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September 13, 2007

Prince To Adopt New Symbol: Tool

Duncan Riley

116 comments »

tool.jpgWashed up The still popular with some TechCrunch readers 80’s pop idol Prince has announced his intention to sue YouTube, The Pirate Bay and eBay for copyright infringement.

Prince said that in YouTube’s case it could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site: “YouTube … are clearly able (to) filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success,” Prince said.

Reuters noted that it is rare for an individual artist “of Prince’s stature to take on popular Web sites while some up-and-coming performers actually encourage online file sharing to create a fan base and buzz around a record.”

Prince was most recently in the news after he decided to give away his latest album “Planet Earth” with an English Sunday Newspaper; some reports indicated that most readers wouldn’t even take the album for free. To those few remaining fans Prince has, those who seek to share his music with others on YouTube: sorry folks, Prince doesn’t love you.

Update: apparently folks feel that Prince isn’t washed up, so strike that until I find another way to describe the act of giving away albums and punishing your diminishing fan base.

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  1. Israel

    September 13th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

    prince isnt washed up. maybe a little damp, but he still makes sales off of his earlier work. lol. why is he wasting his time? this may be a marketing ploy.

  2. Ed

    September 13th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    Indeed, as I commented over at Webware, this is strange of Prince, who usually is pro-fans. Also, Mr. Duncan, Prince is most certainly not washed-up, rather, like Israel said, a little damp, but you can’t listen to his single Guitar and tell me that doesn’t at least stir a little of the rock and roll guitar hero worship!

  3. Max

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    Turn the tables. Imagine a content aggregator site with a twist. It takes your content once per hour and reformats it for its own use. It then runs its OWN ads and Techcrunch makes nothing from its Flash and Adsense banners all over the site.

    As income slowly declines, would you be so quick on the smug draw?

    This has nothing to do with Prince. Who cares about Prince? Just keep in mind that this could happen to you, too.

  4. Yelp Sucks

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:08 pm

    Prince will be an excellent addition to the hilarious responses from Pirate bay to legal threats from Microsoft, Apple, Warner Bros…

    http://thepiratebay.org/legal

    it’s about time they added a celeb to torment and ridicule..

  5. Chris Crocker

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:08 pm

    LEAVE PRINCE ALOOOOONE!!! (wahhh) Why does everybody pick on Prince??? (wahhh) Why do you compare his videos to porn and pedo stuff??? (wahhh) NOT FAIR!!!

  6. Pot Kettle

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:11 pm

    “Washed up 80s pop idol…”

    Said a man working for the man who’s having HAMMER speak at technology conference. You’re an idiot, Riley. And so is your boss for letting you publish stuff like that.

  7. Hashim

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    What kind of trashy reporting is this? Washed up? Did you not see the Superbowl performance?

    Prince has been very protective of his content online, and he has a right to. And guess what? it’s been working for him.

  8. Jason

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:21 pm

    Right, I’m sure TechCrunch and Duncan would have no problem at all if his “fans” republished all his articles all over the web, so other websites can make money from them and people have no reason to read TechCrunch at all.

  9. Justin

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:23 pm

    You may think Prince is a tool but he has gotten more tail than all the readers of tech crunch combined will ever get. Purple Rain rules (said without a trace of irony)

  10. lawrence

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:24 pm

    lol - leave Prince alone, he’s not at all that bad…the only song i like of his is ’seven’

    i’m all for him suing, or trying to, the bigger boys.
    just for curiosity’s sake if he can pull it off

  11. PEK

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    Wow, what a trashy, ignorant post. I have unsubscribed to TechCrunch.

  12. Don Wilson

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:26 pm

    How dare him try to control his own music.

  13. Alex

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

    I was rolling when I read the title. Beautiful!

    “PEKer” see you later…..

  14. PXLated

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    Musically I’ve never been a big Prince fan but I’ve had the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time and seen him perform in smallerer club settings (warmup for tours) and I must say he’s one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen. And don’t forget, he’s been a rebel for a long time. He was one of the first to give the man the finger and go his own way. And, he’s built a music empire way beyond his own recordings. I wouldn’t discount his acumen. He does have a point with YouTube, this should be fun to watch if nothing else.

  15. Duncan Riley

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

    Wow! All dozen Prince fans have gone nuts in the comments: I’ve struck washed up from the post, however explain if you may how instead of striking a licensing deal with YouTube over the clips, that suing and therefore punishing your fan base is the act of anyone other than a serious tool?

    Max (3) I’m not supporting widespread copyright infringement, what I am suggesting that instead of simply suing YouTube there are alternatives.

  16. Birdy Yum Yum

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    I’ll second that, Pot Kettle. Prince is an exotic bird of a musician. You, Riley, are a common wren of hack writer.

  17. Ed

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:34 pm

    Duncan - Even if they tried to license the videos in youtube, there’s still users who won’t follow the rules, who will keep on uploading content even when it has properly been licensed, exposed to the world in it’s minty-fresh licensed state, and such and so.

  18. Hashim

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:34 pm

    “suing and therefore punishing your fan base”

    Duncan, he is suing corporations like youTube and eBay. Fans are not being punished.

    Prince is probably ok with the fans getting the music for free, as can be seen by his giveaways through newspapers and his live shows.

    However, he is not ok with the corporations that profit off of his music without paying for it.

    I think Prince is being shrewd and fair.

