In 2010, Prince sparked outrage when he announced the death of the internet. “The internet’s completely over,” he said. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.” The late legend clarified his remarks in an interview with The Guardian, saying he meant the internet was over for musicians who wanted to get paid. This is certainly consistent with his notoriously unfavorable attitude towards streaming, one that became manifest as we scoured YouTube for music videos in the wake of his untimely death earlier this year. Prince, of course, didn’t actually think the internet was over — rather he saw it as a valuable space for interacting with fans and enriching the experience of his album drops. In 2006, Prince won a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award, and his NPG Music Club site won a Webby Award for best celebrity/fan site.
Sam Jennings, who was a webmaster for NPG Music Club, has now launched an online museum dedicated to Prince’s trailblazing movements through the World Wide Web. The aptly titled Prince Online Museum is proof that the innovative artist’s cultural legacy is about far more than extraordinary music and irreverent stage costumes. Organized like a scrollable timeline, it includes descriptions and site access for each website entry. Here’s Jennings’ fascinating description of his instructions for designing the NPG Music Club’s 2003 incarnation:
“The inspiration for this version was very much like a 3D video game. [Prince] wanted it to be like the old game, Myst, but NPG style. Very much like the Prince Interactive CD-Rom from 1994. He really wanted it to be a virtual home where the members could hang out. He talked a lot about a kind of utopia where we would live where only positivity and our highest selves existed. I know he was very inspired by The Matrix, but instead of a virtual space created to enslave, this would be a virtual space created to uplift and connect.”
In an “About” section on the site, Jennings explains that Prince’s dedication to the protection of artists’ rights is actually the very reason for his impressive online presence. “With the spread of the internet in the mid-90s, Prince saw a path forward that could completely circumvent the established distribution channels that had been monopolized by these corporate structures for decades,” says Jennings. “It was during this time that he had begun experimenting with selling music online, first as independently manufactured CDs, then later in pure digital form. With the launch of the NPG (New Power Generation) Music Club in 2001, Prince firmly established that an artist-owned online distribution business can be successful and build that connection between an artist and his audience without a middleman. This is what freedom sounds like.”
The Prince Online Museum is launching with 12 of the artist’s most popular sites, but it’s in a state of constant expansion. Jennings notes that Prince launched nearly 20 different websites over his career, plus “maintained a dozen different social media presences, participated in countless online chats, and directly connected with fans around the world.” In keeping with Prince’s intellectual property M.O., the museum “labor of love” boasts zero monetary downloads and membership fees. And just like Prince, its founder is a strong supporter of #YesWeCode, an organization dedicating to connecting 100,000 low-opportunity young adults to high-paying careers in technology.
Here’s the full list of official websites currently featured in the museum:
3rdEyeGirl.com (2013)
20PR1NC3.com (2013)
Lotusflow3r.com (2009)
3121.com (2007)
3121.com (2006)
NPGMusicClub.com (2004-2006)
NPGMusicClub.com (2003)
NPGMusicClub.com (2002)
NPGMusicClub.com (2001)
NPG Music Club v1 (2001), screen gallery
NPGOnlineLtd.com (2000)
Love4OneAnother.com (1999)
1800NewFunk.com (1999)
CrystalBallCD.com (1997)
TheDawn.com (1996), screen gallery
Prince Interactive (1994), walkthrough
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Dirty Mind album cover via YouTube