It’s a bit ironic that when legendary musician and performer Prince died Thursday, he was immediately and thoroughly memorialized online.
The artist formerly known by his own “love symbol” never really got along with the Web. The symbol itself was nearly impossible to code.
In 2010, Prince declared in an interview with the Mirror that the “Internet’s completely over.”
He had already barred YouTube from using his music, and many of his albums aren’t available on iTunes.
“I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else,” he told the Mirror’s Peter Willis. “They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.
“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 At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.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.”
Yet, Prince wasn’t anti-technology. He had 264,000 followers on Instagram (as “Princetagram”). He just was adamant about protecting his image and the rights to his music. In 2001, he created his own website, NPG Music Hub, for downloading his music. It was taken down in 2006.
Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff takes a wide-ranging look at Prince’s relationship with technology (the artist once released a CD-ROM), including his distaste for streaming services and social media.
So it was perhaps fitting that news of Prince’s death may have brought down TMZ.
