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Prince Says Internet Is Over 450

the_arrow writes "According to the artist currently known as Prince, 'The internet's completely over.' At least that what he says in an interview with the British newspaper Mirror. Quoting Prince: 'The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.'"
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Prince Says Internet Is Over

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  • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:18AM (#32810444)

    ...and suddenly he became outdated.

    Now get off Prince's lawn, ya young whippersnappers with yer noisy electronic doo-hickeys!!

    • by Monkeedude1212 ( 1560403 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:22AM (#32810510) Journal

      Sorry, what was that?

      I couldn't hear you with my iPod earbuds in, pumping numbers in my head and all.

      • by commodore64_love ( 1445365 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:45AM (#32810904) Journal

        Prince doesn't understand.

        The internet is no more a "fad" than radio or television. It merely changed how we receive the radio and television. NOW instead of fixed schedules we can get things on-demand, whenever we wish.

        MTV and VH1 have not died. They simply moved. Now they are on the net and have a new name: youtube.com and googlevideos.com and itunes.com

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by omnichad ( 1198475 )

          Yeah...umm...and VHS hasn't died either...it just changed it's name to Blu-Ray. Oh, and dinosaurs aren't extinct - they've merely evolved...into alligators.
           
          By your standard, when is ANYTHING dead?

          • by Rip Dick ( 1207150 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:16AM (#32812472)
            Dinosaurs evolved into birds, Derp. Alligators evolved largely alongside dinosaurs. They are living fossils. In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast.
          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            >>>VHS hasn't died either...it just changed it's name to Blu-Ray. Oh, and dinosaurs aren't extinct - they've merely evolved...into alligators.

            The format has changed and the name but the PURPOSE is the same. VHS had the purpose of moving movies into the home and Bluray has the same purpose. MTV had the purpose of moving Pop Music from the record companies to the teenagers bedrooms, and now Youtube and iTunes have the same purpose.

            BTW alligators don't come from dinosaurs. That's a separate family

        • It's not that he doesn't understand - he *can't* understand. Because he's crazy.

          Let Kevin Smith tell you all about it. [youtube.com] You should see follow up links for part 2 and 3 in the sidebar if you're interested.

    • by sorak ( 246725 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:30AM (#32810652)

      Do you really want to mess with a guy who owns ass-less pants and who invented the bat-dance? I say just nod politely and walk away.

      • by AngryNick ( 891056 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @10:20AM (#32811468) Homepage Journal
        Crazy like a fox! FTFA:

        "I hope you like it. It's great that it will be free to readers of your newspaper. I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music."

        The guy is a genius! Who would have ever imagined using a dying news media as a promotional venue for music? I'm assuming the free music was distributed on cassette tape, rubber-banded to the paper.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          Crazy like a fox! FTFA:

          "I hope you like it. It's great that it will be free to readers of your newspaper. I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music."

          The guy is a genius! Who would have ever imagined using a dying news media as a promotional venue for music? I'm assuming the free music was distributed on cassette tape, rubber-banded to the paper.

          I preordered online.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          It's not even a new way to do it. It's the second time the unoriginal ass has done this.
    • by xtracto ( 837672 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:33AM (#32810686) Journal

      Well, I won't believe the internet is over until Netcraft confirms it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Prince was only hip with love stricken teenage girls and sexually confused young boys.

    • by lalena ( 1221394 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:41AM (#32810828) Homepage
      he can't type his name on a computer. He's jealous of the numbers.
    • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:56AM (#32811112)
      I say, Prince could be right in a sense. Smarthphones, Facebook, and twitter have a faddish aspect; they are "hot" lately. After these blow over, it's possible most people will be done with them - and I don't just mean those particular websites, like the passing of the guard from myspace to facebook - but with the idea of checking in 100 times per day to make inane comments that nobody reads.

      Like with cars. (Yup, a car analogy). I was talking to my dad about the classic cars of the 60s that sell for big bucks and said I couldn't see what cars from the 80s or 90s would reach that status. He said, probably none. When he was a kid, all the guys lusted after cars and wrenched on them all the time. Now that they have money, these same guys bid up those same cars at auction. Nowadays, we still have cars, but they're just "there" doing what the do, and the buzz isn't there. I think that's what Prince means, not that the Internet will stop existing or even stop being used.

