by Jason Snell
Prince, music (and tech) visionary
This is a really nice piece from Jon Caramanica at the New York Times:
These experiments were made possible largely because of Prince’s career-long emphasis on ownership: At the time of his death, he reportedly owned the master recordings of all his output. With no major label to serve for most of the second half of his career and no constraints on distribution, he was free to try new modes of connection.
After a lengthy dispute with his record company, Prince realized he had to take control over his career. By the end, that control was complete, right down to those master recordings. After he left his first label, he was able to release triple albums or even sell an album on the Internet.
For a lot of great thoughts about the greatness and brilliance of Prince, check out Anil Dash’s Twitter timeline.
I was 13 when “Purple Rain” came out and it was pretty much revelatory. That guy was a musical genius. I was going to post lyrics from my favorite Prince song on Twitter yesterday, but I realized that I couldn’t even pick one or five favorite songs. There are so many that I love for so many different reasons1. Rest in peace, Prince Rogers Nelson.
- Okay, “When You Were Mine” is probably it, but find me in a different mood and I’ll pick “Sign O’ The Times.” And then there’s the entirety of “Purple Rain.” No, there is too much. ↩