Is any1 else angry with this whole name change thing. It seem like people got over it way too fast. He spent almost 7 years lying to every1 about this whole name thing. He said that it was a very "spiritual" thing and that it was something God told him to do. We all know the story.

Well anyway's, 7 yers later he changes his name back to Prince and say that it was all because of contractual limitations. Thanx for lying to me. Thanx for allowing me to think you were making a spiritual stand. While all the while what you were doing was running from a contractual obligation. I'll surrender the fact that it was not a good contractual obligation but regardless, they didn't force him to re-sign.

I work for a car loan company and we honestly rip people off, but, het they never had to agree to our terms. They could've saved the money on their own and bought the car. Some people pay me $500/mo for a car they don't even have anymore and Prince is running from a 100million $'s cuz they won't let him release the music he wants to. That's childish.

That's my Opinion, what do U think?

the only reason he did change his name was to get out of his warner brother contract..

just like "snoop doggy dog" is owned by Death Row
BUT "Snoop Dog" is not.. ( he changed his name for the same reason..)


* I think made up the angle or press release.. to LET Warner Bros.. think or just know "YOU are NOT going to get to me"!!! and IF you do.. I won't let you know it!


funny thing you see more and more people "changing" there names to get out of those contracts!! why not?? who wants to make ONLY 56 cents per album sold?

toratora69 said:

I think if you work for a car company who willingly rips people off, you have NO room to talk about Prince. ~That's~ what I think.

CreoleFreak throws two cents on the table.

I knew the whole name change thing was a powerplay slick hustle move from day one. See, Prince has this mystique about him.....but I never really bought it. I've got performers in the family, and I know about the "Public Persona". I've always seen Prince as any other brother: used to eat Popeye's & Doritos too.

Now, when he got on Oprah and said how spiritual it was, yea, I was like "Aww, no he didn't". And then, Mayte with the "I call him 'hey' thing". To me, I didn't get all worked up...I just said "Rock & Roll".

Then, the band members. Mr. Hayes said he called him "Bruh". If a man was paying my check and wanted the public to not call him Prince... and one day I go to work at the studio to do a lil production, and a camera got in my grill, I'd be calling him "Bruh" too....for the cameras.

Bottom line, people forgot about it so quickly because nobody really bought it, IMO. I think people were smart enough to know spin when they saw it...at least I hope so.

When my non-P friends asked me about the thing, I told them, "Cuz Prince was slick enough to say 'They own Prince, so I ain't Prince no more'." And those same non-P friends were like "Now that's gangsta".

--CreoleFreak

no biggy

Fair play to Prince.

Warners owned the name & forbade him from recording under the name Prince. So Prince says "fuck u, I'll change my name". I have no doubt it was for spiritual reasons as God gave him the answer for an answerless problem.

Obviously he preferes the name under which his late mother & father christened him under & so when the time came, he reverted back to his real name.

As far as I remember, Prince never said it wasnt due to contractual issues so I do not feel cheated or lied to at all. I love Prince's music & I dont care which name or character he records under as long as he still records

Fair Play to Prince

The one thing that I can say about Prince and his name change is that he made some of his best music as "The Artist." A lot of people were tripping over the name change and thought that he bugged out. However, he really took on an entirely different mindset creatively. I sort of wish that he would start releasing some of the great music that he recorded during this time. Just think about recordings like "Endorphine Machine." and "Papa. Impacting songs just like these (recorded by "The Artist") currently reside inside of the VAULT!!! But really, the name change did not do anything to the genius of the man we know as Prince.


"It's A Real Mother For Ya"
Johnny "Guitar" Watson

toratora69 said:

It's not that simple. Recording contracts never are. Unless we know the exact provisions of Prince's contract and how it worked, we talk about this with limited factual knowledge. Only Prince, his manager (if he had one at the time), and Warner Brothers executives know of the contractual provisions.

Just my opinion....I hated the entire name change fiasco.I ALWAYS called him "Prince",and I used to get irritated when people would call him 'The Artist Formerly Known As Prince' (how stupid does that sound??).I think,in the end,the name change became a distraction,and took the focus OFF the music,which was unfortunate.I'm glad those 7 years are over!

I agree with Davideye, I'm glad those 7 years r over 2. If anything I'd prefer him 2 have gone nameless and not put any names on his albums.

"His mama call him Prince, Imma call him Prince..."

to paraphrase Eddie in Coming To America.

I never liked the name change thing. It was just embarrassing to bring up his music to non-fans cuz they'd say, "Whats his name these days?" I knew from the beginning he was doing it for contractual/record company reasons. I never called him 'the artist formerly known as prince,' or 'The Artist' or anything like that.

