In the wake of his death on Thursday, here’s a quick recap of five things Prince said over the years that describe his view of the role of artists in an era of high technology. I remember vividly one interview I did much later with tennis champion Steffi Graf, the first half-hour of which consisted of her running down, in detail, her favorite Prince singles.
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Cohen says Prince was one of the top three artists he got to work with, along with Fleetwood Mac and The Who, and he was there as Prince evolved as an artist.
He had an artist development role for Warner Bros. and worked with Prince from 1980 to 1984.
He was most famously known for massive hits such as “When Doves Cry” and “Kiss” and for his album Purple Rain.
Prince’s publicist said the star was found dead at his suburban Minneapolis home on Friday (New Zealand time).
The relationship declined rapidly from that point on.
When his Warner contract eventually expired in 2000, he changed his name back to Prince for the next phase of his career.
The musician then began attempting to fulfil his contractual obligations by quickly releasing new albums, often featuring previously recorded material.
While he had many attractive women in his life, Sheila E., whose full name is Sheila Escovedo, was one of Prince’s most iconic partners. In 1993, all 72,000 tickets for his concert at London’s Wembley Stadium sold out in less than an hour.
Asked whether he still thought the Internet was “over” in a November interview with The Guardian, Prince further clarified his stance. “People make those fake death articles sometimes, but when I searched it and saw it was true, I just felt disgusting”. That’s why artists like Taylor Swift and Adele put some songs on Spotify, but not their recent albums or back catalogs, which they reserve for paying customers on other services.
Musician Prince performs at a show in Miami, Florida.
“If you ever gave him an answer that had anything to do with ‘because that’s the way we have always done it, ‘ that was absolutely the wrong answer to give to Prince”, Jimmy Jam said.
In January, he also held a “smartphone free” concert in Minnesota.
But Prince’s love story with the web was short-lived.
In particular, he denounced the rise of streaming giants such as iTunes or Spotify that provided low percentage returns to artists. He fought aggressively against exploitation of his image and content online, while also completely embracing the Internet as a tool for engaging his fans and distributing his music. “And I was right about that”.
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The only place to do this is Tidal, the streaming service and Spotify/Apple competitor owned by Jay Z. Tidal struck an exclusive deal with Prince to host his entire catalog: for $9.99 (or $19.99 for CD-quality files) a month, that’s the best place to hear him.