  19. Ed

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    I agree with Hashim, Prince has always shown he is for the fans. He even gave away copies of his album as you stated in the article. This had to do with marketing of course, Prince is very smart about exposing his stuff, but it also has to do with giving his fans what they want

  20. Lanny

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:40 pm

    Duncan, please, have the readers in mind. This post is worthless and irrelevant to us. And do any of us want to read your flamewar with Prince fans? Answer: no. Go visit a web app or something.

  21. Textbook Case

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:40 pm

    Yeah, this whole issue is just about stale.

    First off, the consumer has two options– buy the product at the price it’s offered, or do not. There isn’t somehow a third option of steal it and make up a bunch of lame rationalizations about the music industry or DRM. Don’t like Prince? Don’t like copyright restrictions? Don’t like the DRM he might use? DON’T PATRONIZE HIM AND LISTEN TO SOMETHING ELSE YOU AGREE WITH.

    Then on top of that, we get the weird duality that he’s out of touch and old because his contemporaries give the music away online for the buzz, but that Prince is old and washed-up because he gives away his music for the buzz.

    I also do not agree that if you say “Do not copy this,” about a work, that copying and uploading that that work online is “seek[ing] to share his music with others.” It’s Prince’s prerogative whether he wants to ’share’ his music for free or not.

    Those that disagree, there’s a whole world of music out there, there are probably a lot of artists that agree with you that music should be ‘free’. So why not share that music for them if you’re doing them a favor. Show these washed up fossils like Prince what they’re missing out on.

  22. Israel LHeureux

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

    Good thing YouTube wasn’t republishing Prince’s RSS feeds…you’d be on Prince’s side in THAT courtroom battle.

    Perhaps you forgot that yesterday you made the silly statement that “So-called link blogs in Reader already break copyright and in a small way undermine blogs and content creators.”
    http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....der-feeds/

    I’d really love to hear how you internally justify the asymmetry of your two positions. Did you drink too much last night before you posted? C’mon, just come clean :)

  23. Most Overrated business-books

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    Will they sue IsoHunt as well?

  24. Evorgleb

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:49 pm

    Wow, you called Prince washed up and thought that would fly. Prince is an icon. Anyway, I’m not sure i agree with how he’s going about things here but he’s always done things a lil different.

  25. Steve Spalding

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

    Duncan, I think you might have missed something here. Despite popular belief (popular, in this case, directly equating to *your* belief), quite a few people really like Prince. They like him because he does things like play tiny venues at cut rate prices and give his music away for free while other artists think the internet should be turned off (*EltonAhemJohn*).

    I don’t necessarily agree with the law suit, considering there are better ways to get the content aggregaters to make a deal. However, to think the a law suit is the only way for Prince to keep his career afloat is a bit naive. Of all the old artists turned modern marketers, Prince is second only to Trent Reznor in understanding the fans needs in a world where they can get content for free.

    My prediction is that after a little bit of flash we’ll see Prince signing deals with most of these companies for content distribution rights.

  26. Avinash

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:54 pm

    I agree with Duncan that there are other alternatives that Prince could have thought of instead of suing youtube. Actually, youtube and similar services tend to increase the popularity of new album releases and is a quick way to reach out to global audiences. You join hands with them not pick up a fight.

    Such a move from an artist like Prince (Yeh Duncan, I hold him in high regard. He definitely is not washed up. I diagree with you on this point :-) ) is a bit strange. I hope Prince reconsiders and strikes a deal with youtube.

  27. Johnson

    September 13th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    You know, there is a real simple solution to this problem - just insert a human being back into the equation. All uploaded content would first have to be vetted by the human before allowing to appear on a website. The artist must also first file a document allowing uploading of their content (opt-in). If not, then the content gets trashed.

    Yeah, this would throw a monkey wrench into the business models of a whole lot of sites - but it would solve much of the problem. Don’t be surprised if eventually something like this gets passed as an extension to the DCMA.

  28. steve ballmer

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    Prince is right! Copyrights are copyrights, no matter what your intentions, stealing is stealing!

    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  29. Alex

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

    Duncan, I’ve got your back. You’ve struck a nerve with some of these “party like its 1999″ clowns.

    oh, ya, if you come across an extra Tech40 pass let me know…..

  30. Greg

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:04 pm

    Goddamnit, I like Prince, but this is utterly retarded.

  31. David Mackey

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    Interesting move on Prince’s part. Probably isn’t going to help increase his fan-base.

  32. cl8ton

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:11 pm

    Prince?????

    Jayzees, I didn’t come here to read bout that freak WTF

  33. Berlin

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

    Prince wrote the song for Happy feet which won a golden globe award. His ticket sales in ‘04 was $90 million (i’m sure riley and tc makes more) He gets $8 Million a year in royalties alone.

  34. cl8ton

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    #33 - Yea but he is a “No talent ass clown” just ask Michael Bolton!

    For my money…it doesn’t get any better than when he sings BLAH BLAH BLAH :)

  35. LOL

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:26 pm

    My friend email send me this shakira whatever song. It’s soo funny it had 5,226,951 ratings

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8QH93jWZbk

  36. LOL

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:31 pm

    That’s one million times more than shakira original song.

  37. Amit Chowdhry

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:31 pm

    If no one else is going to say it:
    “Why Don’t you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?”

    Then Prince made us pancakes…

    If no one else knows what I’m talking about, look up Prince on The Chappelle Show.

  38. Evan

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    If Prince is so washed up then why does the fact that he is cracking down on pirating even an issue? I believe in free information, bit I also believe in fact. Fact it what sets you free.

