Jumping on the I Hate Prince Bandwagon

Who does this guy think he is? Just because he has sold a go-gillion records, made un-makable amounts on money and can change his name from Price to a symbol back to Prince again, doesn’t meant hat he has the rights to take on fans for liking his music so much that they actually not only buy the CD, but they dance to it, listen to it in their cars, get tattoos and make stickers of the famed symbol and embrace one of the planet’s most recognizable rock stars.

Where does this guy get off? He is not only taking on YouTube and Pirate Bay but now fan sites that cite his lyrics and host pictures. God, if I had one fan site where people loved my music so much they would make pretty banners, signs and quote my lyrics, I would be a happy camper.

(Just in: Price has announced plans to “reclaim the internet,” oh boy!)

According to Rueters.com, the sites have vowed to unite under the banner "Prince Fans United" and take the matter to court if necessary.

"We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of ... freedom of speech and should not be allowed," said a statement from the three sites -- www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org.

As of right now he is not suing any of the sites and has not gone through with his YouTube threats. This doesn’t mean that his image is cleared by any means. Just by reaching out to destroy loyal fans, he may impact the future buying power of the Price army.

Whereas now most bands coming up in the scene rely on YouTube, Myspace, Absolute Punk and other community style followings to catch a break and create a fan base, larger artists are shying away and looking down on anyone that is trying to “steal” their precious copyrighted music. Now I’m not saying that it is ok for fans to steal music from artists, I am saying that without fans and their allegiance to the music and the artists, there would be no fast cars and rock stars.

So this is a cry to all you major label artists;

1) You can’t stop the internet so stop trying.

2) Major labels are losing badly and you are part of the cause. Take charge of your own career and stop relying on suites who can’t comprehend the power of the new media and what it can do

3) Embrace change –first there were records, then 8 tracks, then tapes and cd’s. It’s time to give way to the MP3 and its been here already for 7 or so years (old Napster is at least that old). Jump on the party ship, it will be boatloads of fun and

4) Embrace the fans who care so much about your music. There has never been a better time to communicate with your fans. Create a blog, respond to messages, create videologs, whatever just be a voice for your band. Look what it has done for Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes and any other Myspace Gen band.

Have fun with this one folks!

Myspace joins Google’s OpenSocial. So what?

It has been driving me crazy with the amount of words being poured into this Myspace vs. Facebook, Microsoft vs. Google and whatever other rivalries you want to throw out there. All that matters at the end of the day is the users and their experience on the site.

With Google’s new evil empire that includes Myspace, LinkedIn, Six Apart, Orkut, Salesforce, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle, all these networks are going to have the same Apps made by the same developers that are competing for the same poor kids who could care less. Where is the user uniqueness? Facebook almost has it, Myspace should have had it but would rather be a Video network than a social network. Myspace's improvements have been lame and still don’t address the major problems like bad servers, SPAM, and realistic advertising that doesn’t involve….shoot Paris Hilton in the face and win a prize.

Facebook has received all the press in the last few months and received a hefty sum based on a bogus $150 billion evaluation. Google on the other hand has had their stock hit $700 a pop and bought every social site they can get their hands on. Their announcement of the OpenSocial platform comes on the heels of a losing battle to get a stake in Facebook.

This is bringing the tech media to hype up a Don King style “Only in the Internet” match up between Facebook (the 0-8 Dolphins) and Google (Tom Brady leading the Patriots). Only problem is, no matter what season it is and the records of the teams, its going to be a battle and both teams will live to play another day.

Remember, this is only the beginning, but the user needs to be Google’s major focus or they will lose. Myspace still has the numbers and is making changes, albeit a little late. I think that they remain relevant in the entertainment market until Facebook jumps on the band bandwagon. Google is going to do what Google does and unfortunately everyone will follow. Why do we have to play be their rules? Who gives a rat’s ass about page rank?

I know I’ve made the switch like many others to GoodSearch and while the results aren’t always quite as good as Google, at least I’m playing by my own rules. (If you don’t have a charity in mind, how about Rock For Hunger?)

So go ahead app builders, make you app on 100 different platforms, I would. Get that advertising and VC money while they continue to throw it at ya like rats after a hat trick. And Social Networks go ahead and clone each other and still do numbers like fans at a Florida Marlins game. Just remember the major players and why they are the major players; community and communication. Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc are running things because of the community and the people that interact within the community. The best network platform in the world doesn’t do anyone any good if there are only 100 people in the social graph.

And Facebook, give Scoble some more friend requests. That way he can stop ranting about it every other post. (I’ll still keep up on Scoble even with his ranting, I get his Tweets every 20 minutes.)

That’s all for today. Maybe I’ll start writing some real posts again soon, but right now I’m going to get ready for Gym Class Heroes in Orlando, FL at UCF tonight. BTW, they are doing an amazing marketing campaign with Verizon Wireless and are hosting an in store at the Waterford Lakes location as we speak. Pretty smart marketing there! Somebody get that up on Flickr or Twitter for me.

-G-Ro