Let’s Go Crazy: New Prince iPod Costs $150 Per Song
by Peter Kafka
Posted on April 13, 2009 at 5:12 AM PT
The newest special-edition iPod to hit the market comes from Prince. It is purple, it is produced in a limited batch of 950, and it will cost you $2,100.
But at least it contains every Prince song ever recorded, right? Nope. From what I can tell, the only thing the gadget comes preloaded with is a 15-song, 40-minute concert video.
This wouldn’t even compute in the pre-Lehman era. So what gives?
Unlike other special-edition iPods from U2 and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, you can’t get this one directly from Apple (AAPL). Instead, you have to buy it bundled alongside a high-end book of Prince photographs produced by Kraken Opus, a British publisher that says its mission is to create the “most epic, stunning, iconic publications ever seen in the world.”
And by Kraken Opus standards, by the way, the Prince book/iPod combo is a steal: The books the company produced for the Arsenal soccer team, for instance, can set you back $6,247–and comes with no gadget of any sort.
I’d love to send you off with a Prince video, but it’s awfully hard to find one on YouTube. His old record label, Warner Music Group (WMG), is feuding with Google (GOOG) and has taken down most of the official clips from the video site. And the artist himself is vigilant about taking down clips he doesn’t approve of. So we’ll have to settle for a few seconds of Stephen Colbert dancing to a golden oldie at the Smithsonian.
Comments
i did a quick search for prince songs. it seems like there are about 200 prince songs that are available for purchase. Your article makes it seem like you would expect either a free limited edition ipod or prince’s entire life’s work (up till now) for free or the artwork by kraken opus for free. you also make it seem like prince and the record labels are wrong for trying to keep unauthorized content off of the web. did you try to contact them for authorization?
Posted by glen engelmann at April 13th, 2009 at 6:12 amhere is a clip that i found in a one-minute search because prince is featured in target’s new commercial http://www.shoppingblog.com/cg.....og=4100918 . his current 3-disc set is available only at target.
I think the question isn’t, “How much of Prince’s stuff can we get?” but rather, “What makes this iPod worth the exorbitant price?”
I think I’ll stick with my (red) shuffle…
Posted by Sarah Grant at April 13th, 2009 at 6:59 am“Instead, you have to buy it bundled alongside a high-end book of Prince photographs produced by Kraken Opus, a British publisher which says its mission is to create the “most epic, stunning, iconic publications ever seen in the world.”
Sorry, but Henri Cartier-Bresson’s book, “The Decisive Moment” with the original cover being an actual print from Henri Matisse would make this claim impossible.
A real artist trumps a poseur.
Posted by Eric Welch at April 13th, 2009 at 8:28 am