  39. Roman

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

    3 words:

    Little Red Corvette

  40. Roman

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

    Baby, I’m much too shy.

  41. Eric

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:43 pm

    This post lost all credibility before starting…. Prince has always made great music….washed up.?..lol… *shaking my head in disapproval****

  42. Victor

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    Prince had the top grossing tour in 2004 with $84.7 Million in sales. 2004 is well-past the 80s. And his 2005 album 3121 topped the charts:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/ne....._the_chart

    Somehow I think that equates to 1) Not being washed up and 2) Having more than a dozen fans as you suggest.

    What an ignorant out-of-touch post. Forgive the name-calling: but you are a freakin’ moron.

  43. Eric

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Lmao @ post # 37

  44. Michael Arrington

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:47 pm

    Duncan, there are some good comments here questioning your stance on this v. link blogs. would love to hear you mesh the theories in some convincing way.

  45. Matt

    September 13th, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    37/Amit - LOL! Thanks, I needed a good laugh.

    “you know where you got that shirt, and it damn sure wasn’t the men’s department”

    -Another chappelle quote for the uninitiated

  46. Dominic

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:07 pm

    Duncan

    YOU’RE ALL WET ON THIS ONE. PRINCE ROCKS, AND I’M PROBABLY OLDER THAN MOST HERE. I WILL REPEAT SOMETHING SAID ABOVE, ‘ HOW DARE HE TRY TO CONTROL HIS OWN CREATIVE WORKS’. GET A CLUE DUNCAN.

  47. Bryan

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:11 pm

    This is a Bull ish post that borders on slander. Prince has a consistent history of taking care of his fans while fighting against corporate exploitation. He’s always been on the progressive edge of digital distribution, and he’s never been shy of giving away his content. There’s nothing in Prince’s history or in his quotes that suggest that he would have a problem with fans sharing his content amongst each other. Prince has a problem with a corporation, Google, piggybacking traffic from what amounts to exploitation of his content. Did you even read his quote?

    Do I completely agree with his tactics? No. But I would never say Prince doesn’t care about his fans.

    And no matter how brilliant any work of art is, it is always in the eyes of the beholder. So what if a majority of readers aren’t interested in listening to a Prince CD? I would find it even more troubling for Prince if the opposite were true. There are plenty works of musical genius that would appeal to only a fraction of the population. It’s a cheapshot thing to say in the first place, much less attributable.

    I know it’s fun for tech geeks can make whatever snide comments they want about Prince the public figure, but the fact of the matter is, most musicians are very much exploited by the major labels — even before the post-Napster era, and yes, even many of the famous ones. Sure, there are plenty of musicians that might strategically choose exposure over control. But give the man a break: he’s done a whole lot more to push the music industry forward than push it back.

    I write about Google’s approach to content in light of VIACOM lawsuit in my latest blog entry, although from a whole ‘nother situation.

  48. Brian Clark

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:12 pm

    Duncan, complain all you want about Prince’s judgment here, but the man is a musical genius with a large following.

    He also historically been a marketing genius, so let’s see how this works out for him. I tend to think he’s making a mistake, but it’s always wise to watch those who have had much more success than perhaps any of us ever will before coming to rather broad and hasty conclusions.

  49. Duncan Riley

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:23 pm

    Michael:
    there is a difference between wholesale across the board copyright infringement with link/ spam blogs and the odd fan video on YouTube: note I’m not condoning copyright theft in any way and certainly if PirateBay is hosting full albums illegally then they should possibly be on the end of the law suit (they’re not US based, and as far as I know they are a directory, but that’s not the point). I do think Prince suing because his biggest fans post the occasional video on YouTube is beyond stupid, particularly when there is an alternative: YouTube already has a licensing deals in place, there is nothing stopping Prince from negotiating with YouTube for a licensing deal that would be a win:win: He gets paid and his rabid fans (it would appear he has many by the comment stream) could continue using YouTube to promote his material to a wider audience; after all, isn’t the objective of any commercial artist the promotion of their works to as broad a possible audience? What this action does is send a big FU to Prince fans who want to share their clips with others.

    Brian Clark
    A marketing genius doesn’t sue the worlds largest video site…unless of course this is secretly all a giant publicity stunt in which case I’d have to stand corrected.

  50. Don Wilson

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    Duncan, I think you’re clearly misguided.

    a) PirateBay hosts nothing but torrent files. YouTube hosts the actual video(s). How you think YouTube is legit and PirateBay is not is beyond me.

    b) Why does Prince have to negotiate with a completely that illegally hosts the files, makes a profit, /then/ seems a little interested in making deals with the artist that it ripped off.

    c) Prince is the last artist on the face of the earth that needs to get “promoted”. I’m fairly certain everybody who would buy his album has already heard of him.

    d) Sharing clips is illegal. Prince owns all of the material (or at least partially) and has the right to fight for what he owns; he shouldn’t be harassed by bloggers that don’t care for his music to and be called childish names.

    And for the record, Prince is the last musical artist that I’d listen to, but the level in stupidity saying that Prince shouldn’t have the right to fight for what he owns raised my concern to post a comment.

  51. Amit Chowdhry

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:40 pm

    GAME: BLOUSES!

  52. Jon

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    Duncan,

    Weak. (sorry, but it is)

    Check your local listings, I’d imagine Prince is about to announce a tour soon.

    The objective of today’s artist is to sell concert tickets and t-shirts. The records, as Prince shows by giving them away, are there mainly to support that effort.

    An example of this on a much smaller scale:

    I’m in a band. We’re pretty damn good, but really can’t sell music to save our ass.

