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Printable locoarts said: Hey IF Prince is getting his master from his old music.. thats ALL he ever wanted.. so if they can work something out cool! That was his only problem with the old warners bros.
definitly not his only problem.You are not my "friend" because you threaten my security. | |
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Abrazo said: FutureShock said: Also, keep in mind that if the "old heads" from the previous WB executive regime are gone, then at that point, Prince is essentially dealing with another company.
ooohhhh... don't ever assume that you are dealing with another company, even if the management has changed. This is big business in which you can never trust people. ----- No, a private investment group brough the label but WB can buy back a 20% stake at a later date. | |
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Okay, for all of you crying "sellout" let me illustrate this in a way that I think might shed some light.
Think of it in terms of countries. At one point, prince was a part of the "country" of Warners. When that "country" was taken over by a facist regime, Prince split off to form his own country. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties for many years, essentially being in a "cold war" with one another. Recently, the facist regime that caused prince to cecede (sp?) in the first place has been overthrown. Prince now has no beef with the folks in charge, so he has re-opened diplomatic ties, and is considering allowing his small country to re-merge with the union of WB. All this will be contigent on him being given certain assurances and rights that the previous regime refused to give him. Make sense> 
Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones. (Ecclesiastes 7:9) |
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TedW said: The "owning of the masters" thing is about money. What's in question is the actual tape, not the songs themselves as music. Prince wrote them, owns the publishing (which is administered by another company for a piece of the action), gets paid when they are covered or played. He's free to do what we wants with those songs, play them, not play them... always has been.
Not entirely true. he gets paid for their use when they are covered, or featured in a film, etc. He still cannot use the original recording without the permission of WB (the Corvette ads that featured "Little Red Corvette" used the live recording from the "Sign O The Times" film, for example) Let's say Prince gets his much-sought-after ownership of these tapes. So what then? What could he do with them, what would he want to do with them that is not possible now? Reissue them for a larger piece of the pie. But how much value, really, is there in a reissued 1999? Perhaps enough to wage this battle for ten years, perhaps not. Synchronicity was recently reissued. It was the biggest record of 1983. I'd be surprised if the re-release goes platinum. The issue, as Prince has always stated it, is it is his legacy. His children and grandchildren should have the right to use these recordings as they see fit after his passing. He doesn't want his heirs to go through what Jimi Hendrix's family did recently. Again, there is a whole lot of money to be made if he licenses the songs to commercials and films, and to do that he would prefer to not have to deal with getting permission from Warner suits Prince realizes it takes huge amounts of money to move the huge of amounts of records he'd like to move. In exchange for this money, record companies want a piece. Whatta surprise. The irony is, Prince is in the perfect position to make the conventional business model work in his favor -- he can demand (and will get) high royalty rates and marketing support and nobody tells him what to record. Sting is worth $300 million and has recorded for the same company his entire career. They don't tell him what to record and you don't hear him complaining about master tapes. What's the problem? Again, it goes back to Prince feeling the artist should get a bigger pecentage than they do. Most artists get a very small cut of each CD sold. This is why TLC went bankrupt when they were selling millions of CDs. As for Sting, do you know what his record deal is like? He probably gets a higher percentage, and may even have ownership of his masters (Bono said that, after a conversation with Prince, U2 negotiated to get their master tapes back. They now own their music, even while signed to a major label. David Bowie and REM have also struck similar deals). All in all, if WB makes a great offer that meets his demands, Prince would probalby re-sign, and it would be mutually beneficial to both parties.
Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones. (Ecclesiastes 7:9) |
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Well, exactly. It's about money. Which is fine, I just don't like the whole "these are my children" routine. He really just wants a bigger piece of the pie and the opportunity to sell a song to Lexus or somebody -- he should just say that. When Prince talks about being "Number One at the bank," he's not joking. It's obviously important to him. And if he's really concerned about his heretofore non-existent children and grandchildren, he should just leave them all the money he's made on these songs... that's enough legacy for them.
