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LoginPrince Volkskrant Interview --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Eerlijk gezegd repeteer ik hier voor VS-tournee' = 'Honestly, these concerts are a sort of rehearsels for my American tour.'Van onze medewerker Gijsbert Kamer − 09/11/10, 16:31
Prince during his appearance in Antwerp, 8 november 2010 © EPA
You have recently called the Internet dead, while you were one of the first artists who has embraced the possibilities of the Internet to sell your music. What was the reason you said this?
'Well, you shouldn't take that statement too literally. I use the internet myself as well, in order to get information. Just not to spread music anymore. All music is available to everyone thanks to the Internet, everything is free and no one appreciates music for what it is. Sometimes I want to go back to the time where you'd look months for a bootleg by someone because a new song was on that record. Wanna know how I see the Internet? I see it as a party where everyone is wearing exactly the same clothes. The adventure is somewhere else.'
You've said the record-industrie goodbye about twenty years ago. How do you still want to sell your music?.
I want to combine album sales with ticket sales. I'll ask an extra 5dollar per concertticket, but you'll get the latest cd for free. And with that, I earn more money then with regular album sales and the fans get the latest Prince album. At the momentI'm negotiating with Warner Europe to distribute the 20TEN album. It was distributed in some countries within a newspaper, which is also a nice way to reach the public. But in The Netherlands and many more countries this didn't happen, so I have to find another way to solve this.
I thought Warner Music was your biggest enemy because the
wouldn't give the master tapes of all your classic albums?
Yes, but that situation is about to change. Those contracts get outdated, right know I'm at the point that each year, another record is being given back to me. If all the masters of all the Warner records - until the nineties I recall - are back to me, I can finally release them with a better sound quality.I've never had a fight with Warner Europe. The problem was in merica. At Warner I felt like I was a part of a real family. But suddenly my father, mother, brothers and sisters were gone and I was there just on my own.
But still the records like Purple Rain, Sign O The Times and Parade
are the ones everybody talks about. Isn't it bothering you that all
your work from the past 15year hasn't been that famous/notorious?
No, It's all my music, I'm just as close with my new work as I was earlier on.
I'm still daily in my studio at my house and I still record a lot. There are
three albums ready to release, that mean as much to me as those old records
do to you. A new album from me maybe won't be very impressive to you,
but whose album can be that groundbreaking at the moment?
If the new work means that much to you, why do you play
evening to evening the same old work from the eighties?
Because that's what the public comes for. I know that my recent
work is less popular. So if there are 15.000 people here tonight in
the arena, I'm not gonna be obstinate. Do you think it's cool to come
to a party where the DJ is playing unknown music very loudly for
the entire evening? Giving concerts for such a big crowd is still the
thing I like the best. Making records is mostly for the real
collector-fans. But for enjoying my concerts, you don't need to by
my newest albums.
Can it still be fun to play those same old hits every evening?
While you compose a lot of new music?
- Prince graps his guitar and begins to play the old 'Controversy'-
"How can this ever bore me? It's beautiful, right? And I make it
different every time. All the old Prince songs sound different every
evening. Besides, I'm changing my band every few years, with
that it's still a bit exciting for me to. When I was in Belgium earlier
this year, I had a different Bass-play and a different drummer in
my band. That's why I quickly set up this European tour. Don't get
me wrong, but I love Europe. But these concerts are some sort of
rehearsels for my American tour.In fact, I just need about ten
shows before I am in perfect shape.
America has been chosen as a theme for a song many times in your music.
The new tour is going to call 'Welcome 2 America'. How do you see the
developments in your country right now?
It's a strange country. I've always been very optimistic and I still have good hopes,
but we have to learn to share our properties. What Obama did great was that he
proved and confirmed that a very big group of people in our country don't want to
share anything at all but rather keep it for themselves. That's something that really
needs to change, or else it will go wrong terribly.
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Login I think the ticket/CD sale is a necessary and smart marketing development. Prince is in negotiation with Warner Music. In the Volkskrant interview, the extended version, Prince also promotes the singer Janelle Monae. She covered Michael's song "Smile" (beautiful) and I believe her songs are published by WM. Michael was/is in business with Warner Music too. Besides talking about Warner: Warner Music and Time Warner (of Warner Brothers) are sisters, which makes one happy Warner family 
. Funny thing is that TMZ is a part of Time Warner, Oprah is broadcasted by ABC, ABC and Warner Brothers have a long-term agreement. So, possibly Michael is still into Warner 
