He's sold over 100 million records according to wikipedia. Just because you haven't heard him on the radio doesn't mean he isn't hugely popular, which he is.

I don't know how old you are, but Prince was on the radio every day and worldwide most of the 80s and retrospectively I'd call him one of the 4 most influential mainstream US artists of this decade (MJ, Bruce S. and Madonna being the other 3). He sold around 100 million albums in his career, Purple Rain sold 13 million copies in the US alone.

For at least a decade he was one the world's greatest music geniuses imo (I think he was even brilliant in the 90s, when his fame slowly began to fade), but unfortunately over time he seems to have become one of those publicly forgotten artists who will get the wide recognition he deserves only after his death. It's partially his own fault because he always loved to fight the industry (his fights started already in the late 70s and it became worse with his temporarily name change, the word "slave" on his cheek during the lawsuit with Warner Bros. and all this other stuff) and it makes me a bit sad that he still seems to be bitter and fighting today despite all the success he had in his life.

It's true, he isn't popular among young people today or among those who back then only bought and listened to Purple Rain for a few years, but he has still millions of old fans worldwide, mainly because he's a hell of a performer on stage and no one who visited one of his concerts will ever forget this evening. I'm one of those old fans and still buy all his albums today, even the mediocre ones (because there's an unbroken rule to Prince's albums: Even the mediocre ones got at least one or two brilliant songs).

I've read enough of the (rare and often strange) Prince interviews in my life to learn that this man, who tells everything through his music, can't really explain in words what he actually wants to say. My guess here is that he thinks that the internet music distribution has slowly become to music what MTV (with way overblown videoclip budgets) became to music in the late 80s:
What was initially meant to be a platform that supports and sells music, slowly turned into a threat to music and makes music worthless. iTunes and the likes became the new music industry and therefore his new enemies, replacing the record companies and MTV who (in his mind) made him their slave decades ago. Being a slave to the music industry was always his greatest fear and is one of the main topics in his life (besides wrting songs for and making love to all those gorgeous women who always surrounded him and often played in his bands).

I could be completely wrong though with my interpretation. I'm not sure if I ever understood what he was trying to tell the world with his words (I particularly never understood if he also generally speaks in favour of music and other musicians or if it's really just about the money and control he thinks he's losing), but I always loved his music.

That was my little essay about the one and only Prince, who gave me and the world the best album of the 1980s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_o'_the_Times_(album) 

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Like I said, I'm not saying he isn't popular,but his songs seem to be absent from the radio.

Besides his Super Bowl appearance, I can't name any of his songs besides Purple Rain, and I can't recite a single lyric to any of his songs. That is not an insult to his career - it is just my realization that while legendary, I know nothing about Prince. With all that he has done in music, it is surprising I do not.

Prince always rocks my local KDWB Station.

Purple Rain forever.

But seriously Prince is a thing of the past here in his hometown of Minneapolis.

meh...as long as there's porn, anime, and people get hurt or doing stupid sh*t the internet will never be over!! lol

his music career has been over for awhile now. lol

He was hugely popular back in the day,but he really is'nt these days. Most of those 100 million records were probably in his heyday. lol

Shitty prize, haven't you heard teh internetz iz dead!!!

Prince kicks ass.  Too bad he contracted "crazy light skinned black guy disease" from Michael Jackson.