I don't know how to embed video yet, but for those of you interested:

http://www.facebook.com/v...p;comments

Limelight is a company that helps artists, particularly independent, file the necessary paperwork to perform and release cover songs legally. Some of their employees put together a group response to Prince's interveiw on George Lopez.

Thanks for the link. Very bizarre. Prince doesn't want other artists covering his songs, but he lets his own versions go out of print or drift into oblivion. So I guess Prince's point is that he doesn't anyone paying to hear his music unless it's at one of his concerts?

electricberet said:

Thanks for the link. Very bizarre. Prince doesn't want other artists covering his songs, but he lets his own versions go out of print or drift into oblivion. So I guess Prince's point is that he doesn't anyone paying to hear his music unless it's at one of his concerts?

She, when Prince is covering somebody else's song (which he's done since Emancipation), its charity and bringing attention to their song. But when somebody else covers his, he doesn't exist anymore.

I think Prince would really suck at playing chess--he only sees about 1 step in front of him.

He did say at one point that, if we think he's crazy, we're probably right.

Where did these attention getters come from... Promotional Fail!!!

Crimson & Clover is a cover song isn't it??

Prince is a hypocrite,

isn't he??

If you listen to EVERYTHING he said ( a dying practice these days), he said it's cool if friends of his want to cover his songs. I.E. if they ask HIM for his permission. What he objects to is the COMPULSORY notion that there are practices in place where that isn't required of those intending on doing the covering. In other words, his creation, but not his control. Who amongst the creative here really have a problem with that position?

But of course, nobody here wants to comment on that part, not as juicy after all.

shayde said:

If you listen to EVERYTHING he said ( a dying practice these days), he said it's cool if friends of his want to cover his songs. I.E. if they ask HIM for his permission. What he objects to is the COMPULSORY notion that there are practices in place where that isn't required of those intending on doing the covering. In other words, his creation, but not his control. Who amongst the creative here really have a problem with that position?

But of course, nobody here wants to comment on that part, not as juicy after all.

[Edited 4/22/11 21:48pm]

shayde said:

If you listen to EVERYTHING he said ( a dying practice these days), he said it's cool if friends of his want to cover his songs. I.E. if they ask HIM for his permission. What he objects to is the COMPULSORY notion that there are practices in place where that isn't required of those intending on doing the covering. In other words, his creation, but not his control. Who amongst the creative here really have a problem with that position?

But of course, nobody here wants to comment on that part, not as juicy after all.

Did he ask Radiohead for permission to play Creep live? They seemed to object to the way he blocked it from popular video sites.

^ haha very clever answer....

electricberet said:

shayde said:

If you listen to EVERYTHING he said ( a dying practice these days), he said it's cool if friends of his want to cover his songs. I.E. if they ask HIM for his permission. What he objects to is the COMPULSORY notion that there are practices in place where that isn't required of those intending on doing the covering. In other words, his creation, but not his control. Who amongst the creative here really have a problem with that position?

But of course, nobody here wants to comment on that part, not as juicy after all.

Did he ask Radiohead for permission to play Creep live? They seemed to object to the way he blocked it from popular video sites.

!

SagsWay2low said:

electricberet said:

Did he ask Radiohead for permission to play Creep live? They seemed to object to the way he blocked it from popular video sites.

!

I think we both know, SagsWay2low, that he wasn't talking about the occasional one-off cover live in concert. Obviously, from the Super Bowl and his performing a D-Train classic RIGHT AFTER THE INTERVIEW he'd have to be one whopping hypocryte to be talking about live covers in concert.

shayde said:

SagsWay2low said:

!

I think we both know, SagsWay2low, that he wasn't talking about the occasional one-off cover live in concert. Obviously, from the Super Bowl and his performing a D-Train classic RIGHT AFTER THE INTERVIEW he'd have to be one whopping hypocryte to be talking about live covers in conce

sounds like prince to me! anyways after listening to his concerts for the last decade and a half i'm all for prince covers. AS LONG AS THEY'RE NOT BY PRINCE!!

Not one of his first contradictions, certainly won't be the last.

Geminis

^ Yeah I mean Prince has two sides. Of course he'll do something like this. Don't know why anyone will be shocked by ANYTHING he says anyway.

electricberet said:

shayde said:

If you listen to EVERYTHING he said ( a dying practice these days), he said it's cool if friends of his want to cover his songs. I.E. if they ask HIM for his permission. What he objects to is the COMPULSORY notion that there are practices in place where that isn't required of those intending on doing the covering. In other words, his creation, but not his control. Who amongst the creative here really have a problem with that position?