      • by Asic Eng ( 193332 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:00AM (#32812136)
        To put his statement into context, here some other parts of the interview:
        • says "people, especially young people, don't have enough God in their lives"
        • has been a devout Jehovah's Witness for more than 10 years
        • has a space set aside which he's labelled The Knowledge Room, with a library of religious books
        • strict teetotal vegan
        • says "Playing electric guitar your whole life does something to you. I'm convinced all that electricity racing through my body made me keep my hair."

        If it comes to insightful statements about the internet, I'd suggest to look elsewhere.

      • by DJ Jones ( 997846 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:35AM (#32812762) Homepage
        Really? There are a lot of cars from the 80's and 90's that sell for top dollar. You're just not thinking outside the box, kid. You're comparing rare muscle cars from the 60's to generic crap boxes from the 80's. Ignoring the obvious fact that classic value increases with age and you have a 20-year difference in your comparison, here are a few winners:
        • Toyota Supra
        • Mazda RX7
        • De Lorean
        • Lamborghini Diablo
        • Any Ferrari
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Vancorps ( 746090 )

        As someone who participates in said classic car auctions I can assure you that new models do carry a lot of appeal both for older and younger generations. The new Shelby GT 500s for instance are highly sought after. Saleen, Roush, and Foose all make great money tapping into that interest. They extend past just the humble Mustang too. People love their cars and people love the connection that the Internet gives them. In a society becoming increasingly fearful of just about everything the Internet provides a

    • Prince should kiss the Internet's ass. Without it, everyone would have forgotten about him already.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by DIplomatic ( 1759914 )
      Let's just change the internet's name to "The Global Data Transfer Protocol Formerly Known as The World Wide Web".
  • Kevin Smith (Score:3, Informative)

    by Scared Rabbit ( 1526125 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:21AM (#32810472)
    Not that anyone ever should have taken prince seriously, but if anyone still can they need to go watch an evening with Kevin Smith lol.
  • by jsepeta ( 412566 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:21AM (#32810484) Homepage

    the days of rockstars selling $20 cd's and people paying attention to monotonous radio stations that only play a short playlist of over-publicized artists is over. he'll never make the millions he used to, and to be successful (wealth-accumulating) in the post internet world one needs to get off their ass and tour, actually PERFORMING music like the minstrels of yore.

    • by jythie ( 914043 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:28AM (#32810612)
      Or even worse.... one ends up being paid based of actual sales rather then convincing some executive how much you are worth ahead of time. That seemed to be his big beef.
    • successful (wealth-accumulating) ... PERFORMING music like the minstrels of yore

      Yeah, those Olde Time Minstrels really knew how to build a fortune. I mean, it's easier to name the minstrels that didn't get wealthy than it is to name all of the ones that did, right? You bet!

      It's sort of like today, when the wealthiest, most successful creative people in the world are all in bar bands.
      • by Nadaka ( 224565 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:34AM (#32810710)

        Anyone who becomes an artist for wealth is a fool. The purpose of being an artist is to create art because it is what you love. If you can manage to not starve while you do it, more power to you.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by S.O.B. ( 136083 )

          The purpose of being an artist is to get laid.

        • Anyone who becomes an artist for wealth is a fool. The purpose of being an artist is to create art because it is what you love. If you can manage to not starve while you do it, more power to you.

          One of my favorite composers - Charles Ives - worked in the insurance industry for most of his life, and that's how he made his living. He kept his career and music quite separate and that didn't stop him from being a fairly prolific composer for his time at all.

          It's actually thought that the opposite was tru

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by mrjatsun ( 543322 )

          Let me fix that for you...

          "Anyone who writes code for wealth is a fool. The purpose of writing code is to create something that's valuable to people, because it is what you love. If you can manage to not starve while you do it, more power to you."