I'm so glad that ridiculous period is over. Now if he would bring down ticket costs.

that whole name-change b.s. irritated the phuc outta me!! i still called him prince throughout the entire ordeal....that symbol shit wuz so silly....

creolefreak: crackin up....no u didn't just say popeye's....

Chas said:

Thats right Chas! The Muthafucka don't cash his checks with O+-> now do he? He writes Prince got dammit. If thats the case Imma change my name to $, dolla dolla bill ya'll!!!!!

ô¿ô

Can someone better explain how changing his name got him out of his contract? Prince changed his name on June 7, 1993. He then released Come (under the name Prince), TGE and C&D (both as ) with Warner Brothers. So how did that get him "out" of anything? He owed them 10 albums, and that is what he delivered. The fact that he changed his name didn't give him squat in terms of any legal rights to release music on his own until he had satisfied that part of the contract. released NOTHING on his own (except Beautiful Experience EP--which WB gave him permission to release) until he had fully satisfied his contract with WB.

The reason he could release Emancipation, The Truth and Crystal Ball on his own was because he had satisfied his contractual obligation at that point, not because he was now . (Otherwise, he would have released TGE on his own and would not have been a "slave" during that period.)

The only other aspect I can think of here is that in addition to owing them 10 albums, the contract could have had a 10 year exclusivity provision. But that really wouldn't have made the name change relevant contractually until 1996 (when he no longer owed them any albums), so why did he change it back in 1993?

I think he did change it to make a stand--not to get out of the contract. But then once he was "free," he realised that the name "Prince" could sell more albums, and since he now owned the material again, he wanted to maximize his sales. We saw this first with Prince "producing" RAVE.

So I think the "lie" was not back when he changed to , but actually when he changed back to "Prince."

By the way, if any of you think that changing your name can get you out of any type of contract, you are pretty naive.

The name change was a way of getting out under his contractual obligations. I don't think he really made a secret out of that. And to say it was for spiritual reasons isn't so far away from the truth, since Prince' spirituality is completely interwoven with his music.

Supernova is right, we know jack shit about the contractual obligations towards WB. But it is normal in the music industry that once you sign with a label you also oblige yourself to record exclusively for that label under the artist name of the contract.

These provisions can start to weigh heavily on an artist's back, especially on the back of an extremely creative artist like Prince. It can be argued that, under circumstances, it is unreasonable for a record company to hold it's artists to these exclusivity clauses.

Since P kept on releasing albums under the name Prince for WB even after the name change and the release of records for NPG records, WB couldn't fully claim that he wasn't fulfilling his obligations to deliver Prince albums. They could only claim that he was also releasing records on another label and thus wasn't fullfilling all his obligations, but those records were released under a different name and label and that made it difficult for WB to prohibit these recordings. The dispute would have to be decided by a court, but I don't think either one of them wanted that.

In the end WB got their albums and Prince got his freedom to release as much as he wanted under a different name. My guess is that they made some financial arrangements for the supposed damage done to WB by Prince/ releasing other records.

Since 2000 he uses the name Prince again because his publishing contract with Warner Chappel expired. I think His contract with Warner B records ended with The Vault, but this album was already delivered to WB before 1999. So it was right that prince said he was free as an ARTIST when he released Emancipation.
TVBOP was imo released because WB still owns the old masters, at least up to D&P.
So in 2000 not only Prince: the recording artist was free, but also Prince: the composer/lyricist/author was free, so he could finally say that he wasn't a slave to the evil WB empire anymore.

BanishedBrian said:

I agree completely! Changing his name to an unpronouncable symbol did NOT help him get out of his Warner contract.He still had to deliver the albums he owed them.Also,he never LEGALLY changed his name to that symbol,so as far as contracts go,he was still the same "Prince Rogers Nelson" who signed the contract in 1992.

My whole take on this is P signed that contract in 1992. That's the truth. He started complaining about being "a slave". The whole slave thing that he was portraying was a foul move. He signed on the dotted line, so he had to fulfill his obligations. I think the thing that got P was the $$$$$ he saw the money and couldn't turn it down. Plus, I think it was reported that he would be named vice president of WB(more power..perhapd stroking his ego). Also he would get like a 5 or 10 million dollar advance before he recorded his next album(that's only if his last album sold at least 5 million...NOTE: THIS WAS A CLEVER UNDERLYING WAY FOR WB TO TURN PRINCE INTO A COMMERCIAL ARTIST....).


So the whole deal looked unprecendented, so P signed his name on the contract. He had already been having difficilty with WB in the past(concerning the amount of albums he could release) so why did he resign with them??? He had nobody to blame but himself. He should have fulfilled his obligations and after that....MOVED ON!!!!!

