While at work I saw some of the raw video of the Prince News Conference coming on a feed. I took the time to transcribe what Prince said. Below is just the statement that he read. The feed ended right after the Q&A started.



"On December 31, 1999, my publishing contract with Warner/Chappell expired, thus emancipating the name I was given before birth, Prince, from all long-term restrictive documents," "I will now go back to using my name instead of the symbol I adopted as a means to free myself from all undesirable relationships. (Sorry there was break in the feed so I don’t know if something else was said between this statement and the one below)
Especially on the internet which is pretty much just another distribution system. If I want bread I go 2 the baker then it will be fresh being handled by as few hands as possible no need for a middleman there. In truth, to avoid a monopoly on the net a major record companies’ transference of already contracted pop stars to a new distribution system. Why not allow the choice the freedom to decide? In this new virtually reality, can I simply get my own site and people who want my music simply come there? Or do I once again give up the store to the Forrest Gump accounting firm that says, “a royalty check is like a box of chocolates you never know what you’re gonna get.” (laughter) Can somebody say Toni Braxton? This point needs belaboring but let me just share this…let musicians sell their own music and then there will be a greater more equal distribution of the wealth. In this country and the virtual new world of the internet it won’t simply be another lop-sided reflection of what we have here now um, musicians and I talk about this a lot when we’re alone out of the boardrooms away from the executives and there’s a lot of problems in our communities that nobody’s taking the time to fix. On the way over here, a lady, republican, was on the microphone on CSPAN and said that the government set the blazes in New Mexico….uh it’s just to heavy to even think about right now. Um we can fix our own problems we can count our own money and we can fix our own problems but we can’t do that if we’re held under these constricting, restrictive contracts. The word contracts means to make smaller. Later this month discussions are being held in Washington regarding the work for hire clause record companies instituted without debate this states that all sound recordings will become the sole ownership of said record companies for all time. Do we really need to discuss this? Work for hire would be like an art director who designs a package for a CD. Even at 17 years old when I got into the business I never thought that I worked for Warner Bros. If anything it was the other way around. We picked them after much deliberation to perform a service. Copyrights are supposed to revert back to the writer after a said number of years. This is our form of social security, a form of social security. Not the best of course but it’s as close an artist will ever get to a golden parachute. Golden parachute, what a term, here’s a $100 million dollars, you’re fired. $100 million…when trying to get free from Time-Warner they told me I owed them money I had sold over 60 million albums but I owed them money as George Clinton would say, “well alright.” (laughter) Give us our copyrights and masters back and we won’t need the R&B foundation awards. I would like to quickly address…uh it’s a little difficult for me but I wanna quickly address some of the rumors of confrontation between Mayte and I. I think most of them arise out of a perceived notion that we’re still married in the conventional sense. Contrary to recent statements in the press that’s not true….we’re still friends but she does her thing and I do mine. Lastly I wanna say that we recently been working on some new music with some very smart musicians and one of the songs “Cybersingle” addresses many of the things that I just spoke on and there is talk of a tour but my main concern right now is to take time to study things of a spiritual nature so I’ma go away for a while and do that. I hope to be on the road by July or early August. If not I hope y’all wish me the best. Again I’d like to thank you for your presence here today and I’m opening up the floor now for some two-way traffic….”