          Everyone should do what they love, and try not to starve. Hmm, or maybe we should return to reality... :-)

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            It's just statistics ... getting into coding you have a reasonable expectation that you can make a living from it, getting into art (or sports) that expectation is entirely unreasonable ... you better be prepared for the fact that the time you sink into it has just been for the love of the art, otherwise you are going to be disappointed.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Nadaka ( 224565 )

            Let me rephrase that:

            There are hundreds of millions of people who want to be artists. Of those, only a few hundred thousand have any talent at all. Of those, only a few hundreds are ever going to become wealthy and most of the rest will not be able to pay the rent from the proceeds of their art.

            Its like buying a lottery ticket, except the cost of that ticket is not $5, but instead it is the sum of decades of work and hardship.

            Writing code generally pays the bills and then some. Few of us are going to get ex

      • Even performing live may not be profitable for artists. I just learned that Lilith Fair canceled 1/3rd of its summer schedule due to lack of ticket sales. AND apparently it's not the only concert calling t quits. This summer has been lousy.

        • Even performing live may not be profitable for artists. I just learned that Lilith Fair canceled 1/3rd of its summer schedule due to lack of ticket sales. AND apparently it's not the only concert calling t quits. This summer has been lousy.

          This isn't surprising. Between Ticketmaster, promoters, sponsors, concert hall "renovation fees", parking fees, etc ad nauseum, and the fact that we're in a recession, most bands large enough to tour have been priced right out of the largest target market for concerts - teens and young adults. If the Lilith Fair, which usually has many popular acts, can't fill a third of their venues, I can't imagine solo acts are doing well on tour either.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            isn't surprising. Between Ticketmaster, promoters, sponsors, concert hall "renovation fees", parking fees, etc ad nauseum, and the fact that we're in a recession, most bands large enough to tour have been priced right out of the largest target market for concerts - teens and young adults

            Further down in the thread someone mentioned 'cheap' seats for a Prince concert going for $200.

            The uber-famous have reached a level where their own lack of competition has hurt them. If I'm interested in music, it is going

      • I mean, it's easier to name the minstrels that didn't get wealthy than it is to name all of the ones that did, right?

        Okay, then name me one Olde Time(tm) Minstrel who didn't get famous? Just one name is all I'm asking for.

        I know all the famous ones... er... uh... no I don't. Okay, you win.

    • Prince is actually kind of awesome. Besides being talented and extremely prolific, He gamed the record release system several times, resulting in top 10 albums. At one point he included an album sale in the price of a concert ticket, on the musicology tour. Instant platinum. They changed the rules just so it couldn't be done again after that. He has gotten sort of wierd religious lately, probably where all this is coming from.

    • by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:56AM (#32811118) Homepage Journal

      Funny, Prince basically says the same thing; he is very paranoid about Top-40 stations and exploitative record companies... Except that 8 years ago when he was saying this, people just added it to the list of reasons why he was crazy. Oh, and do you not realize that Prince still tours regularly, after more than 20 years? He doesn't seem to be toting the record company line of "the internet is stealing our music and killing our puppies", rather he has an admittedly dated opinion that there is simply now too much "noise" on-line for real art to flourish there.

      Disclaimer: I am not a huge Prince fan, but I don't think the guy's work gets a fair shake thanks to the crazy that comes out of his mouth when he's not singing.

    • As someone who carries an iPod everywhere, and enjoys a quiet evening in listening to music, I can't say I'm crazy about the idea of rewarding musicians only for their live performances. If the recordings become just a tie-in to the main event, then... well... you get what you pay for, so they say.

    • by Mad Hamster ( 870092 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @10:28AM (#32811596)

      In all fairness, Prince is touring and performing in Europe atm. This last Sunday he was the final act @ the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, played competently and honestly but imo there was no greatness or star quality to the performance.

      The best thing about Prince coming to the festival was Lemmy's remark at the end of the Motörhead performance earlier that day: "I don't know if you know us...well if you're here for Prince, you probably don't". :P

  • Are you sure this was in the Mirror? I don't see what it has to do with the royal family...

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:23AM (#32810524)

    Is to be renamed Prince.

    And the artist formerly known as Prince will be renamed ColecoVision.