You don't hear Michael Jackson or Madonna(DAVIDEYE can verify about her)complaining about their contracts. You sign..you have to provide what you agreed to...that simply.

* Brother 9/15 aka CR3

Yeah I also think he signed that contract in 1992 and I also think he sold out like a bitch. But damnit what would you do?
I think the name change, whether it was legally changed or not, was defiantely the way to be able to record on a different label, it provided him an escape. What also happened because of it was a dramatically downturn in his popularity. WB must have realised that wto worsen the dispute and make it more public would not help record sales so they went along with the entire name change crap.

On another note, we have to see that the symbol album was really a different approach than the D&P album, musically as well as lyrically. Now P has become a JW of some kinds I see his songs from those days in a different light. The song 7 in fact already reminds me a lot of what he is talking about right now. It's about revelation and the ending of the evil empires of this world. Warner Brothers is definately a part of that. i don't know but I think he met Larry in those days too.

Larry had in fact the same kind of experience as P. Both were superstars, Larry with Sly and later with GCS and Prince later with the Revolution and on his own. Both were part of the ol' Warner bros. party and got their fame from it. Both were let down in some way and as happens to all rising stars... one day they fall.

The two had a lot of common, but Larry was further on the way and the more experienced one who could serve as an advisor to the troubled Prince. Larry had also found peace in his religion and this religion also became a comfort to P because it provided him with answers about the world he was living in. P was a slave to the Beast and had to get FREE...

From 1993 on P's lyrics sound more and more like a heavily religious man trying to deal with the things around him. In 1998 he changed the title to the Cross, which is whatever way you look at it a major serious decision, but he did because he was convinced the Cross is anotherone of the lies made up by the beast to confuse us all.
And now we have TRC which is a clear declaration from Prince that he is a convinced JW and completely free from ol' devil WB.

Just fishing here, don't mean to proclaim this to be true.

Abrazo said:

Once again, the name change did not allow him to get out of his contract! Prince released five albums with WB after the name change (Come, TGE, Girl 6, C&D & The Vault). Once he had fulfilled the contract fully, he released Emancipation on his own. Why do people keep acting like changing his name got him out of his contract in some way? It didn't do anything legally.

Abrazo said:

First of all, Larry came into Prince's life in 1997, not 1993. I'm not certain that they had never met until 1997, but Prince had no relationship to LG until they hooked up at an aftershow during the 97 L41A shows, and then got close. LG toured extensively on the JOTY and '98 tours, and was living in MPLS next to P by early 1998.

As far as his music starting down the JW path in 1993, I think you're stretching it . The Symbol album, with songs like The Max, Sexy MF, Continental, etc., sounds nothing lyrically like TRC. (Prince was still wild and sane back then!). The Come album, with songs like Orgasm, Loose, etc.--again is nothing like TRC. The Gold Experience (P Control, 319, BJB) & C&D (Had U, IRTIA, ILIT, etc.)--these are not showing any religious change from what he had already shown with Lovesexy, SOTT, GB, etc.

I think Larry's entry in 1997, along with the death of his baby is where the JW conversion started. P in 2002 is not lyrically a continuation of P from 1993.
[This message was edited Fri Mar 8 13:54:42 PST 2002 by BanishedBrian]

BanishedBrian said:

[I agree that after the death of his baby and the divorce with Mayte he probably decided to really go for it with his new found beliefs and therefore we probably hear more and more clear statements in his music about it.
But that doesn't mean that Prince wasn't searching during '93-'97 and could also be talking to Larry a lot.
We all know that P is not open with his personal relationships and is a master in hiding things about his personal life from the press and his fans. I mean surely p did not met Larry in 1997 and instantly decide to let him tour with him. It still could mean that he met Larry before or maybe a friend from Larry I don't care I was just fishing. Whatever, to me it is still true that his more religious lyrics sound different before '93 than after it.]

Abrazo said:

100% agreed that the name was in part a way to undercut his sales and gain leverage. However, I don't think Prince decided in 1993 "I'm going to change my name and then change it back once I'm free." If that were the case, he would have changed his name back in 1996 once he was done with WB. I do believe that Prince sincerely decided that his name was going to be . If you listen to "Strange But True", he openly talks about realizing later that he is "Prince" and not . I also think that changing his name back to Prince is a way for him to distance himself from some painful memories of his time as , namely his child's death and divorce with Mayte.

Basically, I just wish people would stop trying to trivialize the name change, as if it really meant nothing to Prince from day 1. That's condescending to him and false. It's become the #1 prince.org urban myth.

