Prince Believes the ‘Internet Is Completely Over’

Legendary singer and reclusive celebrity Prince is preparing to come out with a new album, aptly called “20TEN” because, he says, 2010 is a year that “really matters.” Though no more than 4 years ago, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences honored him with the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award, Prince seems to be waging a bitter battle against the Internet.

Said award honored Prince, among other things, for being the first artist in music history to release an album exclusively on the Internet: it was 1997 and the album was “Crystal Ball.” Things have changed, Prince says now in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, in which he also dares to say a thing few other artists (or celebrity in general) would even dream of uttering in the presence of a representative of the media: the Internet is over.

It has lived its life and outstayed its welcome because the novelty factor is almost entirely gone, Prince says, comparing the Internet with MTV. “You must come and listen to the album. I hope you like it. It’s great that it will be free to readers of your newspaper. I really believe in finding new ways to distribute my music. 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,” Prince tells Peter Willis of the Mirror.

To state the obvious, the singer’s new album will be distributed on CD only and exclusively with copies of the paper. “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 At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.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,” Prince goes on to say, openly declaring war to the Internet. However, choosing to distribute his album this way means fans anywhere else but the UK will not get it, as The Vine quickly points out, which will, most likely, force them to download it illegally from the net.

Until then, though, here is where you can read the full interview with Prince. Below is a video of the artist performing “Purple Rain” at the Roskilde 2010 music festival – yet another rare occurrence, since he’s known to go out of his way to never allow materials of his online.