    Last week, our mySpace page had over 5000 people downloading our music. We also played four shows in the last two weeks. Made over $4000 in performance guarantees and merch sales.

    This morning I received a PayPal transfer for $28. This was for music sales made via iTunes - for the last 3 months.

    So, yes, this appears to be another Prince marketing stunt - and not a half bad one.

    I mean, you know, you covered it.

    Jon

  53. Danny

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:54 pm

    I think Duncan is the one with a “diminishing fan base”.

  54. MikeW

    September 13th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    hahahahaha - That was funny Danny (#53)

  55. cl8ton

    September 13th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

    Seriously, I can’t believe we are talking bout Prince on a tech blog ?!?!?!

    Think I will turn the channel for a while, not that anyone will notice, but we are out there!

  56. Reply to Don Wilson

    September 13th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

    Don Wilson, you are the one who is misguided.

    a) YouTube videos are highly transcoded with low-quality mono sound. At best, YouTube videos are akin to xeroxed pages of a best-selling novel. On Pirate Bay, you get high-quality stereo tracks of Prince’s music, which is rightly a concern for him.

    b) Your assumption that fans posting home-made Prince videos on YouTube is “illegal” shows your bias, because there has not been a legal precedent that determines the afore-mentioned activities as “illegal”. Perhaps Prince’s lawsuit, if he goes all the way, might determine that, but for now, you cannot make that claim.

    c) Prince is a perpetual self-promoting machine. Promotion is no doubt in the minds of him and his handlers. Saying Princes does not need promotion indicates that you have a poor knowledge of how pop music business works.

    d) Only a biased person with no legal education would declare “Sharing clips is illegal”.

    Prince’s lawsuit is all about two things: “Promotion and Ego”. He is a conceited musician who thinks 80 million dollars (a year) of income is not enough, and regards those “little people” who share his videos online as peasants who dare to gawk at his mansion.

  57. Don Wilson

    September 13th, 2007 at 11:47 pm

    “Reply to Don Wilson”

    Thanks for showing your true colors (read: cowardice) and remaining anonymous.

    a) They’re still very available and easily sharable with not a penny spent, let alone any revenue sent to the artist. Lack of quality doesn’t make up for the fact that it’s illegal. PirateBay, again, hosts nothing but torrent files. You’re blaming PirateBay for what it’s users do. Since you like to suggest that I know nothing of legal nor music industry, I’ll point out the obvious fact that you know nothing about file sharing, and as such, should strict your entire comment from a reply, but I’ll grant you what you want.

    b) They’re certainly not legal. Whether or not he chooses to do anything about it is correct, and since he has, I imagine taking it to court would find it illegal.

    c) You got me there, I’m not an expert on “pop music”. Clearly neither is Prince and his “handlers”, seeing as how he hasn’t been popular since the late 80s.

    d) Sharing a video clip is fine. Sharing an illegal clip, and YouTube doing absolutely nothing about it, can return in legal action. Even someone without a legal degree would be able to figure that one out.

    This isn’t the middle ages, people are not considered “peasants”, only by the likes of you are such words and terminology brought up. I think you’re the one that is too good to reveal your precious identity, sitting atop your high-horse of anonymity. Please reply with your real name and email, or do not bother replying again, as you will not be considered a real commentator.

  58. Berlin

    September 13th, 2007 at 11:51 pm

    just keeping you up-to-date, mr riley:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=4IbPGxYWS_k
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=2Y7c1_gK8Os

  59. Maneck

    September 13th, 2007 at 11:55 pm

    I don’t think prince gives a **** about the free video content floating around, and it’s clear the $$$ are made from tours. So there is some credibility in Duncans assertion that prince is saying FU to his fans for the sake of some free PR for himself…

  60. Zorba

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:09 am

    decent writers or journalists leave their own biases at the door.
    What does your personal taste in music have to do with the fact that Prince is suing these sites? thats right? please grow up

  61. Israel LHeureux

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:20 am

    Duncan,

    1) I think it’s disingenuous to portray the Prince/YouTube case as the “odd fan video”. From my counts, it’s more like (10’s of?) thousands of videos and (10’s of?) millions of viewers. Virtually all of Prince’s catalog is there.

    2) And if the “the objective of any commercial artist the promotion of their works to as broad a possible audience” applies to Prince, then it applies to bloggers’, too. Even more so if they have syndication feed. Doesn’t it?

    Nevertheless, I’ve been trying to parse through what you said in today’s post vs. the one from 9/11 in order to come to some rationalized, objective picture.

    I can now see one potential, but unvoiced, concern:
    Small time blogger publishes a post about a New Thing. Malicious GReader user shares the post and adds a “buy v!agra h3re” comment. GReader shares have a higher PageRank than small time blog. User searches for New Thing, and lands on the GReader share page with spam, instead of the original blog.

    Is that what you’re concerned about?

    If so, it’s a PageRank deficiency, not a copyright issue. Solution: Google could easily give GReader Shared Items a PR of 0 to make it unattractive to use the service for spam. Users would find the original sites first.

    If that’s the problem you’re contemplating, by all means shout it from the rooftops. It’s perfectly OK to ask Google fix their busted PageRank and do a better job of detecting spam blogs and link farms. Good luck, though, because it would come at the expense of (tens of?) millions of dollars of AdWords revenue.

    But please don’t conflate legal syndication with copyright violation or PageRank deficiencies.

    Fair? Happy to buy you drinks to discuss further.
    Cheers.