But of course, nobody here wants to comment on that part, not as juicy after all.

Did he ask Radiohead for permission to play Creep live? They seemed to object to the way he blocked it from popular video sites.

You dont need to ask permission to cover songs live. Shayde is completely right, I just wish people would stop reading between the lines and listen to what Prince actually said!

Timmy84 said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Timmy84 said:

^ Yeah I mean Prince has two sides. Of course he'll do something like this. Don't know why anyone will be shocked by ANYTHING he says anyway.

Prince has 2 sides and they're both horrible businessmen...

Yes, let's please do come to a Prince fan website and wallow in his shortcomings that have nothing to do with why we're fans.

Shall we revel in what horrible musicians Donald Trump or Bill Gates are?

I'm just sayin'.

shayde said:

samhabib said:

Prince has recorded tonnes of cover versions. And played mullions more live. He's talking nonsense. The issue is that some of the covers were bigger hits than his originals.

oh you cynic!!! lol. if it wasn't for sinead o'connor nothing compares 2 u would be another shit, forgotten family track, prince nicked sinead's string arrangement when he started playing it live.

shayde said:

i still think princes point is not so much about doing cover songs, but is more so when people do cover songs and dont make it clear whos song it is. theres a lot of kids that hear new versions of old songs on the radio and have no clue that its a cover. prince always clearly acknowldeges where a song comes from when he covers it. respect the origins and history of the music, to me thats princes point

I didn't hear him say anything about Bob Dylan when he (the backup singers, actually) covered his song on April 14th, 2011. Not that I really care, just adding my two cents.

LOL doesnt bother me the slightest, i cant stand Prince covers, im sorry, but i just cant take listening to someone singing his songs, and it aint his freakin voice!!! I'll make exceptions for Alicia Keys and Sinead O'Connor, who had beautiful well put & sanged P cover songs. But everyone else ugh plain bad, no wonder the man doesnt want ppl covering his music, they dont bring anything to it

But 2 be fair, his covers of The Delfonics songs, really bugged the crap out of mean, LALALA means i love you, come on prince, thats an untouchable

ItsGonnaBLonely said:

LOL doesnt bother me the slightest, i cant stand Prince covers, im sorry, but i just cant take listening to someone singing his songs, and it aint his freakin voice!!! I'll make exceptions for Alicia Keys and Sinead O'Connor, who had beautiful well put & sanged P cover songs. But everyone else ugh plain bad, no wonder the man doesnt want ppl covering his music, they dont bring anything to it

But 2 be fair, his covers of The Delfonics songs, really bugged the crap out of mean, LALALA means i love you, come on prince, thats an untouchable

You didn't like Chaka's?

samhabib said:

^ You know I'm right though Prince wasn't complaining when he was covering 'One of us', 'I can't make you love me' and 'Betcha by golly wow'. All on the same album.

For Real!

lPoeticl said:

ItsGonnaBLonely said:

LOL doesnt bother me the slightest, i cant stand Prince covers, im sorry, but i just cant take listening to someone singing his songs, and it aint his freakin voice!!! I'll make exceptions for Alicia Keys and Sinead O'Connor, who had beautiful well put & sanged P cover songs. But everyone else ugh plain bad, no wonder the man doesnt want ppl covering his music, they dont bring anything to it

But 2 be fair, his covers of The Delfonics songs, really bugged the crap out of mean, LALALA means i love you, come on prince, thats an untouchable

You didn't like Chaka's?

i feel for u? is that what ur refering 2? if so, its a give or take, never fancied the song to be honest, not even when Prince song it , Prince 1979 album is my fav, that song is the only one i dont really care 4 on it

ItsGonnaBLonely said:

LOL doesnt bother me the slightest, i cant stand Prince covers, im sorry, but i just cant take listening to someone singing his songs, and it aint his freakin voice!!! I'll make exceptions for Alicia Keys and Sinead O'Connor, who had beautiful well put & sanged P cover songs. But everyone else ugh plain bad, no wonder the man doesnt want ppl covering his music, they dont bring anything to it

But 2 be fair, his covers of The Delfonics songs, really bugged the crap out of mean, LALALA means i love you, come on prince, thats an untouchable

I was about to ask, "do you like Prince's covers?" Yeah his cover of "Betcha By Golly Wow" was... uh... yeah. Only other artist who did a great cover was Phyllis Hyman anyways.

