10 Lesser Known Facts About Pop Superstar ‘Prince’

Prince was one of the most famous musicians, and a major influence on all modern musicians across various genres. above all, he was also a great human being. Here are things that you probably didn’t know about Prince Rogers Nelson.

---

“Piano & A Microphone: 1983”, live album by Prince that was recorded few decades back during a rehearsal at Prince’s home studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, will be released shortly. The first song from the album, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” can be heard below.

Piano & A Microphone: 1983: “17 Days”, “Purple Rain”, “A Case Of You”, “Mary Don’t You Weep”, “Strange Relationship”, “International Lover”, “Wednesday”, “Cold Coffee & Cocaine”, “Why The Butterflies”.

---

1. Prince has won several awards including multiple Grammys and an Oscar. At one point, Prince simultaneously had the No 1 Album (Purple Rain soundtrack), the No 1 Movie (Purple Rain, the film) and the No 1 Single (When Doves Cry) on the charts.
   

   In the 4 day period April 21-24, following Prince’s untimely death, he sold 654,861 albums and had track sales of more than 3 million, according to new stats from Buzz Angle Music. 230K of those albums and 1M songs in the U.S. on April 21st alone.

2. For his first record deal (with Warner Brothers), Prince was a one-man band and a one-man studio – he composed all songs and played all the instruments.
3. Prince could play several musical instruments: Its said that Prince could play about thirty musical instruments (including the piano)! yes, that’s right and most of them were self-taught. However, Prince always regretted that he could not read music notes and encouraged aspiring artists & mainstream artists to properly learn ‘at least one musical instrument’.
4. Prince was the first major music star to speak against the role of corporations in the music industry (inspiring several artists to take similar stands). He even scribbled the word ‘Slave’ on his cheek to protest the diminishing rights of artists.
5. Prince even changed his name to TAFKAP (‘The Artist Formerly Known As Prince’), or simply, The Artist as he felt that the name “Prince” had just become a commercial brand for the record label, rather than an artist. He eventually came back to his name in 2000.
6. It was because of Prince that the now familiar “Parental Advisory, Explicit Content” label came to be introduced. In 1987, he even pulled back The Black Album (just before the release date) as he felt it didn’t send a good message to his fans. Over time, Prince went on to ban curse words from his recordings and also his concerts as he also wanted families to witness his art and music. ‘Real Music for Real People’, he would say.
7. Prince proteges included like Jamie Starr, Joey Coco, Christopher and Alexander Nevermind. He was also romantically linked to fellow artists, including Madonna, Sheena Easton and Kim Basinger, but none of the ladies in his life ever had anything bad to say about him.

8. Prince Rogers Nelson was often referred to as the Purple One, a color that is considered the color of royalty (the Romans who made purple a color of social stature.) When Prince died, the music industry, and the world remembered Prince through his signature color: purple (important landmarks and buildings were illuminated using the purple color).
9. He was a non-smoker, stayed away from booze & drugs; his favourite drinks were orange juice and green tea. He even encouraged his band to remain sober while performing. He was well-informed on world events, and although he was reticent he had a great sense of humor. Prince also was an excellent ping-pong (table tennis) player. Prince did a lot of charity work but most of it was done quietly and gracefully, away from the media gaze.

Legendary Singer Prince Slams Music Industry for Modern Day ‘Slavery’

A few months before his death, the legendary and reclusive singer, Prince had slammed the music industry, accusing it of engaging in modern day “slavery”. The signer turned musician turned businessman particularly criticized the record labels and rights-management groups calling them “collection agencies” who take the major share of the money leaving the artists with hardly anything.

Prince recently had a private meet with selected journalists where he commented on the music industry and explained his crusade to give artists their due. He was unhappy about the unfair digital royalty structure and plans to oppose it and make some noise to get his point across.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering Prince has in the past too repeatedly challenged the industry practices. Like the time when in 1993, the singer had a dispute with Warner Brothers which resulted in him dropping his name from the label. Seems like the music mogul got what he wanted because since then he has worked things out with Warner Brothers and come up with a revised contract in 2014 after gaining his catalogue back.

Singer Prince only has one advice to all those ‘pursuing music’. He advises them not to sign up with big label companies who promise money and fame, because in the bargain artists loose their freedom and rights to the music they so painstakingly create.

Comparing ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to a “collection agency”, Prince claimed that the artists get very little royalties after a major chunk going to labels, streaming services like Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify etc. This eventually led to his resignation for the ASCAP.

A recent analysis threw up a surprising finding. Every time a song was played on a streaming service like Spotify, the artist made an amount as meagre as around $.0011. Not the impression people have of artists but if the above analysis is to be believed, an individual artists gets only 1/10th of a penny. We don’t have to tell you how much an independent artist would make obviously. If the above is true, you can only imagine what that figure would be like.

Prince had recently tied up with Jay-Z’s Tidal music-streaming service, after pulling out most of his catalog from the music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple , Rdio and Deezer. He now exclusively streams and distributes music only on Tidal music streaming service. Jay-Z’s Tidal is a company that often bypasses labels and has found a way to equitably share revenues with artists like Prince and many others.