  62. Richard

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:57 am

    Well, who’d have thought that a sloppily researched and polemically written post about Prince of all people would get Duncan in hot water.

    Goes to show that people should stick to writing about things they actually know something about.

  63. karlfest

    September 14th, 2007 at 1:12 am

    Jeez, the poor guy tries to keep exercise his IP rights and the press comes down on him. Never forget, he’s the guy that came up with all the music, not YooToob. Why shouldn’t he try doing whatever he damn well likes?

    The next person who complains about a composer getting shirty about having his stuff strewn around the net should try writing one, just one, song.

  64. karlfest

    September 14th, 2007 at 1:15 am

    @Maneck. Duncan knows absolutely nothing about the music business, which is why this post reads so amateurish. He is fine to write as a fan, but he shouldn’t be writing as an industry professional.

  65. andrei

    September 14th, 2007 at 1:16 am

    I think Duncan you’re plain wrong, Prince’s fan base is nothing but diminishing.

    Name another artist who fills up the O2 in London 21 nights in a row (!!!!!)

    Prince is suing YouTube who’s making money on the music he gives away, not his fans.

  66. BAS

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:14 am

    This is just another symptom of the industry changing. The ancient structures in the music industry are finally evolving, after being frozen for decades. It may take another couple of years but eventually old fashioned artists like Prince will be extinct.

    The only way in which young artists can break the wall that Record label majors and artists like Prince have thrown up to prevent them from getting in to the industry, is by using new publicity tools like YouTube and MySpace. Growing up using these tools makes it less of a threat for them than for dinosaurs like Prince. It’s just part of the landscape they grew up in.

    People like Prince have tried to cage information for a long time, and the last couple of years it seems it’s finally breaking free. Since this is inevitable, it’s very strange that he tries to fight it instead of working with it.

  67. Sophie

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:35 am

    Duncan, apparently you don’t understand Prince or his music. He isn’t washed up and is one of the best artist you’ll ever see. If he decides to take off these videos it’s his right, they’re his afterall. I respect him a lot and will always continue doing so. By the way, check out one of his concerts before judging him, it’s an experienc you’ll never forget.

  68. Paul J

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:57 am

    Put this in perspective people - whether Duncan Riley is right or wrong is a non-issue. Why? Because this is a blog - the very raison d’être of the medium is to express opinion. If he doesn’t like ‘The Artist Presently Known as Tool’ then let him say it - no one is saying you have to agree with him.

    You’re all acting like he’s walked into you house on Christmas day and pissed all over your kids presents. So he doesn’t like Prince - get over it and move on.

  69. Tom

    September 14th, 2007 at 4:13 am

    Prince is currently in the middle of 21 dates at the 02 arena in London. Yes that’s 21 dates over 8 weeks, all of them sold out, about 300,000 tickets sold for between $60-$500. Washed up, I think not!

  70. Connnector

    September 14th, 2007 at 4:38 am

    A very Perezhiltonesque post by Mr. Riley! perezhilton.com

    Juicy and full of gossip. Just what we needed for the start of the weekend!

  71. Matt

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:30 am

    apparently folks feel that Prince isn’t washed up,

    Uh, it’s called denial… I’m with you Michael - definitely washed up!

  72. Matt

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:31 am

    DOH! I meant Duncan…

  73. LonelyBloggers

    September 14th, 2007 at 6:45 am

    Good - I hope these copyright infringements are eventually honored as all of those stolen content clips obviously get more views than anything else (over regular user submissions)… My view numbers would soar if YouTube removed all of the copyrighted material on their site. Go Prince!

  74. Erik

    September 14th, 2007 at 6:58 am

    Stick to tech criticism, please. Prince is one of the most widely respected musicians living today. More on topic, this sounds a lot like the anti-napster stuff that turned off so many of Metallica’s fans.

  75. Chris

    September 14th, 2007 at 7:20 am

    For all you Prince nay sayers, least not forget the best Super Bowl performance ever.

    http://www.veoh.com/videos/v727100EtdShMcG

  76. Pidge

    September 14th, 2007 at 8:18 am

    I agree with Tom (comment 68)

    I was one of the 420,000 who recently paid £35 to see him at the O2 stadium (the former millenium dome) just a few weeks ago (20,000 seats x 21 shows).

    Every single show was a sell out. The one that I saw was amazing - and I’m not even a fan (girlfriend bought me the ticket).

    “washed up” he ain’t

  77. Tool Police

    September 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am

    The Tool Police are out in full force and there is a warrant for Duncan Riley’s arrest.

    Anyone that knows anything about music, even if not a fan, knows that Prince is a genius and one of the most talented musicians in the last 30 years.

    Rumor has it this is Duncan’s favorite video on YouTube:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

  78. Gary King

    September 14th, 2007 at 8:44 am

    Damn, this is the first comment I’ve made here in ages. First of all, it’s entertaining seeing all of the backlash to Duncan calling Prince a tool. Secondly, I agree in that he still rocks right now. He’s far from washed up, especially compared to some of the artists that have been around recently and have disappeared into oblivion already. He definitely has longevity on his side!

  79. alexanderpink

    September 14th, 2007 at 8:55 am

    In the words of my favorite group Hot Chip…”I’m sick of mothafuckas trying to tell me that they down with prince”…prince embodies rock, I am sorry you can’t see that Duncan!

  80. Brian Clark

    September 14th, 2007 at 9:12 am

    >>A marketing genius doesn’t sue the worlds largest video site…unless of course this is secretly all a giant publicity stunt in which case I’d have to stand corrected.