Timmy84 said:

CocoRock said:

Timmy84 said:

... his cover of "Betcha By Golly Wow" was... uh... yeah.

#I'm fuckin' dyin' ova heah!

electricberet said:

shayde said:

SagsWay2low said:

!

I think we both know, SagsWay2low, that he wasn't talking about the occasional one-off cover live in concert. Obviously, from the Super Bowl and his performing a D-Train classic RIGHT AFTER THE INTERVIEW he'd have to be one whopping hypocryte to be talking about live covers in concert.

He IS a whopping hypocrite.

Fuck him. I'm going to do a whole ALBUM of his songs. Maybe one of his actually GOOD albums that never got released OR one of his shitty albums, change the lyrics like he does on covers he performs and make it a good album. Hmmm.

I don't really see much difference between live performances and selling records when it comes to covering songs.

When you perform it live, you make money without permission by doing a cover of somebody else's song, while (in most countries) you only have to pay a compulsory 'public performance license' fee to do so legally. And when you sell records by doing a cover, you also make money without permission using somebody else's song, while you also (in most countries) only have to pay a compulsory 'mechanical license' fee to do so legally.

One general rule: you may not significantly change the original composition and lyrics of the song. The cover has to respect the song and author's integrity and stay musically as well as lyrically true to the original to stay legal. Otherwise you need specific permission from the author and/or copyright owner to cover that way. And you also generally need to give credit on records, but not live, which is a major difference, tho' not in favour of live covers.

Prince surely got all the necessary licenses in writing from the original authors and/or copyright owners for a (combination of a) song like 'Crimson and Clover' and 'Wild Thing' on Lotusflower, as well as for not giving credit to the authors, nor to his drummer John Blackwell for playing on it, for example.

I guess that for Prince this is all about rules and control, possibly money too, sometimes (when it's a huge hit). In other words, about demanding to be asked permission first to cover his songs on record and not be at the mercy of a system of compulsory licenses, so he will always be able to exert control on the way his songs are covered and by whom and under what (financial) conditions.

Fair enough you could say, from his point of view of having total control. But when he talks about it, it's superficially and he loses sight of all the other aspects of the issue.

In the wider scheme of things, compulsory licenses aren't about Prince and his latest crusade on people using his music without his permission. Instead they have a long history regardless of Prince and are all about having a relatively fair and easy to use system for ALL artists, not just Prince, as well as record companies and music publishers, to be able to legally perform and release covers.

While it is further about a crumbling industry that has always relied heavily on this system to have a steady stream of income, because it makes it possible to re-sell hits over and over and over again. The last thing it needs now, is losing this cash cow.

So I don't really know what Prince is going for here, but I suspect he won't follow up on this in any serious way.

Also, when the radio plays your song, they don't get permission first either, but any artist is very happy when they do. Because it means promotion and you (should) get paid royalties.

Also based on a system of compulsory licences.

Not that this was easily accepted in the days when radio was born. Oh no. Popular radio stations were sued left and right all over the world for copyright infringement. How dare they broadcast copyrighted songs to the general public without permission of the owners of the copyrights!

Needless to say, this couldn't go on for long and goverments worldwide stepped in. Everybody wanted music on the radio, like they do these days on the internet, so radio wasn't going anywhere but was there to stay!

All that was needed was a system of compulsory licenses to make it work.

I'm sooooo sick of ignorant people who rant and rave about this subject w/o first taking time to actually THINK about what Prince meant when he talked about covers. First off, performing a song live isn't the same thing as going in a studio and recording it, putting it on your album, and selling it off as yours. And permission should be asked FIRST when doing the latter out of RESPECT! That is the right thing to do!! And no one knows if Prince ASKED permission to cover Crimson & Clover, Betcha By Golly Wow, etc. So STFU about those, he could have asked!

He's never appeared mad @ Chaka for covering his song...Usually when an artist covers his songs, they butcher it (Tom Jones Kiss)! Prince has never butchered a cover song that he's recorded on an album. And he did say fans/friends were ok to cover his stuff. He just doesn't want the record companies to get overly greedy and constantly shell out his art like it belongs to them. He created these songs, not them. He should have say so over who covers them. Period. All artists should if they wrote it. Playing it live at a show, No big deal. Recording it on an album, releasing it, etc. is a totally different story. And Prince aint the only artist that don't want people stealing his crap, blocking vids from YT, etc.

