Warner Bros. was no match for "the artist formerly known as Prince" back in the '90s, but in this new digital age, it could be the Internet that keeps him from releasing new music.
In an interview with the Guardian, the iconic musician details his hatred of the World Wide Web and what it's doing to music as a whole.
"I personally can't stand digital music," he says. "You're getting sound in bits. It affects a different place in your brain. When you play it back, you can't feel anything. We're analogue people, not digital."
Aside from damaging the product itself, Prince holds major issue with the lack of regulation when it comes to distribution on the web. The singer has long voiced his displeasure with sites like YouTube, where copyrighted content often lives without the artist's permission. Now, the artist says that he will not record any new music until there are more regulations.
"The industry changed," he explains. "We made money [online] before piracy was real crazy. Nobody's making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google. I'm supposed to go to the White House to talk about copyright protection. It's like the gold rush out there. Or a carjacking. There's no boundaries. I've been in meetings and they'll tell you, 'Prince, you don't understand, it's dog-eat-dog out there.' So I'll just hold off on recording."
For the time being, it seems likely that Prince will continue to make money off his live shows.
In 1993, Prince became involved in a legal battle with Warner Bros. over artistic and financial control. As a result, he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in order to break ties with the company. He has used many other pseudonyms over the years, including Jamie Starr, Paisley Park and Alexander Nevermind.
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