Lessons From Prince And His Struggles With Digital Music

(This is a selection of the original text to make it short - link is below)

In addition to his legacy as an artist and performer,Prince also had, throughout his career, acomplex relationship with the world of digital music distribution, and while he certainly tried many different tactics when it came to making his music available to the public, it's unclear just how successful he was.

... his music are licensed exclusively through Tidal, a niche subscription-only service owned by Jay Z.

You can see why Prince may have been attracted to Tidal as a service. Since its launch in late 2014, a number of major artists have embraced it, offering exclusive releases and touting the service’s better deal for artists. Indeed, Tidal purports to “pay the highest percentage of royalties to artists, songwriters and producers of any music streaming service.”

There was some confusion on the Internet about whether “royalty rate” was a percentage of Tidal’s total revenue. According to Schlogel, it is. The industry standard royalty rate, she says, is 70% (roughly 60% to record labels, roughly 10% to artists via publishers). Tidal pays 62.5% and 12.5% (which equals the 75% Jay Z is referring to).

...

It's classic Prince: Tidal is the best program not only because it pays better, but because it gives him the most control over his music and his persona. And Prince never let someone else control his persona if he could help it.

...

A recent study by Columbia University (among other research including the Copia Institute’s “The Carrot Or The Stick?”) confirms that providing access to good legal alternatives is effective at reducing online piracy, particularly among young people.

...

Prince’s strategy was visionary, but ahead of its time. A solution that’s just now coming of age is blockchain-driven smart contracts for digital music consumption.

...

At one point, he even declared that the Internet is a fad, rebelling against a model that wouldn’t work on his terms:

The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

(At this point he could have styled himself “The Prince of Denial.” He even deleted his Facebook and Twitter accounts.)

Ironically, given his virtuosity and lasting impact on pop music, limiting his digital distribution, and the ability of his fans to find new creative uses for his work, makes it orders of magnitude more difficult for fans to bring his music to new generations of listeners, who may never know what all the fuss about Prince was about. And that’s a shame.

full post on Techdirt

#Sales #Artist #Streaming #Tech #Social #Market #Discovery