BTW, The D-Train thing don't even count in the argument since it was Shelby doing most of the singing. Geez!

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

I'm sooooo sick of ignorant people who rant and rave about this subject w/o first taking time to actually THINK about what Prince meant when he talked about covers. First off, performing a song live isn't the same thing as going in a studio and recording it, putting it on your album, and selling it off as yours. And permission should be asked FIRST when doing the latter out of RESPECT! That is the right thing to do!! And no one knows if Prince ASKED permission to cover Crimson & Clover, Betcha By Golly Wow, etc. So STFU about those, he could have asked!

He's never appeared mad @ Chaka for covering his song...Usually when an artist covers his songs, they butcher it (Tom Jones Kiss)! Prince has never butchered a cover song that he's recorded on an album. And he did say fans/friends were ok to cover his stuff. He just doesn't want the record companies to get overly greedy and constantly shell out his art like it belongs to them. He created these songs, not them. He should have say so over who covers them. Period. All artists should if they wrote it. Playing it live at a show, No big deal. Recording it on an album, releasing it, etc. is a totally different story. And Prince aint the only artist that don't want people stealing his crap, blocking vids from YT, etc.

BTW, The D-Train thing don't even count in the argument since it was Shelby doing most of the singing. Geez!

We do know that one of the people who wrote Crimson and Clover, Peter Lucia, died in 1987. If he got Peter's permission, he sure did wait a long time before releasing his cover version.

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

prince hasn't butchered a cover song??? he's fucked up every single one! songs like one of us and winding road are musical turds anyways so who cares, but when he performed creep and changed the lyrics to meaningless drivel was he showing respect to the original spirit the song was wrote in?? and slaughtering whole lotta love and having the audacity to actually release it is a sign of a man with his head up his own arsehole.

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

I'm sooooo sick of ignorant people who rant and rave about this subject w/o first taking time to actually THINK about what Prince meant when he talked about covers.

Just to have this issue 'covered' and not have any misunderstanding about it: were you, by any chance talking about/to me here?

I think the opposite of going to a Prince concert, with real music by real musicians would be watching an episode of Glee.

Perhaps he is talking about the fact that this show can take an artist's song without permission, record it with this group called "The Warblers" (lol...give me a break) and watch it hit the billboard charts in a big way. See article below

http://www.billboard.com/...5842.story

LayDownMisty said:

I think the opposite of going to a Prince concert, with real music by real musicians would be watching an episode of Glee.

Perhaps he is talking about the fact that this show can take an artist's song without permission, record it with this group called "The Warblers" (lol...give me a break) and watch it hit the billboard charts in a big way. See article below

http://www.billboard.com/...5842.story

Agreed...

ParanoidAndroid said:

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

I'm sooooo sick of ignorant people who rant and rave about this subject w/o first taking time to actually THINK about what Prince meant when he talked about covers. First off, performing a song live isn't the same thing as going in a studio and recording it, putting it on your album, and selling it off as yours. And permission should be asked FIRST when doing the latter out of RESPECT! That is the right thing to do!! And no one knows if Prince ASKED permission to cover Crimson & Clover, Betcha By Golly Wow, etc. So STFU about those, he could have asked!

He's never appeared mad @ Chaka for covering his song...Usually when an artist covers his songs, they butcher it (Tom Jones Kiss)! Prince has never butchered a cover song that he's recorded on an album. And he did say fans/friends were ok to cover his stuff. He just doesn't want the record companies to get overly greedy and constantly shell out his art like it belongs to them. He created these songs, not them. He should have say so over who covers them. Period. All artists should if they wrote it. Playing it live at a show, No big deal. Recording it on an album, releasing it, etc. is a totally different story. And Prince aint the only artist that don't want people stealing his crap, blocking vids from YT, etc.

BTW, The D-Train thing don't even count in the argument since it was Shelby doing most of the singing. Geez!

He didn't ask Radiohead, neither the band or the management. And what more, he blocked their song on youtube. How nice of him, so STFU, purple-writing-lady.

Nor did he ask Foo Fighters when he not only performed their song "Best of You" live at Superbowl XLI, but sent a recorded version of it to Howard Stern's Sirius show for promotional airplay.

[Edited 4/30/11 6:34am]