♪Prince, Has Lost The Plot ♪ Prince, To Sue A Lot ♪

One big serious yawn. The only thing good about Prince is the Chappelle skit. BTW, your “in September” links back to the BBC article instead of the TechCrunch previous post on Prince. Stop offending.

These Web Sheriff people must be good. According to their website their services include “analysing the entire internet in relation to a client’s IP portfolio”. That’s the *entire* internet, people. Makes Google look like a minnow in the data mining world.

He was great in the last millennium - but he really proves to be a loser in this one. Guess the party was over in 1999.

Web Sheriff is a spoof website, surely?
http://www.websheriff.com/websheriff/outlaws.htm

Congratulations to The Aritst Formerly And Still Known As “Who?” for enraging both of his fans.

Who said that musicians don’t have the right to protect their intellectual property? It sounds like he’s going overboard but the article you are linking to has very little in the way of specifics and fails to include the identity of the spokesperson who claims to represent all Prince fan sites.

I also think that it would be safe to say that any artist who peaked in the 80s would have a diminished fan base in 2007. That said, Prince is still in the top 1% of musical performers in the world right now having sold at 21 concerts in London earlier this year.

Having read (well, skimmed) the September comments thread, I’m going to put the average number of comments each Prince fan makes with different names in this thread at seven. You can’t expect to question the artistic relevance of Prince and get away with it, y’know, even if you are a blog mainly focused on Web 2.0 startups. Anyone care to bet on the over-under?

We’ve started pretty well already. “That said, Prince is still in the top 1% of musical performers in the world right now having sold at 21 concerts in London earlier this year” says Rob, the Amazing Human Press Release.

Web2.0 related :
Sharing, living a revolution in the distribution system, having the majors stop skimming both artists and fans… all that I agree 100%.
Here, the artist himself is fighting to preserve his own rights. That’s normal.
(OK, the photo issue is a little different and that’s more related to a sick habit of Prince).
Open source, Creative Commons & all must be encouraged, but everything connot be free.

Prince related : (trying not to act as a basic fan…)
Just be carefull when writing on a topic you don’t really know.
Not So Ultra Popular ≠ Washed up
He has radically changed his approch, was of the first to struggle with his Rec Co., has done a great incursion in different styles of music (Jazz is not the taste of everyone), and even if the last album is in fact really bad, the fan base is still very strong, and more than that, the performance and productivity is still the same, enhanced with 30 years of experience.

I never meant 2 cause u any sorrow
I never meant 2 cause u any pain
I only wanted 2 one time see u laughing
I only wanted 2 see u laughing in the purple rain

Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain

I only wanted 2 see u bathing in the purple rain

I never wanted 2 be your weekend lover
I only wanted 2 be some kind of friend
Baby I could never steal u from another
Its such a shame our friendship had 2 end

Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain

I only wanted 2 see u underneath the purple rain

Honey I know, I know, I know times are changing
Its time we all reach out 4 something new
That means u 2
U say u want a leader
But u cant seem 2 make up your mind
I think u better close it
And let me guide u 2 the purple rain

Purple rain purple rain
Purple rain purple rain

If you know what Im singing about up here
Cmon raise your hand

Purple rain purple rain

I only want 2 see u, only want 2 see u
In the purple rain

unfortunately he is listening to his lawyers instead his agent and publicit, and making a really terrible move. hopefully there will be adequate backlash and this will die here.

I actually like his music alot The Godzilla one is the best ! hahaha

Clear lack of understanding of the web model.

WebCurrents

Duncan: Cease and Desist.
It has been identified that the image used in this article is copyright protected. Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince, then as a symbol, and now again as Prince — what does his mom call him?) has determined that at no point in time you may use a picture of him and a spanner together. Prince alone is ok, spanner alone is ok as well, but not the two together.

Duncan, I agree with your take.

Since I am a huge fan of TechCrunch - do you think Mike would mind if I copy/paste all TC posts to a new blog and start selling ads around it?