Abrazo said:

It's not really worth arguing about, but we do know for a fact that Larry's religious influence did not begin until after they became close in 1997. First, it's obvious in the music. TRC is not a continuation of what Prince has done in the past (especially during the NPG era)--despite his attempts to use the lyrics from "Controversy." You don't write songs like 18 & Over while studying to become a JW. Second, Prince's private life is not really that secret--at least for those of us who saw him regularly at Paisley Park and Glam Slam during the mid-90s. Although the NPG loved playing The Jam regularly, LG was nowhere to be seen during this period. Prince in 1995 was a completely different person than Prince in late 1997.

Yes, theoretically, they could have been long-distance pals. However, the report that Prince posted on his own L41A website about the aftershow in 1997 indicated that they were strangers who had admired one another from afar up until that meeting. But, if you think was lying...

Not to attack JWs, but LG knew that Prince was at a vulnerable time when he would be open to a conversion. And guess what? He was right. By early 1998, Prince was playing DOW without the cuss words. He also changed the Cross to the Christ, etc. It was a pretty quick conversion over about 6-12 months.

So Abrazo, although you're right that Prince has always been searching religiously, I think you're off-base if you think that this JW stuff has been a 10 year process.

Peace,
Brian
[This message was edited Sat Mar 9 10:08:54 PST 2002 by BanishedBrian]

Okay this is a mad long ass post but what the hell...lol

BanishedBrian said:

Don't forget that he didn't change his name back to Prince untill after his publishing contract with Warner Chappel had expired in 2000. He could put "Produced by Prince" on Rave because as a producer he was already free, but not yet as a composer and lyricist. Prince, the author was still contracted to Warner Chappel Music Publishing. The contracts were such an issue with him that he actually let them influence his music and persona a lot.

Brian said:

You are not going to tell you me believe Prince would have stucked himself up with an unpronouncable symbol for the rest of his life do you?? that would be ridiculous. It was a symbol for a SLAVE. The artist, the producer, the composer all were enslaved by contracts to the Devil and this symbol God gave him would set him free.
Don't you think a 10 or 7 album deal normally would take at least 15 to 20 years to do? He released an incredible amount of music during 93-98.

I agree that the name change also had to with other stuff, because NAME change is something very personal, you need a little more reason than just a contract to want that.
After the dramas with Mayte and their baby sure he wanted to take a distance from that, but why didn't he do that already in 97???? Aaaahhh, because he was still contracted to WB.
P also claimed that he wanted to get rid of the burdensome illusionary fame. In short the old Prince was dead! It should involve a little more than only a contract to want that, it was a personal metamorphose that has ended with TRC and what do we see???....
A renewed artist. And don't forget that his contract to WB had everything to do with the fame and name bullshit. At least that's how he also explained it.

Brian said:

I agree that not before a short time it has become OBVIOUS but I just feel a different vibe to his lyrics starting with the symbol album. It wasn't really right blatant out there screaming for attention. But the spiritual path he took with the name change and his distance from corporate power (the devil) is an indication that he was "playing" with these religious ideas, which are not necessarily all exclusively JW ideas, some are general Christian ideas, but nonetheless much more doctrinewise lyrics than before. Indicating that he was studying, believing and applying.

Once again just fishing but listen for example to 7,
And God created woman, the mirrored message on Come, Slave (2 the system), NEW WORLD, Demo crazy. Alltho' it's true that the lyrics on the albums he did with Sonny, Michael, Morris, Mayte and Tommy do not have these indications, Rave doesn't either, in fact Rave AND NPS don't carry religious messages at all!!! Ain't that funny, while he did already change the Cross. I think that just wanting to change the title of a song like that is a MAJOR decision and it would take me I think more than a couple of months to do that.

In fact P said at a concert i attented in 98 that he decided to change the title "after MUCH study and deliberation". Don't know what much means in his dictionary but to me it would mean that he was already studying for a long time. I don't know, P doesn't seem the person to me who makes decisions like that very quickly. I would think he would take his time and ask himself if it would really be worth doing it.
Larry obviously helped him belief that it was a good idea.

Brian said:

Don't be surprised of the tolerance JW's wil show while you are just studying with them. You are free to study with them if you are interested and keep your own life beside it. They will not instantly tell you to stop all that. However once you decide to become a serious member of the brotherhood you must show yourself to be living by the rules. Prince might as well been studying with them for a couple of years before getting public with it.
He thus just as well could have already been a JW in 98 when he changed the title to the Cross.