  • The internet says Prince is over.

  • They want their has-been hack from Minnesota back.

  • Aw man... (Score:2, Informative)

    Prince...Prince! Prince!! Whaddaya doing?? Damn. That's a shame. I mean, I know he was odd, but I had no idea he was addle-minded. In response though to the "get off your ass and tour" comment. I saw him working his butt off a couple years ago at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL ($300 tickets - the cheap seats were $200) and he performs regularly at his club in Vegas. So I don't think he's hurting for cash.
  • Elle, Oh, Elle (Score:4, Insightful)

    by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:26AM (#32810568)
    There was a time when Prince was an amazing musician, making some spectacular music. Purple Rain remains one of the better albums ever created. But. Prince has jumped the shark. He is so utterly out of touch with reality that the mind simply boggles. And he hasn't made any great music in a very long time. Well, that may not be true - he may have made a ton of spectacular music but it's all stored away in his vault, protected from pirates and music execs and, well, fans.

    The man truly is insane.
  • At one time Prince was hip and suddenly he became outdated...

  • by gaspyy ( 514539 )

    The Internet says Prince is over.

    Who's right?

  • But did he confirm it with Netcraft?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I won't believe it until Netcraft confirms it!
  • They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.

    Just like changing your name into an unprintable, unpronounceable symbol can't be good for your career.

    The man knows from experience. Make sure your head isn't full of [expletive deleted].

    --
    Toro

  • They say two thousand zero, zero, party over,
    Oops, out of time!
    So tonight I'm gonna Twitter like it's 2009!
  • The man has simply lost touch with reality. Not surprising considering how rich and famous he is. It's great to have a specific instance to point to.

    To misquote Kevin Smith talking about his experience with Prince, "Price lives in Prince world. Sometimes we have trouble explaining why we can't get him a camel at 2 in the morning in Minneapolis in the middle of winter."

    Go watch An Evening with Kevin Smith for the full story.

  • He has no standing
    On the Internet, he's cold (so cold)
    He's not going to stop piracy, he's being too demanding
    Maybe he's being too bold
    Maybe he's never satisfied (never satisfied)
    But we shouldn't scream at each other
    That's what it sounds like
    When a short 50 year old purple has been Jehovah's Witness
    Makes trolls cry

  • Phase 1: Say something to the press completely outrageous i.e. "the internet is over"

    Phase 2: Let people on the internet comment and argue about what you said

    Phase 3: ?????

    Phase 4: Profit!

    .
  • ... the artist formerly known as someone people once gave a shit about

  • All those numbers can't be good for you. Math is hard. Let's go shopping.
  • I actually kinda get his point. It's been a long time since anything really interesting happened on the Internet, via the Internet, or Thanks to the Internet. Nowadays, it seems more a of time waster for the socially needy, who NEED to know within 10s if Michael Jackson has died or not, Facebook their holiday photos, and twit their lunch menu.

    All that time spent in social reinforcement (how much of that can we possibly need ?) and media consumption is time not spent actually doing, learning, achieving anyth

    • by Tom ( 822 )

      I actually kinda get his point. It's been a long time since anything really interesting happened on the Internet, via the Internet, or Thanks to the Internet.

      That's not true. What happened is that the fact that it happened on the Internet is not newsworthy anymore.

      When we get messages out of otherwise news-dead zones like Iraq or some broken-down-in-civil-war country, we don't explicitly mention anymore that the Internet was the transport medium. 10 years ago, that part would have been the big news.

  • I wouldn't know what Prince thought about the internet, if I hadn't just read about it over the internet. And increasingly large numbers of young people will have to google Prince to find out who he was.

  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:43AM (#32810864) Homepage

    Nice job publicising that he's got a new album out. How else would we have heard?

    Then again, if it's only available on CD, I guess nobody here is going to buy it, so that'll be a target market FAIL for lil' Princey there.

  • I wonder if he changed his name just to fight piracy in the first place. I bet he's been fighting Internet for a long time.

  • Price knows what it is to be a huge fad. Not in a bad way, either. There's serious quality in his art. And having it dressed up all trendy was part of the art. But trends end.

