Prince was Indie
At the time of his death, he reportedly owned the master recordings of all his output. With no major label to serve for most of the second half of his career and no constraints on distribution, he was free to try new modes of connection.
Jon Caramanica on NYT source
He broke up with Warner Bros because they imposed him the pace of one album a year. Many artists would struggle and interpret is as at least one a year. Prince read it as at most. Right, he wanted to release more. Regardless, he perceived it as a limitation. I can’t help to compare this with developers leaving the Mac App Store.
Prince was an indie artist, the captain of his own boat. Control freak? Probably. But, be honest, how many people would you allow to steer your own boat?
Another artist with a similar approach was Frank Zappa. They both owned their respective master recordings, and their future.
As an indie developer I have to thank Prince, Zappa and any “maker” that pushes the idea that you can make it, at your pace. Slow or fast.