News: Prince has hired the service Web Sheriff to patrol YouTube for unauthorized videos of his music and concerts. So far, reportedly the Web Sheriff has asked YouTube to remove 1,000 unauthorized clips. John Giacobbi, managing director of Web Sheriff, says, “At the end of the day, if you take copyrighted music and film off YouTube, most of its business would be gone.” (More)
Analysis: I hate to say it (because I used to be a big fan of Prince) but Prince is washed up. The worst concert I went to last year was Prince in a hotel bar in Las Vegas. The performer was two hours late (apparently, that’s his MO) and then performed songs that were unrecognizable to most. You had to pay extra for seats, so most people had to stand or sit on the floor for two hours or more. I would have had no problem if the show times were accurately reflected on the tickets, but the promoters of the show obviously must have known that it would lose a lot of customers if the tickets said “Prince, 12:30 a.m. to 3 a.m.”