Prince, he of the idiosyncratic spelling and periodic musical genius, holds forth on the state of the entertainment biz on the NPG Music Club site:

Something happened on the way 2 the 21st century. Media and entertainment companies started "converging" and "shareholder value" became far more important than customer service and respect 4 company employees ever managed 2 b. Compensation packages 4 company xecutives hit the stratosphere — while holding them accountable 4 their company's results became nearly impossible.

These xecutives r indeed very naïve if they think that people haven't noticed.

People r noticing that something isn't quite right — that something is indeed very wrong. After a decade during which the stock market gained apparent respectability as a legitimate, sensible 4m of investing, the recent slew of huge corporate scandals reveals that it is still what it has always been: a sick place where neurotic, puerile gamblers get their kicks off the backs of millions of "anonymous" workers and individuals, who have no control over what happens 2 their hard-earned retirement savings.

Yet this is the place that most company xecutives feel is much more important 2 watch than the actual people 4 whom they produce their goods and services. This is the place where the fate of thousands of employees is decided every day by people staring at computer monitors showing ever-changing, meaningless lists of numbers and charts. And if u happen 2 personally hold shares in a company that has just announced that it is "restructuring" in order 2 improve its bottom-line and thus increase its "shareholder value", don't kid urself: When the company is talking about "shareholders", it's not talking about u and ur measly couple of thousands of shares. It's only talking about big shareholders — i.e. other companies that own a more significant share of its market value.

This is a world where "hostile takeovers" and government-approved "mergers" r feeding a never-ending cycle of fewer and fewer xecutives wielding more and more power on a multinational scale. Soon enough, the "World Company" and George Orwell's 1984 will no longer b the stuff of satire or fiction — but prophetic descriptions of a very real "New World Order" gradually unfolding b4 r eyes.

A Little History
Let's start with a simple list: America Online, Time, Life, Warner Bros., Fortune, Elektra, Sports Illustrated, HBO, Turner Broadcasting, CNN, Cinemax, Entertainment Weekly, New Line Cinema, In Style, Warner/Chappell Music, Time Warner Cable, WBN, ICQ, Warner Music Group, Netscape, People, Reprise, Rhino, Atlantic, WEA, TNT, MapQuest, WinAmp, In Demand, Erato, Moviefone, Road Runner, etc. All owned by the same corporate giant (AOL Time Warner).

And another one: Universal Music Group, Verve, Nathan, Canal+, Impulse!, Cegetel, USA Networks, Decca, Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Barclay, Armand Colin, L'Express, Universal Studios, Larousse, Sierra, MP3.com, MCA Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Cineplex, etc. All owned by the same corporate giant (Vivendi Universal).

And yet another one: Disney, ABC, ESPN, Hyperion, Miramax, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, A&E, The History Channel, E! Entertainment, RTL-2, Buena Vista, Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Mammoth Records, etc. All owned by the same corporate giant (Walt Disney).

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