Saudi- Prince vanishes from social media

(MENAFN- Arab News) NEW YORK: Prince whose distaste for the music industry's conventions is well known has abruptly disappeared from social media after tentative efforts to promote his two new albums.

As of late Tuesday the megastar's Twitter and Facebook accounts had both disappeared and almost all videos from his official account had been taken off YouTube.

Prince offered no immediate commentary on social media or elsewhere on the reasons for the action.

But Prince's two latest albums which he released simultaneously in September remained on the streaming service Spotify.

The move puts Prince at odds with most musicians both newcomers and longtime stars who have considered social media a virtual obligation to reach out to fans.

A number of stars most famously Taylor Swift have criticized Spotify accusing it of insufficient payouts to artists but have nonetheless invested sustained energy in Facebook Twitter and YouTube.

Prince had entered social media to promote the latest two albums but had barely disguised his lack of enthusiasm. He advertised a Facebook question-and-answer session after he joined the site but after hours of queries he responded to just one an esoteric matter about audio tuning by offering a link to an article.

The 'Purple Rain' legend is known for bristling at the commercial advice of the music industry. Two decades ago he wrote 'slave' on his cheek and changed his name to the unpronounceable 'love symbol' to protest his contractual terms with Warner Brothers.

But Prince returned to Warner Brothers for his latest two albums 'Art Official Age' and 'Plectrumelectrum' the latter performed with the all-female trio 3rdEyeGirl.