Im not going to link back to you…but I am sure you guys will not mind since I am one of your biggest fans and I know you would not attack your fans! Its just content.

I wonder why he does this. The musician who is sometimes considered to be a genius is now out of money or what?!

So, basically we have to call him, “he who shall not be named, nor photographed”

He’d be better be somewhere in the studio, writing a dozen of new songs, than doing this kind of stuff!

Who’s Prince?

Duncan. Like the writers he Prince probably survives between work and albums with the sales of his music. There is a price to fame. He can’t leave his house without getting mobbed and he certainly can’t go to his local 7/11 with out feeling scared. Recording artists have obsessive fans and they need. Recording artists also usually peak in the late twenties / early thirties. So don’t expect prince to be releasing another purple rain any time soon.

This out-dated mantra of “give-music-away-let them-make-money-another-way’ is asinine. Giving this shit away will only work if you subsidize it with advertising or other sponsorships e.g. combining the downloadable units with sponsored media. Or do you know of another way that can even come close the revenue and royalties Prince deserves?

TC continues to innovate!

No one has commented on the musical notes characters in the title of this post. Never seen that before.

I would’ve avoided using non-alphanumeric characters, worrying that they wouldn’t “travel” well.

I wonder if there was an editorial discussion. Did you guys test it on a bunch of feed-readers? Give us the scoop!

He will have problems. Artists should not brag with fans.

Money is not an issue : he still sells a lot (major being out of the way means more money directly for him), royalties for all of his hits cash in every month, and touring make him even richer : London : 400 000 attendants x 31 £ (£ not $ !).

He clearly has an issue with picture since early days. It is even worth now : during shows, there are more people chasing would-be-photographs than people in his band. They even don’t track people recording the shows because of that…

It’s in no way related to content/web2.0. He is way past that.
He was among the first (of the big ones - no pun intended) to sell his music online, he won a Webby last year, etc…

He gives more to his fans than every other player, hudreds of shows, after shows, online songs, and an album a year.

I really think it’s just a “mental disorder” (maybe the word is a little strong…) regarding his appearance.

Duncan, did you write this to try to vindicate yourself from your previous asinine post? I am not a huge Prince fan by any means, but get a life. You are a clown.

♪ please focus on tech related news ♪ leave Prince alone ♪ {x2}

♪ oh Duncan, focus on tech related news ♪ leave Prince alone ♪ {x2}

I’ve been a huge Prince fan for ages, and it seems like every couple of years he pulls a “WTF?” stunt that ticks off the fanbase and makes him look like a complete jerk and sends the media into a tizzy about the crazy has-been celebrity and his disintegrating career and bla bla bla…

…and then Prince picks up his guitar and we forget about all that silliness. It’s the music that matters. That’s all that ever matters…

You really did not have to use terms like “Prince’ ever decreasing fan base”, it does not add any value to the article and most probably does not hold true anyway. Although this was a sad decision by Prince, he’s still a very talented musician, so next time please consider leaveing out those unnecessarily disrespectful comments. Thank you.

Prince dissapeared up his own ass years ago when he changed his name to a symbol.

I don’t understand how taking away a fan’s pictures from a fan’s website is a way of being loyal to your fanbase.

Well, now we know why he won’t show at the Cow Palace during Oracle OpenWorld. Let a thousand Lenny Kravitz fansites bloom.

Any word on what the Revolution thinks about all this?

Prince Sucks AZZ - Always has, always will!

J O U R N E Y A L L T H E W A Y !!!!!!!!!

Prince is going down the tubes. It doesn’t matter that his songs are cool. Perhaps he’ll write “slave” on his cheek again? Slave to the masses…

@Simon : “Prince dissapeared up his own ass years ago when he changed his name to a symbol.”

