Prince announced earlier, that his album 20Ten is going to be given away for free today with a purchase of today’s Daily Mirror newspaper. Which is a pretty neat thing for him to do. As someone who knows at least a couple of journalism majors who have been unemployed or worse since graduation, I’m glad to hear newspapers are getting some much needed support.
Here’s where it gets really surprising. Prince announced that he would not be making his album available on the Internet. I’m not sure weather this means he will simply not make his album available for people who download albums off of iTunes and Napster and the like, or if he will go so far to make it so that you can’t order his album off Amazon and the like. He has also taken down his official website, and has poo-pooed the use of digital technology in general.
Either way, it’s a rather unpredicted move for any major artist to spurn digital music and the Internet. Most people believe that the Internet is a necessary tool for bands to network, even on a large scale. Of course, if there’s anyone who can get away with not needing the Internet, it’s Prince. Digital music is also seen as the wave of the future. There’s been reasonable arguments that all media will be distributed via computers, and the time of owning a physical copy of an record, or book even, is at it’s twilight. I personally am sort of in support of this, and that’s because outside of the sheltered world of record collectors, lies a world where thousands and thousands of albums are bought, listened to for a while, and then forgotten about. I seriously believe there are enough copies of unwanted Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass records across the globe, that there are three copies of the entire HA&TTB catalog for every person who owns a record player and still uses it. Go to a thrift store sometime if you don’t believe me. Prince argues that the Internet is a fad that will soon be overcome by something else, and I certainly don’t think that it’s silly of him to say that. There are a great many things the Internet is not good for, and perhaps a better mode of media will come along. However, what I like about digital music, is that if folks buy a popular album, listen to it for a few years, and then don’t want it anymore, there’s no physical aftermath to wind up in a landfill. That’s nice for the environment and all.
On the other hand, I’ll be the first to admit there’s a warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from having a physical copy of an album, and it’s not hard to believe that Internet distribution (legally or otherwise) cheapens music for listeners. There’s no reason to be reverent toward an MP3 you can easily download again, whereas it’s really something when a person has an impressive record collection.
I guess the point I’d like to make is that, instead of looking at Prince’s anti-Internet stance as just another wacky thing that Prince does, perhaps it ought to be a jumping off point for everyone who cares about music to get into the discussion of what is the best medium.