RSSPrince Dumps on the Internet
Jul 06
Life in Digital, Music Comments Off
The artist known as Prince made a statement to the The Daily Mirror, a print newspaper in the United Kingdom which the artist has contracted with to release his next disc, that the internet is over. Prince is planning on giving away copies of 20Ten in the U.K. and in select European countries rather than attempting to sell it. The musician has shut down his website’s online store, and as yet, a U.S. distribution deal is only a rumor. With regards to digital sales, iTunes and other distributors are out of luck because according to the pop artist, there’s no reason to engage with them at all. If you believe the buzz, he has unabashedly called the internet a fad, and he’s so over it.
In some respects, I’m intrigued by his attitude, even if I disagree with it. The internet is the perfect example of something that’s great except when it’s not. It’s great when you can look up a minute piece of information from almost anywhere in the world. It sucks when you’re looking for something that’s probably there but for using the right search terms. It’s great that you can insta-message just about anyone plugged into the digital age, but it sucks because, phone or laptop, people expect insta-replies and know you got the message no matter that you might claim otherwise. It’s great because it greatly expands your reach as an artist, writer or other creative soul. It sucks when people steal your works and share them freely without your permission.
In theory, this is Prince’s real beef. The internet makes it too easy for his music to find itself in the hands of the wrong person. In practice, Prince has always made it clear that he expects to be paid for his creative output, nevermind the quality of his music, the relationships with his fans, or the state of the music business in 20Ten. It’s not up to you to decide whether you pay for his music, it’s only up to him. So he gives it away freely on compact disc, but cries foul at the abuse of digital media, some tracks that are purchased legitimately, some “borrowed” via nefarious internet file-sharing. The wrong person, then, is anyone on the planet who didn’t ask Prince for permission first to listen to his music.
It’s an antagonistic tactic for an artist to take, and in that light, it doesn’t really signal the death knell of the internet quite the way Prince is predicting. It may, indeed, have lost some of its novelty in recent years, but it is not in any way clear that the internet has also lost its utility. The very thing condemned by the Prince is the ability to share far and wide one’s creative output. Most artists embrace that. Prince seems determined to go the other way.
Ironically, it’s Prince’s fame (and no doubt, the sum of his royalty payments too) that he can afford to take such a strict stance on music distribution. Thank God that Prince was enslaved by Warner Bros. for all the years of his record contract because otherwise he might still be struggling to become the renowned artist that he is. He can afford to give away his works and limit their distribution and slap the hands of anyone who wants to share his music, all in the name of artistry for artistry’s sake. That fact that he still insists on bringing up the cash value of his works is as contradictory as it is unsubtle a message. It’s not about income so much as it is about control. Prince will cede the one as long as he isn’t expected to surrender the other.
For most other creative individuals, the internet is an asset, one that works because of the ease with which creative output can be shared, not because of it. For Prince, it’s just another fad.
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Andrew Marx is the author of the upcoming Smart ReMarx collection Thank You is Implied, available August 10.
