Prince’s approach to the internet has been about as turbulent as his relationship with his record labels: having deleted his social media accounts almost a year ago, he has now decided to set up an Instagram profile to share his thoughts instead.
The Purple One now has an official, verified account, in which he posts clips of music, archive photos from throughout his four decades in music as well as the odd press clipping. Prince – who has named his account Princestagram – has also experimented with creating his own memes.
The shift on to the image-based social media site may come as a surprise after his disappearance from social media in November 2014. He has yet to give a reason for deleting his accounts, but Prince has a history of attempting to retain and control his public property – and even attempted to pursue his own fans for sharing their favourite songs back in January 2014.
In July this year, Prince also chose to delete his back catalogue from all streaming services apart from Jay Z’s then newly launched service, Tidal (although that didn’t stop him from sharing the track Stare exclusively through Spotify afterwards). His last album, HITNRUN Phase One, was released initially through Tidal, before it was made more widely available. He has previously praised the service for giving him and his band freedom creatively: “Tidal have honoured us with a non-restrictive arrangement that once again allows us to continue making art in the fashion we’ve grown accustomed to and we’re extremely grateful for their generous support.”
Whether or not Prince’s dalliance with Instagram will become a regular part of the artist’s self-promotion is yet to be seen. But considering his fickle relationship with the online world so far, fans shouldn’t get too excited about seeing the singer’s smashed avocados in the longterm.
