How Prince gained power in 2004
AGE 46He rewrote the rule book, getting an allowance for CDs given away at concerts to be counted as Billboard/SoundScan sales. Mind you, that power play bred so much resentment that the rule book was rewritten again, so no other artist can pull that stunt in the future. Still, Prince reaped the PR benefits of having a top 10 album for months — his first such reign in over a decade — on top of one of the year's most consistently sold-out (and entertaining) tours.