And TLC is not Prince. Their royalty rate was small because they weren't songwriters or producers and the cut they did have was split three ways. Prince is artist, writer, producer -- he gets all the money his record company doesn't, like a Sting or Stevie Wonder. He could demand (and actually had at one time) the highest royalty rate in the industry. Not enough? Well, you spend the millions required to release pop music globally -- oops, tried that. Not so easy, is it? In this life, there's a dance with the devil no matter where you turn. There's no such thing as selling out anymore. I think he should re-sign with a major on favorable terms and go back to making (challenging) hits that get people excited, if it's still in him to do. He's a pop star, a brilliant pop star, and busting his ass in the underground is a major waste of his talent and abilities. BTW, it was my understanding that U2 bought a piece of Island records when they became massive in the 80s. They bought their own record record company! That's the most genius thing I've ever heard. | |
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TedW said: Well, exactly. It's about money. Which is fine, I just don't like the whole "these are my children" routine. He really just wants a bigger piece of the pie and the opportunity to sell a song to Lexus or somebody -- he should just say that. When Prince talks about being "Number One at the bank," he's not joking. It's obviously important to him. And if he's really concerned about his heretofore non-existent children and grandchildren, he should just leave them all the money he's made on these songs... that's enough legacy for them.
And TLC is not Prince. Their royalty rate was small because they weren't songwriters or producers and the cut they did have was split three ways. Prince is artist, writer, producer -- he gets all the money his record company doesn't, like a Sting or Stevie Wonder. He could demand (and actually had at one time) the highest royalty rate in the industry. Not enough? Well, you spend the millions required to release pop music globally -- oops, tried that. Not so easy, is it? In this life, there's a dance with the devil no matter where you turn. There's no such thing as selling out anymore. I think he should re-sign with a major on favorable terms and go back to making (challenging) hits that get people excited, if it's still in him to do. He's a pop star, a brilliant pop star, and busting his ass in the underground is a major waste of his talent and abilities. BTW, it was my understanding that U2 bought a piece of Island records when they became massive in the 80s. They bought their own record record company! That's the most genius thing I've ever heard. BS - I hope he stays independent forever ...cause FACE said so!!! | |
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MY PROBLEM WITH THIS ONE IS THAT IF WB RE-SIGN PRINCE ON HIS TERMS, WILL WB PROMOTE AND DISTRBUTE HIS MATERIAL WITH THE SAME ENTHUSIASM,
IF WB HAD THE OWNERSHIP. WHEN PRINCE SIGN THE DEAL WITH ARISTA, I BELIEVE "BECAUSE HE HAD OWNERSHIP", THE ALBUM DID NOT REACH IT'S FULL POTENTIAL.[/color][/b](LAX) |
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BELL6983 said: MY PROBLEM WITH THIS ONE IS THAT IF WB RE-SIGN PRINCE ON HIS TERMS, WILL WB PROMOTE AND DISTRBUTE HIS MATERIAL WITH THE SAME ENTHUSIASM,
IF WB HAD THE OWNERSHIP. WHEN PRINCE SIGN THE DEAL WITH ARISTA, I BELIEVE "BECAUSE HE HAD OWNERSHIP", THE ALBUM DID NOT REACH IT'S FULL POTENTIAL.[/color][/b](LAX) Well, towards the end of his WB contract they had ownership, and did very little to promote his albums. In fact, the whole WB machine had gotten so mired down that they blew a whole lot of opportunities with many of their artists. WB will still have a stake. If the new regime wants to make money, they'll promote him. It could be a win-win for them and P. It all depends on how they choose to approach it.
Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones. (Ecclesiastes 7:9) |
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laurarichardson said: Abrazo said: ooohhhh... don't ever assume that you are dealing with another company, even if the management has changed. This is big business in which you can never trust people. ----- No, a private investment group brough the label but WB can buy back a 20% stake at a later date. It's still big business and you can't trust anyone in big business. You are not my "friend" because you threaten my security. | |
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All I gots to say is - I hate to be on the right side of a rumor but.... | |
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This is all speculation, I don't see how he would finally go to WB's of all record companies after his battles with them for the past few years. However, this is the world where Prince is going around knoking on peoples doors as a Jehova's witness so you never know. | |
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