This Fourth of July, you can celebrate one of the nation’s greatest musicians: Prince. The Prince Online Museum launched earlier today as an explorable archive of the 20 years of websites published by the late artist. Built around a reverse chronological timeline, the museum features links to active Prince websites, along with descriptions, screen captures, and video tours for the sites no longer online.
The Prince Online Museum is spearheaded by the site’s director, Sam Jennings, formerly the webmaster of Prince’s NPG Music Club. The Webby-winning subscription service shared music, videos, and additional media with fans online long before many larger music media companies invested heavily in digital distribution. The Prince Online Museum opens 10 years to the date of that service’s closure on July 4th, 2006.
The digital museum currently features 12 of Prince’s websites and digital projects, a little more than half of the total sites the artist launched during his career.
"The Museum was built by the people who worked directly with Prince on these projects," Jennings told Billboard in an interview about the museum’s launch. "We are the originators, we are the experts. It is a labor of love, no money has been exchanged. There will be no downloads sold and no membership fees required."