According to the artist commonly known as Prince, in an interview with the UK's Daily Mirror - the publication that will be giving away his new album 20TEN in a cover mounted promotion this week:
"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. The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated... all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."
This is Prince's reasoning as to why there will be no digital downloads or even physical copies available to fans - other than those who pick 20TEN up with the Daily Mirror. To which, Steve Purdham, CEO of digital music site we7 said:
“There’s no denying that Prince is an unbelievable artist. However, the Internet is increasingly becoming a basic requirement of modern life, just like electricity and flowing water, and we haven’t seen anything yet as the Internet as we know it is still in its infancy. Regarding Prince’s reference to MTV, it’s just a series of TV programs which has fallen out of vogue, TV certainly hasn’t died."
enigmax over at TorrentFreak summed up this story the best:
"With nowhere else but from a newspaper in limited numbers to get the album, Prince fans will turn to the web in their millions."
Prince's business model seems to go something like this: Don't connect with your fans and don't give them a reason to buy, nor a place to buy—anywhere on the web. I bet this will be the most copied digital strategy since Radiohead.