    Well, people are definitely talking. His Royal Badness would make a hell of a blogger. :)

  81. @56 Anonymous "lawyer"

    September 14th, 2007 at 9:27 am

    @56

    Good thing you remained anonymous or your business would run into the ground, one wonders where you got your law education from…certainly not a school that is accredited by any means.

    The proliferation of copyrighted material, especially if you profit from it, can be considered a tortuous act, and even punitive damages applied.

  82. E.T.Cook

    September 14th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Duncan,

    I think that a lot of the backlash that you are receiving is because you are attempting to speak for a group of individuals, of which you aren’t a representative.

    You assert that Prince is screwing his fans, but yet its his fans that are defending him. It seems to me that you are out of touch if you didn’t expect the response that you received.

    I was surprised by your post. Not to the extent that the subject matter was poorly chosen, but your lack of insight (at least worthwhile insight) leaves a lot to be desired. Your analysis seems very rudimentary and myopic.

    I don’t want to lambast you more than you already have been…it just seems like one of those posts that you published, and afterwards wanted to retract. What I don’t understand, however, is your decision to further goad your readers by being even further condescending. You are the one that is seemingly washed up considering not just your first post, and the responses, but the manner by which you chose to respond to the comments.

    No Duncan. You can’t just go back to bed, pull the covers over your head, and hope this day didn’t happen. You definitely look like a jackass today Duncan, and I am not even a huge Prince fan, but I do respect the man.

  83. Derek Scruggs

    September 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am

    I’m not a Prince fan, but he played at the Super Bowl last year. That doesn’t seem washed up to me.

  84. Don Jones

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:00 am

    Duncan, you mention how Prince should do a licensing deal with YouTube - boy that’s a negotiation I wouldn’t want to sit in on:

    Prince: I want to strike a licensing deal with YouTube.

    YouTube: We’re going to allow all of your videos to be posted for free, whether you like it or not. But we’ll take a cut from you in return for not allowing that.

    Sounds of shakedown in the background…

  85. Andrew Hallock

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:01 am

    Prince’s new symbol, “tool” - love it.

    While Prince may be a great performer, turning himself into a symbol was lame. It’s just as lame as “Diddy.”

    And the sky is falling because his body of work is being distributed on video sharing sites? What shall we do? I welcome the day when we can freely share information and art; find another way to monetize your work.

    The ability to spread ideas and artistic work, especially that which can be spread so easily via the tools at our disposal, far outweighs someone’s copyright. Copyright law was enacted so that people would continue to create original work - for motivation; there are so many different ways to monetize that work nowadays, it’s ridiculous; so where’s the deterrent to not create it?

  86. a sober note

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:24 am

    A check with Wikipedia tells me that Prince was born in 1958; that makes him 49 years young. I think his Royal Badness is getting the “approaching 50″ jitters.

    Rolling Stones sold out their concerts, too, and I would call them “washed up”.

    Curiously, Prince is also suing eBay, which means that here is a case of a 49-year-old man who does not know about the new technology, and is putting eBay and YouTube in the same class. This is probably good news for YouTube lawyers because it is clear that you cannot hold hosting companies responsible for what their members do. MySpace would be out of business long time ago if it was held responsible for its members’ actions.

  87. john

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:41 am

    prince def. is washed up, i’ll agree with duncan on that one… maybe all of the tech crunch readers who have taken such offense to such a minor comment are all old and washed up too?

  88. buster

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:52 am

    prince is lame now. i’ll agree with ya duncan. i’m having metallica flashbacks

  89. Mr. Goodnight

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am

    But fans are being punished.

    A fan site of his, housequake.com, gets notices every day from Prince’s lawyers. Prince thinks he owns every image of himself, regardless of who took the picture. He will not allow any independent fan site to have any pictures of him posted. Fans take pictures of him during his concert, post them to message boards to share, and Prince immediately gets his lawyers to send letters requesting their removal. Web Sheriff has succeeded in getting Photobucket to shut down accounts that have any Prince photos!

    This has been going on for years and years. It started back in 1997 when Prince tried to get all of his fan sites to shut down and join his own site (love4oneanother.com), so he could control the flow of news about him and his music. When certain sites refused, he tried to sue them for using his symbol (which was his name at the time!) without permission, sending cease & desist letters to fan sites.

    Look it up yourself on google, or use the wayback machine to check out Prince’s website http://www.love4oneanother.com back in 1997/1998. You’ll see references to all of this.

  90. Dave

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    Sign O The Times was his last good record, he hasnt been relivant since. Nobody has ever cited “batman” as an album that influenced them. Thats why he’s been lying about playing his hits for the last time since the mid 90’s.
    Play purple rain then sod off… actually dont bother, I’ll just download it.

  91. Dave

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Oops, I forgot to mention, Prince’s website 3121.com has at least 2 links to other artists work that were not uploaded by the artists themselves.
    http://www.3121.com/blog/?s=finesse

    His tourbook also contains a picture to which Prince does not own the copyright.

    Fans who joined his download club cannot play the songs they paid for anymore because he has removed the licences.

    He doesnt care about “artists rights” he cares about cash. What a tool.

  92. Chris

    September 14th, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    Prince is a tool. I completely agree with Duncan on this one. The guy hasn’t had a decent hit in a long time. He’s living off his 80’s and early 90’s stuff. Anyone that says that new album is good must be smoking some of the good stuff. As a matter of fact, pass me some of that!