This, even if advertise as a rock-star-fantasy, was only a legal matter.
He was bound for another few years to the Warner under the name Prince.
So he choose another one to be able to produce without them.
The day after the end of the contract, he called the press to tell his name was Prince again.
Once again, the majors and their lawyers…
mo2c

Lot of such issues happening now a days

http://lapnol.blogspot.com

Go Web Sheriff, Go! I do like it when morons make an arse of themselves.

Pretty crazy response for an artist who has previously been pretty net friendly.

Why couldn’t he just ask fan sites using his copyrighted material to add a link back to the official site as attribution - better yet, why not assign each asset with a contextual link that either goes back to the Prince site or to his store where visitors can buy his albums.

Game, Blouses!

Only like him cause chappelle

I am a fan and I don’t agree with all this fuss and cannot support PFU they do not speak for me or some of my friends who are also fans or as I prefer to put it admirers of Prince’s music. I really don’t think this is the way to go about proving thier point. Suing Prince ? him suiing his fans ? none of that computes and from what i have read untrue in both cases. I may be blinded by love and loyalty - but the man has given us so much just recently 21 nights of fantastic music that I thought could just not get better and each night it did. I can’t whole heartedly say I agree with Prince or his record company’s actions or PFU but like I say I don’t believe either cases have been put forward truthfully. I have faith that Prince has a plan and if he is doing what they say he is doing he’s doing it for a reason and I trust him - he has always given me what I want and I feel to print Prince fans are to sue him - is wrong, untruthful and extremely ungrateful - most of the fans I know are extremely grateful for ALL the music he has given us and thats the most important thing not the pictures for goodness sakes.

All Prince fans are united against Prince ? think again before making such blantantly incorrect statements the website organisers might be upset with Prince but most Prinec fans I know are not against Prince at all - in fact we support him - his actions might be considered a little heavy handed but I think that is more to do with his “people” than him. As far as I can tell he did “ask” that his pictures be removed and his wishes observed and I for one as a “fan” not a fanatic - think thats ok and perfectly understandable. HQ, etc seem to imply that its more to do with free speach and critisim, but again I do not agree - there are a lot of fans that seem to complain about every little thing, some did not like the last album, some complained he don’t tour as much etc - but on the whole we as fans are not blinded by love and loyalty more we are united in our love and loyalty to a great musical innovated who has brought great love and joyment to so many people over so many years - I wish we could remember that and not this silly arguement that looks to be turning ugly and untruthful. Please stop it - after all its only pictures !! the man has given us so much especially for us in London over the last few months and I for one am extremely grateful - I got everything dream I ever wished for come true and thats down to one man !!!!! one man - come on people remember whats important here - the music !! love and peace to you all x

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND THE PROBLEM OF MENTAL ILLNESS

http://jwbookstore.bravehost.c.....lness.html

[This is not intended as SPAM.]

Prince, you piece of garbage, you have just lost me as a customer forever and if I ever listen to your decent stuff (your newer work is crap), I’ll pirate it.

Prince, You’ll never get a penny from me again, bastard jackoff.

You were so talented, what happened to you? You greedy piece of crap;.

My daughter’s not too happy about this. She asked me to shred her Prince poster & sell the pieces on ebay. where it is now

Took me a second to grok why you put a wrench in his picture.

Tool, indeed.

Mick Russom - why so nasty ? does his actions really warrant such vitriolic outpourings ? shame on you, try a bit of love 4 one another !!!

That’s actually rather sad. He’s been able to innovate in the music industry because his fans love him so much. And now he disrespects them.

honest wtf was prince thinking? he had everything going on 4 him, but since he rather be money ungry s.o.b. now you can see many of his fans dis-ownhis music 4 ever! Prince, or the “artist formley known as Prince” you will NEVER get another penny from me EVER! I rather u be bankrupted and lose all u have! GOD put u where u should of been, and now ur SUEING your FANS……do u throw darts 2 find out who you are going to sue next! here is a nice reward 4 you
X-Prince The One Who Thinks Hes Better Than Anybody Else! w2fg!