Frankly, what Prince is doing is completely in line with a lot of what David Bowie spoke to the NY Times about in a 2002 interview. Basically, as an artists Prince is at the leading edge of the transformation of the business of music. Like his music or not, the guy is tuned into what’s going on in a very big way.

Here are some excerpts from the Bowie interview to note:

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His deal with Sony is a short-term one while he gets his label started and watches the Internet’s effect on careers. ”I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way,” he said. ”The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.”

”Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity,” he added. ”So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen.”

Here’s a link:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E1DA113AF93AA35755C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

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I heard that Prince is getting something around $25M for the gigs he’s doing in the UK. The man can live on touring alone, which is akin to what Bowie points to. The sale of the music becomes far less important — it’s a loss leader. The more open you are (like running water), the better off you are. The more people have a chance to find out about you.

Frankly, if any kind of poor deal goes through with the recent fee changes being pushed on internet broadcasters, it’s sure to be the death knell for the music business as we know it. Frankly, the sooner the better.

You need to read the article more carefully.

Prince is not “giving away his recordings”, he is in fact paid up front by a variety of sponsors to distribute the albums through alternate channels.

If you had bought tickets to a recent Prince stadium concert, say in the last 5-7 years, you’d realize that the cost of the “give away” CD is included in the ticket price. And one more bit of trivia, those $3,121 USD nightclub concerts in Los Angeles and The Hamptons? No “give away” CDs were distributed to the audience.

Final word — Prince *always* gets paid.