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1992 Contract

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1992

On August 31, 1992, Prince signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros. worth a potential $100 million, which was more than two pop mega-deals struck earlier, Madonna's $60 million contract with Warner and Jackson's $60 million pact with Sony. The deal was made public on September 4, 1992.

The contract is an extension of his previous contract, the reconfiguration amounted to a $10 million advance per record, plus a royalty rate of approximately 20 percent. However, Prince would only get the $10 million for an album if the previous album has sold at least 5 million copies. An important clause, since only three of Prince's 13 albums had sold more than 5 million copies. (The last album to sell more than 5 million copies was Diamonds & Pearls; none of the albums released after it would sell more than 3 million copies.)

Paisley Park Records became a joint venture with Warner Bros., which would force Prince to become more involved in the running of the label. Whereas previously PPR would simply supply the master recordings to WB who would then manufacture, distribute and promote the releases, now PPR would decide on what to invest in videos and promotional efforts. Warners and Prince would share investments and profits.

The deal also involved two publishing agreements, one of which would involve Prince and WB actively looking for new talent. This is why Warners named him a vice president of artists and repertoire and gave him an office in its L.A. headquarters. (It is assumed that Prince only wanted the "vice president at Warner Brothers Records" position in order to acquire Time Warner stock options.) The other publishing agreement was a new three-year agreement between Prince's music publishing company, Controversy Music, and Warner/Chappel Music for the handling of his copyrights worldwide.

Note that Prince didn't even get a signing fee for the contract, unlike artists like Michael Jackson or REM.

The deal was negotiated by Prince's then lawyer, Gary Stiffelman.

The $100 million figure came from adding these numbers:

  • 6 albums x $10 million advance
  • the rest is unclear, probably a rough estimate of what his increased royalty rate would make him

1994

The partnership between WB and Paisley Park Records was ended in early 1994, after Warners had spent about $5 million on it. PPR itself never made any money, and the only profitable releases on the label were Prince's own. The label was closed.

Prince then set up NPG Records, making Levi Seacer, Jr. the head of it. Levi later claimed this amounted to very little, and that NPG Records was barely more than a logo and a small office in Paisley Park.

Prince was allowed to release "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" independently on BellMark. In fact he was prohibited from using any Warner Bros. company in doing so.

1996

In the first months of 1996, a termination agreement had been worked out that would allow Prince to leave the label after delivering two more albums instead of the three that he still owed them at that time. Prince also agreed to a reduction of his advances on royalties. Allegedly, Russ Thuret, one of the few remaining execs who had been with WB back when Prince first signed with them had been instrumental in getting Prince out of the deal.

The termination agreement was signed on April 26, 1996, at a meeting where Prince handed Warner Bros. Chaos And Disorder and The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, and told them these were the last they should expect from him. Both these records came with the artwork as released, and WB had no say over the contents. Both were rather short (40 minutes) and contained less than a dozen tracks, in sharp contrast to previous records which contained 70+ minutes. It is assumed that Chaos And Disorder and The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale contain "just enough" music as per contractual agreements.

(Note that Prince had threatened in an interview from late 1995 to hand WB three albums with "old" music called "The Vault", but that it is unlikely these three albums were actually ever compiled. Most likely this was merely a figure of speech by Prince, a threat to WB.)

Reasons for wanting out of the contract

"I'm not bitter toward Warner Brothers," he say's of the company for which he has released 20 albums and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. "The journey I've gone through has made me stronger." After settling into his office suite, Which is comfortably and tastefully decorated ("I basically live here"), he explains that his differences with the record company had nothing to do with money. (The $100-million, six-record deal he signed in 1992 reportedly, advanced him $10 million per recording.) Rather than money, his discontentment had a lot to do with creative control and ownership of his work.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n3_v52/ai_18980644/

WB Albums that did or did not count towards the deal

The six album deal was for albums with new material, compilations didn't count towards the deal. However, the deal did include the right for WB to release some compilation albums.

Albums that counted towards the deal:

Albums that did not count towards the deal:

Sources / Further reading

References

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