Rave Un2 the Napster Fantastic

Industry Standard, The, Oct 2, 2000

Having freed himself from what he called a "slave" relationship with his record company pop music star Prince has taken to the Net to release his own songs and take on the recording industry. The following is excerpted from his Web site, NPGonlineltd.com:

"What record companies don't really understand is that Napster is just one illustration of the growing frustration over how much the record companies control what music people get 2 hear.

When the only way 2 acquire some funky song from the 1970s is 2 purchase some crappy, overpriced compilation put 2gether by the record company, with an ugly cover and a poor selection of 4gettable songs interspersed with a few gems, and when u don't even know whether the artist who recorded this funky song is getting money from the sales of this compilation, then it's no wonder that the real music lover will b interested in alternative ways of acquiring the song.[...]

So the real music lover looks 4 an MP3 of the song online. downloads it and burns it on2 a CD. He knows that he doesn't have a perfect copy of the song (MP3 is, after all, a sound 4mat which does involve a certain amount of loss in sound quality), and it is clear, in his mind, that if the original album is ever released, he will purchase it, bcuz he wants 2 discover other, lesser known tracks by the artist that r not available online, bcuz he wants the best possible quality, bcuz he wants 2 xperience the original release in all its aspects and bcuz he wants 2 compensate the artist 4 his work. But y should the music lover have 2 wait 5 years, 10 years or even longer until the record company condescends 2 rereleasing the original work of the artist? Y should the record company have such control over how he, the music lover, wants 2 xperience the music?

Yes, young people need 2 b educated that artists should b compensated 4 their work. But they don't need 2 b educated about how 2 hypocritically xploit artists by forcing them 2 participate in a system designed 2 sell product instead of sharing good music. Rather, they need 2 b educated about how the record companies have xploited artists 4 so long and that online distribution might enable artists 2 put an end 2 this xploitation. And, by the Look of things, this will happen without the help or understanding of record company xecutives."