P
rince‘s musical legacy is uncontested. TMZ summarized his career. Prince became an international superstar in 1982 after his breakthrough album “1999.” He went on to churn out a ton of hits — and racking up 7 Grammy’s in the process. He also performed at the Super Bowl in 2007, in one of the greatest live performances of all time.
Prince sold more than 100 million records during his career … and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for Purple Rain in 1985. He penned hits for other artists like Nothing Compares 2 U for Sinéad O’Connor, the Bangles’ Manic Monday, Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You, and Stevie Nicks’s “Stand Back.”
In addition to his musical legacy, Prince was also an unheralded pioneer in the digital music world according to Twice. The article details five ways Prince helped shape the online music world.
Prince embraced the Internet before most
Prince‘s “Crystal Ball” album, a three-CD set he put out in 1998, was initially only available over the phone and via Internet pre-orders, making it one of the first-ever e-commerce music launches. The author recalls that those who ordered the album online got a fourth disc of previously unreleased acoustic material, “The Truth,” and a fifth disc of instrumental music by his New Power Generation Orchestra.
He helped invent e-commerce.
Prince launched his own NPG Music Club to sell select albums exclusively online according to Twice. He even won a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, identifying him as an e-commerce pioneer.
Prince was an early Internet troll
After record label Warner decided to take him on over money and creative control of his music in the early ’90s, Prince took to the Internet to fight back. The author writes that he made a number of appearances with the word “Slave” written on his face. When Warner fought back, informing him it even owned the name Prince, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, forcing the world to ID him as “the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.”
One of the first to give his music away
In 2007, Prince released “Planet Earth” and played an unprecedented 21 nights at the brand new O2 Arena in London. While in London, Princehatched a deal with The Mail to give the album for free to the newspaper’s 2 million readers. The blog points out that Prince neglected to tell record label Columbia of the deal. Columbia’s parent company, Sony, pulled the album’s release in the U.K.
Prince blazed an online path for other artists
Eventually, Prince shut down his NPG Music Club and launched LOtUSFLOW3R, which not only sold his music but tickets to his shows as well, outside the monopolies of the record companies and Ticketmaster. His early attempts to sell online and his fights with the traditional music powers left a big impression on British band Radiohead, then between major label contracts. Instead of settling on a new record label, the band released its album “In Rainbows” exclusively online, and allowed consumers to “pay what you like” for it, garnering a ton of mainstream press.
R.I.P. Prince, superstar musician, and Internet pioneer.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.