PRINCE’S DEATH PROMPTS ‘AWKWARD’ INTERNET SURGE
April 27, 2016 – 12:37 pmJUST TO LET YOU KNOW
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With Prince’s unexpected passing on April 21, 2016, the world has lost a legend. Prince’s death has dominated the news and many people have honored the icon by listening to his music. Ironically, his death also triggered tens of thousands of internet downloads, one of the things Prince passionately fought against. By Ernesto of TorrentFreak.
As a shock to the world Prince was found dead at his home, Paisley Park, on April 21, 2016. His death is being mourned all around the world in a way seldom seen before, a sign of the massive impact he had on several generations.
The days to come will be filled with anecdotes, retrospects, documentaries and specials about his life, and, most importantly, about his music. Rightfully so.
Similarly, many people want to play their favorite Prince tracks in honor of a great artists. However, those who know Prince realize that this is more easily said than done.
Prince was known for protecting his work. Not just from pirates, but also from greedy music labels and other ‘profiteers.’ This is one of the reasons it’s hard to find his tracks on YouTube or Spotify.
Prince’s piracy aversion was particularly strong. He was one of the first to threaten The Pirate Bay with a lawsuit almost 10 years ago, as co-founder Peter Sunde recalled.
With the help of Web Sheriff he also made sure that copies were regularly removed from various sites. At least, from those sites that honor takedown requests.
Despite this strong anti-piracy stance, Prince fans have not shied away from torrent sites over the past few days. On the contrary, just several hours after his death full discographies and compilation albums were uploaded all over the Internet.
Before his death only a few dozen people were actively sharing Prince albums online, but this number jumped to several thousand soon after his passing.
After only one day, an estimated 100,000 people have downloaded a Prince torrent. And on KickassTorrents, the most visited torrent site, Prince currently fills the top five most-shared music file slots.
Most users probably see nothing wrong in downloading the tracks. Some might even do it as some sort of tribute, as the various comment sections are littered with RIPs and positive words.
However, the sharing craze feels a little awkward to say the least.
Perhaps the best way to honor Prince is to buy some of his music. Not because the money will do him any good, but because that’s what he would have wanted. Yeah, awkward…
Note: Visit TorrentFreak.com for more updates.
2 Responses to “PRINCE’S DEATH PROMPTS ‘AWKWARD’ INTERNET SURGE”
I Hate to break the news to you but this guy sort of sucked. Plus he died of a drug overdose BECAUSE HE WAS A FUCKING DRUG ADDICT. Did I forget to mention that his music basically sucked and all this proves is that there are MILLIONS out there that wouldn’t know good music if it came up and bit them in the ass?
All I want to know is do you have any more Lonnie Mack?
By nobsartist on May 1, 2016
It was a contradiction even an intellect like Prince’s couldn’t completely untangle - how do we have a music delivery system where it’s the ARTISTS not the record companies who reap the most rewards? How can artists really have control over their own output? With today’s technology, the days of record companies as we’ve known them are numbered, but what’s going to (legally) replace record companies has yet to be fully worked out. Just personally speaking, I would think Prince would want as many people as possible to hear his music, so I wouldn’t feel guilty about downloading it from wherever I can. It’s not like Prince wasn’t rewarded in his lifetime, and I’m sure his estate will be an ongoing source of profits for his bereaved ones - I mean, look at Elvis.
By Jim Kneubuhl on May 4, 2016