The Economics of Prince's Legacy: From Record Sales to International Stardom

Prince in Purple Rain, 1984.

Growing up in a larger than average (but extremely tight knight) family, our house was often noisy and there was always something going on. One of our most cherished of family activities is our frequent dance parties. Whether it's all 6 of us or just two of us, they've always been a blast and Prince has always been a staple of these--especially "Let's Go Crazy"--the one he's dancing to in the gif above. So as you can imagine, I, like many people around the country and around the world, was incredibly shocked and devastated when I heard about Prince's passing this past Thursday. "The Purple One" was just shy of his 58th birthday, not much older than my parents. So since I'm still reeling from his death today, I've decided to fully dedicate my final blog post to the man while somehow trying to tie it back to economics.

At the age of just fifteen, Prince was offered a record deal, but turned it down. This was an incredibly bold move, but this came from his desire to truly make everything his own. He was aware of his immense talent, and he wanted to produce everything himself in order to preserve his vision as an artist. A couple of years later, he was offered another deal, this time through Warner Brothers. He maintained his insistence of self-production and risked being dropped--but his passion paid off. Beginning with his second album, the self-titled Prince, he proved himself to be an incredibly talented artist at just 20 years of age with around a million records sold in the US alone. This meant that by just his second album, he had already gone platinum with an album with his first hit "I Wanna Be Your Lover". These record sales proved something--that the risk was worth it and that he knew what he was talking about. 

Prince @ the people that doubted him.

With his next three albums, Prince went from being relatively unknown to continuously being successful (Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999). Although 1999 went platinum, his biggest success was yet to come. When Purple Rain and its accompanied soundtrack came out in 1984, Prince was just 26 and on top of the world. His album went 14x platinum, which meant that he sold over 14,000,000 copies in the US alone.

Prince was a revolutionary. His insane record sales, wildly successful movie, and androgynous style was a defining piece of 1980s music and culture. His music will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will forever be thankful for the Purple One.