Sports World Mourns Loss of Music Icon.
BROWN: All songs that Prince either wrote or influenced. And since he passed away on Thursday, people have been celebrating his many hits like this one.</s>BROWN: And if you try to punch up Prince videos on YouTube or try to stream "Purple Rain" on Spotify or Apple music, well, you're out of luck. You already know this. Prince's legacy isn't his music. It's also his fierce conviction to protect it. And here to talk about that, Frank Pollotta, media reporter for "CNN Money." So Frank, you know, Prince's arguably the most effective artist to take on a music label. In '93 he famously changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to protest Warner Brothers. And he was relentless in protecting his art. How so?</s>FRANK PALLOTTA, MEDIA REPORTER, CNN MONEY: Well, he was in control of it from pretty much beginning to end, and you can see that. You spoke about YouTube, and it's not on there. It's not on Apple music. It's not on Spotify. That's a great example of currently how he did it in the later years of his career. He didn't really trust technology. He had a distaste for digital music. He said albums still matter, and he pulled all of his music off of YouTube, and he went exclusively to title. So -- and why did he do that? It's because they gave him more artistic control. They allowed him to be able to have more hands in the production of the music. Not to mention, you know, they probably paid a little better. So that was another reason why he kind of did that, but that was a great example.</s>BROWN: And let's talk about that a little bit more. Because he not only controlled his music, it was also about his brand. Right?</s>PALLOTTA: Yes. Yes, definitely. That's why right now more than anything, when we think of Prince, we think of two things. We think of royalty, and we think of this artist. It's because no one is ever going to be like Prince again. And that was one of the greatest legacies that he's given today's artists. Before Prince, there was never an artist that went from A to Z in terms of putting the music out there, performing and being in such control. Now, we see people like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Kanye West, who are identities. You can separate their identities from their music, and that really starts at the root for Prince.</s>BROWN: And I want to get your thoughts on this statement from contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" who says that artists today, even those who sound nothing like Prince, should thank the legend for their artistic freedom. What do you think about that?</s>PALLOTTA: That's definitely true. One of the things about Prince is that he went beyond genre. He went beyond gender. And basically for Prince to kind of push back against Warner Brothers back in the early '90s and say, I'm going to become an unpronounceable symbol because you don't own me, I'm not a slave to you -- that's why he had the slave on his face when he used to perform -- it was kind of a big revolutionary thing that artists today are still doing, that are still producing, that are still making themselves more identities and artists rather than just cookie cutter musicians.</s>BROWN: Something you told me earlier I found fascinating was, you know, he fiercely protected the music that he did release, but also --</s>PALLOTTA: Yes.</s>BROWN: -- there's all this music he hasn't released. Right?</s>PALLOTTA: Right. Like I said earlier, about 70 percent of the music that Prince has produced has reportedly never been even released. Think about how prolific that is. This is a guy that had so many albums, multiplatinum albums, and one of the most famous albums of all time in "Purple Rain," and yet we haven't even scratched the surface of the type of music he was doing and the type of experimentation he might have been doing.</s>BROWN: Really remarkable. Frank Pollotta, thank you so much for that.</s>PALLOTTA: Thank you.</s>BROWN: And one thing you may not have known about Prince, he was a huge basketball fan. Coming up, hear how Lebron James is remembering the music icon.