  93. techcrunchreader

    September 14th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

    According to : http://umrg.com/artists/default.aspx?aid=545

    “With more than 100 million records sold, Prince launched his web-centric NPG Music Club in the early ‘90s, pioneering direct sales and value-added content that would become the artist-driven online entrepreneurial model artists and internet gurus would be flocking to by the end of the decade. ”

    100 millions records sold…

    According to an article published on 11.May.2007: http://www.nme.com/news/prince/28295

    “Prince caused an internet booking site to crash after it took just 20 minutes for more than 140,000 tickets to be snapped up by fans.”

    Come on Duncan… show him some respect.

  94. Duncan's Autodial

    September 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

    Seems like someone called their friends to rally support for the Prince haters (doh).

    It’s just as much about the quality and content of your post as it is about Prince and his legal issues. Not the kind of writing I would expect from TechCrunch.

    Have not seen a reply from DR since 40 posts back…

  95. jackmayhofferr

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    Ducan — You are the only tool here. Once again you let your personal feelings get in the way of objective journalism. Truly bush league — congrats

  96. April

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

    I’m just here to stick up Rick Roll…

  97. April

    September 14th, 2007 at 2:47 pm

    Oops! I meant that I’m just here to stick up *for* Rick Roll.

  98. Rick

    September 14th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    I guess playing multiple instruments better than most musicians play one instrument is now considered “washed up”.

  99. TekWek

    September 14th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    Duncan must feel like Charlie Murphy now….!! eat bitches

  100. A.S.

    September 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    Seriously Michael — I’m hope you’re not paying this guy for his posts. They are nonsensical, unrelated to anything else on this blog, and just generally a waste of time for everyone here.

    If I see another Duncan post like this one, consider me unsubscribed.

  101. OVERTHEHILL

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    HE NEVER CARED ABOUT FANS!!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF HIS LOWLIFE EGO. HE GAVE THE BEST LONGTIME FANS THE WORST SEATS AT HIS CONCERTS ON PURPOSE TO EXTORT FROM LOYALTY!!! HOW LOW IS THAT TO MAKE SURE THEY GET THE WORST SEATS INTENTIONALLY?? THATS HOW LITTLE RESPECT HE HAS FOR ALL THE DEVOTION. HE IS A LOWLIFE SCUM, AND SHOULD GET A REAL JOB. ITS SO OVER FOR HIS STALE SOUND. MAKES YOU WONDER WITH THE REAL PRINCE MUSIC HE DOES TODAY, WHO REALLY DID THE HITS FROM THE PAST. DOUBT IT WAS HIS WORK. TIME PROVED IT.

  102. OLDMANBYTHERIVER

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

    EVERYTHING HE DOES IS FOR HIS OVER PATHETIC NEED FOR THE PRESS, WHICH DOESN’T BOTHER TO COVER HIM MUCH. ANY ARTICLE, BLOG ECT, IS PUT OUT FROM HIS OWN PRESS MACHINE. HE EVEN CRASHES THE REAL CELEBRITIES EVENTS TO STEAL THEIR HARDEARNED PRESS. HE SHOWS UP AND GATECRASHES WITHOUT AN INVITE TO GET IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS MEANT FOR THEM. HOW RUDE IS THAT. NEEDY AND SOOOO OVER WITH. I SAY CLOSE DOWN ALL FAN SITES AND LET HIM SHOVE IT!!!! HE SHOULD BE TAUGHT A MAJOR LESSON ABOUT RESPECT. HES JUST A FAKE. CLOSE ALL PRINCE SITES!!!!!!!! SHOVE YOUR CLIPS FROM UTUBE AND BELIEVE ME CHINA IS NOT MAKING PRINCE ITEMS FOR SALE, THATS BULL!!!!! HE IS JUST MADE BECAUSE UTUBE SAVED US FROM SPENDING MONEY ON HIS EGO. THANK YOU UTUBE FOR SHOWING THIS LOSER AS HE REALLY IS!!!!!! THATS WHAT HES REALLY MAD ABOUT. HE WANTED TO STEAL MORE MONEY FROM US, FOR THAT LOUNGE LIZARD ACT. THE CLIPS SHOW HOW BORING IT REALLY WAS. THE ARTICLES HIS PEOPLE WRITE ABOUT HIM ARE REALLY OVER THE TOP BULL. THIS SUE EVERYBODY STRATEGY IS JUST FOR PRESS. PRINCE ONLY CARES ABOUT HIMSELF. HE RUINED MUSIC BUSINESS, HE DIDN’T INVENT THE BUSINESS DEAL.HE SCREWED EVERYBODY HE EVER DID BUSINESS WITH. THEY WERE THE VICTIMS, NOT HIM.

  103. PAYTHEREALWRITERS

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    I WOULD SAY THE PRINCE MUSIC OF TODAY AND THE LAST FEW YEARS IS THE REAL PRINCE BELIEVING HIS OWN PATHETIC HYPE. WHOMEVER WAS THE REAL TALENT BEHIND THE HITS FROM THE PAST, IS LONG GONE, AND DIDN’T GET CREDIT OR MONEY FOR THEIR WORK THAT MADE HIM FAMOUS. THEY PROBABLY DID GET HIS LEGAL LETTER AFTER HE STOLE THEIR IDEAS. RUTHLESS. THIEF, KING OF BALONEY, YEAH TRUTH HURTS.

