (i.e commercial suicide) ... it's a really naive, and in the long term, a counter productive response. The genie is not going back in the bottle.

I don't think looking at this revolution in terms of good / bad, better / worse is really helpful. The underlying conditions for how the industry works have fundamentally changed. Technology has transformed the entire fabric of the industry - creation, manufacture, promotion, distribution, sales, extraneous revenues. The record industry temporarily lost control of their product, and their inability to adapt opened the door to industry parasites (opportunists?) like Apple, Amazon, Spotify etc, all of whom intimately understand the new conditions, have muscled in on the profits, but give nothing back to the industry in terms of creation, discovery and risk/reward. A combination of incompetence and opportunism made the medium more important than the music, and that's the ultimate problem.

The Industry got fucked by Apple et al because of their own incompetence, and the Industry's response isn't to adapt, it's to do what they have always done, fuck the artists by stripping A&R funding and demanding artists sign 360 Degree clauses giving the record companies control over all revenue streams, not just sales (merchandise, streaming revenue, advertising, image rights, concert profits). "Artifact" is a really good documentary about the struggle Thirty Seconds to Mars had with the EMI (still on Netflix I think).

It's getting off topic, but I think Prince is certainly as guilty as the industry at large for failing to adapt, and it could severely effect his legacy (and the success of his back catalog) if the lawyers continue to firewall his music for future generations.

But then again ... maybe Prince just didn't care ... or did he care too much? I personally see Prince as an extraordinary once-in-a-generation artist and talent, who only fleetingly reached his potential. I don't think his musical legacy is as good as he thought it was (or could have been).

I think this is an excellent analysis of what has happened. My snarky comments were more directed at the kids (get off my lawn!) who spend too much time behind the computer and not enough in the local record store, but what johnny is saying fits everything together from artist to ultimate consumer.

[madducks]

Autopsy is being performed this morning. Not sure when the results will be made public.

Within hours of his death, all Prince CDs and DVDs sold out on Amazon.

And his videos are being posted more frequently now on youtube. It will be entertaining just to watch youtube censors try to keep up with the video onslaught. Enjoy them while they last.

[TranaGreg]

... I don't think looking at this revolution in terms of good / bad, better / worse is really helpful. The underlying conditions for how the industry works have fundamentally changed. Technology has transformed the entire fabric of the industry - creation, manufacture, promotion, distribution, sales, extraneous revenues. The record industry temporarily lost control of their product, and their inability to adapt opened the door to industry parasites (opportunists?) like Apple, Amazon, Spotify etc, all of whom intimately understand the new conditions, have muscled in on the profits, but give nothing back to the industry in terms of creation, discovery and risk/reward. A combination of incompetence and opportunism made the medium more important than the music, and that's the ultimate problem.

...

things really have changed ...and I can't help but compare then & now ... I can remember talking to a good friend in the late '80's about how frustrating it was that a new CD was $20+, and how it was getting harder & harder to access music that wasn't curated by the big producers & record companies - access to university radio stations was largely the only way. Things have spun around 180 degrees ... and in comparison I prefer the current state. If I were a professional musician I'm sure I'd be looking back fondly at the glory years, but there were a lot of musicians back then who had no choice but to tow the corporate line, whatever that meant, and no question that impacted a lot of the music that was produced.

[Mithrandir]

Was he an addict, or this a one time accident?

[johnnya24]

Was he an addict, or this a one time accident?

His "flu" episode last week was an OD, and one week later he's dead. Gonna say addict.

[Hornsby]

Was he an addict, or this a one time accident?

It certainly was never public knowledge if he was...the narrative now is that he was in chronic pain from all the abuse that his body took from performing. At least one replacement hip, if not two...painkiller addiction is my bet since the autopsy will most likely show that he dies from an opiate overdose.

[Controller Jacobs]

While I do agree with the points that johnny made, I will say the entire generation you refer to could have at least gone out and bought a damn record.

"But it's not my fault! I didn't know about Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf...they weren't on youtube."

But that's the thing - Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf are all really easy to find on youtube - either entire albums or individual songs in an ordered list. Outside of Prince, the missing songs/albums are usually smaller acts from pre-1990.
I'm not judging his decision, just noting how remarkable it is that one act seemed to be the one that so thoroughly accomplished it, and the resulting vacuum.