    Too much of the press is trying too hard to pretend everything Internet is still cool. When every single square TV show tries to establish its cool with the hep cats by inviting you to tweet, at some point the true vanguard - if there is such a population any more (if you think you're it, you're probably not) - can see that the Interne

  • I'm pretty sure that only Al Gore is authorized to terminate the internet...
  • I remember when I used to use the internet all the time - shopping on Amazon, reading the news, doing research, etc.

    Now I don't bother and nor does anyone else. People are now into Facebook and Twitter, iPhones and iTunes.

    Prince is right - The internet could've been massive, but it's now just full of ads.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Tom ( 822 )

      You must be using a different Internet than I am. There's a ton of amazing stuff out there.

      Fact is that the number of users really hasn't changed. I mean, real actual users as in people who contribute something to the discussion.

      Formerly, all the twits were collected by AOL. Today, all the twits are collected by Twitter and Facebook.

      It's a great service, really. Keeps the rest of the Internet clean for actual use. And it's free because the twits pay for it!

  • Well, I guess that's that then.
    Can whoever is last out turn off the lights as they leave?
  • Why did we not listen to Prince?

    The internet is one of those stupid modern "conveniences" like the telephone or the automobile or antibiotics -- really just bound to annoy the shit out of us until we stop using it.

    I'm assuming that having established his tard cred, Prince will now run for governor of Minnesota on the GOP ticket.

  • He is correct if you replace every time he said "internet" with the word "prince."

  • by twoallbeefpatties ( 615632 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @09:57AM (#32811130)
    The internet is over in the same way that MTV is over: they both exist in a gentrified form. And maybe if you stay up late, you'll actually catch them both staying true to their roots. :V
  • Prince had the #1 song, album and movie when I was born. I would say he was over a long time ago.
  • by Lazy Jones ( 8403 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @10:01AM (#32811188) Homepage Journal
    ... will be using the symbol ¥ from now on. After 7 years or so, we'll switch back to calling it "Internet" because, quite frankly, using a symbol is a bit silly.
  • Internet says Prince is over...

  • . . . oh, never mind, go make your own jokes . . . maybe he needs a meeting with that "Internet Tubes" guy from Alaska . . .

  • by Jason Levine ( 196982 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @10:07AM (#32811286) Homepage

    How can (80) he say (114) that being (105) on computers or the (110) Internet fills your head (99) with numbers (101)? After all (32), I'm online quite a lot (99) during the day (97) and night (110) and my head's (32) not filled up (98) with numbers (105). I think (116) I'd notice (101) such a (32) thing (109). It's quite (121) silly when (32) you think of it. What (115) would computers (104) be doing (105) filling our heads (110) with numbers (121) anyway (32)? It's not (109) like they try (101) to insert (116) subliminal (97) messages (108) into comments (32) that we type (97) out on online (115) forums (115) or anything (33).

  • by Myopic ( 18616 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:00AM (#32812144)

    He's right that MTV is lame and passe (and has been since I became old enough to watch it in the 1990s), but that's hardly a good simile for the Internet. If you want to say that something is passe the way MTV is passe, then you talk about a specific production object on the medium: a website, or a service.

    So, perhaps Napster is over. Or perhaps Slashdot is over. Or perhaps Bittorrent is over. But saying the Internet is over is like saying Television is over. That's still a retarded thing to say, though, so maybe Prince would agree with that.

  • IPv4 Only! (Score:3, Funny)

    by kybur ( 1002682 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:20AM (#32812532)

    This is a blatant misquote by the media. Prince was merely saying that IPv4 is over. Prince recently dropped all IPv4 support in his home network, and is excited to be making the switch from unhealthy decimal "numbers" (actually he said "octets") to long 128bit hexadecimal strings. WTF is wrong with the media.

    The Internets are not deadz.

  • Numbers! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yoshi_mon ( 172895 ) on Tuesday July 06, 2010 @11:25AM (#32812632)

    Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.

    That is the quote right there. Shows exactly where Prince's mindset is.

    I wonder if the guy could even balance a simple checkbook if he had to.

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