  104. I don't need glasses

    September 14th, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    To Duncan’s brothers:
    - OVERTHEHILL
    - OLDMANBYTHERIVER
    - PAYTHEREALWRITERS

    you forgot to disable the “cap lock” key on your keyboard!!!

    http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/Caps_Lock_key.html

  105. Don

    September 14th, 2007 at 9:13 pm

    Man ,Prince had his new cd delivered thru a local British paper. In doing this his cd ended up in the hands of a least 3 mil people immediately, he gave them away . This caused the cd to be in the hands of customers who might not have bought it.

    He also made over $500,000, the going rate is 10% which is $300,000 FUNDED. The cd before only sold 80,000 copies. He bypassed the record companies with a new distribution channel. Another stream he uses is he gives away the cd with the tickets, it’s already in the price, FUNDED!! I got one on his last tour that I attended. Would I have gone to the store and bought it? No. But I did! He gave me INFO and I bit.

    No middle man!! Other artist are looking at his business plan. 3 Mil copies moved in 1 day. At least 10,000 people a concert. 21 already soldout concerts in Britain! Overseas!! Big crowds:-) Some will have purchased 2 copies. He faded the bootlegger, he gave them away, prepaid. GAME!! The paper sold an extra 600,000 copies, money made. Grizzle!!

    “thefamous”

    Article Click Here:

    http://www.time.com/time/arts/.....ne-sidebar

  106. Marc

    September 14th, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    Riley… honestly. I really think Arrington keeps you around for comedy relief. Your posts consistently generate lots of comments (usually in disagreement) because you make the most inane statements. Yes, this time it’s your opinion of Prince (sometimes opininions can be wrong). You write with all the worldly experience of an eighteen year old. Seriously, this really breaks the camels back. I just don’t think you have the breadth or depth of knowledge that TechCrunch requires. TechCrunch, send him away… send him far away.

  107. Printz

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    Out of the thousands or R&B and Rap stars, I bet you would be hard pressed to find more than 5 people that would not list Prince as an influence or inspiration to their careers.

    Let alone the rockers that know Prince rocks (there are many). It’s your tone that puts people off here. You just sound angry and bitter, especially in your replies.

    If you owned up to your unnecessary slant to this article and apologized for your candor, it would go a lot farther than your silence has over the last 24 hours.

  108. WowTheIgnorance

    September 14th, 2007 at 11:41 pm

    Prince has been suing and threatening and hassling fans for years for as little as using his name on an I Love Prince page. There are numerous online discussions, newspaper and mag clips, and a published book about this. His public statements on these matters are always disingenuous. Always.

  109. Stefson

    September 15th, 2007 at 8:01 am

    Great post Duncan, I’m with you on this one.

    Prince makes more money a month than most people ever do in their entire life. And then sues because people upload crappy clips to YouTube??

    Get a grip man, he should join the Metallica club…

    I have nothing against the man, purple rain kicked butt, but come on.

  110. John

    September 15th, 2007 at 10:44 am

    When I first read your posting, I thought, wow, this guy is going to get blasted… I don’t really follow the music industry, but my friends who do, who attend a lot of concerts, etc… I would hardly call Prince “washed up.” I have heard from several friends who have attended Prince concerts that he is simply the best live concert performer, period. Britney Spears, now that is another story…

    Prince has every right to defend his intellectual property. It’s amazing how much copyrighted material there is still on YouTube, even though they are getting sued left and right and promise to implement a copyright filter and supposedly take down ever piece of copyrighted content requested by content owners.

  111. Greg

    September 15th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    Nothing against Techcrunch but you are nothing short of hack writer Duncan.

  112. maths

    September 15th, 2007 at 10:01 pm

    Muhammad Saleem has done a great analysis of this development on his blog called Prince and the Art of Career Suicide at http://muhammadsaleem.com/2007.....r-suicide/

    At the same time, the other contender for the title of People’s Artist, Trent Reznor just announced in China that he would rather his fans fileshare than buy pirated CDs. More of the Trent Reznor chat at http://www.music2dot0.com/archives/36

  113. Laura

    September 18th, 2007 at 6:01 am

    How can an artist be washed up when he just sold out 21 shows in England a country he had not toured in since 2001. His 2004 tour grossed 100 million dollars. Only new artist new YouTube. P does not need You Tube and hard-core fans have all that stuff on Youtube in their private collection.

    You guys need to stick to the tech talk or good read up on copyright laws. I do not see how it is legal to show copyrighted material and not compensate the artist. You tube makes money off their ads and I do not see them giving any of that money to artist.
    I sometimes think so many African-American performers are not on their A game when it comes to their money and work that it must be shock to see Prince on top of things financially. I do not see anyone calling the Rolling Stones or Metellica washed up.

  114. steve

    September 18th, 2007 at 3:47 pm

    Good for price I hope he wins against the YouTube Copyright Infrindgers

  115. Nicci Starr

    September 20th, 2007 at 2:02 am

    I don’t get where your coming from and you are entitled to your opinion but in my opinion no one comes close to Prince - he is truly the best and I have a lot of friends that agree with me. Whatever his reasons for the cease and decist notices, I can’t say I agree or not on that matter as I don’t know all the details but to call this man washed up ??? you need your head examining this man is talent on legs, he is and always was a mega star and if he stole those hits, which I do NOT believe - then he’s even more talented then even I thought, but I do NOT believe that he did that. Its been a treat to see him 21 times and I don’t think that it can have been deliberate that die hard fans got the worst seats - there really aren’t any really bad seats - so stop hating on the man - he gave us plenty purple love this summer and I am HAPPY for that - Thank U Prince x

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