Prince Quits The Internet

Prince has suddenly retreated from all social media. Despite having just released two well-reviewed albums and a hugely successful performance on Saturday Night Live, the groundbreaking and eccentric musician has deleted his seldom used Twitter and Facebook, and also pulled all but three videos from his official YouTube account—leaving only the video (and making of) “Breakfast Can Wait,” along with a brief interview he did with VEVO.

The sudden withdrawal isn’t all that surprising. Prince has always maintained a certain level of reclusivity, and his attempts at embracing social media have no exactly gone well. Last month, Prince “attempted” a Facebook Q&A advertised to last four hours. Prince only answered the first question. More recently, he performed on Yahoo livestream which had video quality problems adding to the fact that Prince decided to only play three songs.

The most recent social media backlash Prince received was due to a keynote address at Face the Music given by musician and record producer Steve Albini slammed the artist for his excessive and ridiculous use of intellectual property rights. “Other absurdities abound: innocuous usage of music in the background of home videos or student projects is technically an infringement and official obstacles are set up to prevent it. If you want a video of your wedding reception—your father’s first dance with a new bride—it’s off limits unless it is silent. If your little daughter does a kooky dance to a Prince song don’t bother putting it on YouTube for her grandparents to see or a purple dwarf in assless chaps will put an injunction on you. Did I offend the little guy? Fuck it. His music is poison.”