Brian said:

Man, Prince is already a legend for being able to keep the paparazzi from his back. Don't tell me you seriously mean the man isn't a master in disguising everything... and fans??? Yeah right, he will not let them know everything, I just won't buy it! lol

Brian said:

Lying would be a too big word..., just not telling everything would be a better description. That's what P is also known for, talk vaguely and why say everything there is to say when it concerns his personal relations and religion?

Brian said:

6-12 months could be true, we just don't know I guess we should stop guessing! lol. But I honestly think that P could have been a JW since 97/98 and thus have been studying since 93/94/95! lol really I wouldn't tell the world that Jesus died on a stake and tell them that it is the truth when I wasn't damn sure it is the truth. Prince obviously believed a lot of doctrines by then already. And Larry couldn't have talked him into joining within a year and making him say all these things. THAT sounds to me a lttle bit to unlikely. lol

Brian said:

Not a 10 year process! But almost yeah. I am not saying he was a JW already in 93 or 95, but he sure as hell could have been studying and talking to larry already for a long time! His lyrics simply show a difference starting in 1993 lol
I will drop it with that!
peace!

Abrazo said:

That's a very interesting point.

Can you elaborate about this a bit, because it's always been a source of some confusion to me.

Are you saying that by releasing the music as , he was able to retain his publishing rights over Emancipation, the Truth, Rave, etc., whereas the WB publishing contract would have covered the songs if "Prince" had released them? He alludes to this contract in "Feel Good" ("in 1999 I'll be free so..."), but I've never quite understood it. It would seem quite a contractual loophole if their publishing rights were tied to material actually released as "Prince".

Also, he says in White Mansion, "sell my publishing rights, what a laugh, I don't no Bo but I do no math." Did he in fact sell his publishing rights along with the masters?

Any knowledge you can drop would be appreciated... (then we can let this rest for good)

B

BanishedBrian said:

Okay... read closely! every word matters..lol..

"Did he in fact sell his publishing rights along with the masters?"
No, in fact he did NOT sell his publishing rights! lol that's what he is saying right? "sell my publishing what a laugh" Warner would have loved to have them however!

Okay here is an explanation of copyright and the WB confusion, do something usefull with it or I'll have to kick your ass! lol

Publishing rights are the same as copyrights, but they are called this way because it are the copyrights from the author and composer in the composition and the lyrics of a song.
They are not the same as the copyrights in the (master) sound recording of a song. Music Authors and Composers contract to a Music Publisher to get their work (the composition and the lyrics) published/exploited.

Performing artists and producers of phonograms (sound recordings) obtain copyrights in a sound recording once the recording of a performance has been made. Since master recordings are the final recordings that get reproduced and distributed, in other words exploited, the copyrights (exploitation rights) in the master recording are what matters to performing artists and producers, the "creators" of the sound recording.
Producers and performing artists contract to the record company to get their work (the sound recording)released/exploited.

To the law (which btw varies between countries) producers are not really the same as to what the word producer usually refers to on an album. Generally the producer is seen to be the person or the entity that carries the responsibility for the finance and the organisation of the recording. Usually a record company or a studio takes care of all this. Then they receive a claim for (at least) a part of the copyright in the sound recording. However usually the company first contracts to the artists and the Artist then usually transfers (or "sells" in return of advances and distribution and promotion) all their exploitationrights/copyrights/ intelectual property rights to the record company even before it has been made, thus leaving the company as the only copyright holder/owner once a recording has been "created".

I think Prince transferred the producer's rights via Paisley Park to WB RECORDS, PP was the studio, responsible for the finance and organisation of the records, but WB owned the rights (and still does sadly)

Prince has his own studio, can finance and organise his own recording sessions, writes his own lyrics, writes his compositions and can perform all the instruments on a recording himself. This situation should lead to the legal reality that Prince owns ALL copyrights, masters and publishing. However he never owned the copyrights in his sound recordings due to his producer and artist contracts, in other words he never owned his masters while with WB.

But he does own all his publishing rights since a long time already. And they make good money, because composers and lyricists receive a fair standard royalty rate for every recording made of their works and receive a nice sum of money each time their song is being publicly performed or broadcasted.

Warner Chappel used to administer these rights, meaning they would take care all the money is being cashed in. Giving permission to other artists wanting to do a cover can also be included, but then they have to own that specific right or have a license to give this permission and like I said I know jack shit about Prince's contracts clauses, but I'm sure he owns all his publishing and nobody can legally do a cover without his permission.

To elaborate further on the WB confusion...lol...
Publishing rights to songs NOT released by WB are hold by Emancipation Music, a company owned by Prince himself. There is also NPG Music Publishing on Exodus.
But publishing rights to PRINCE songs are hold by Controversy Music, also a company owned by P.
But TGE, C&D and the Vault, while albums, are all published by Controversy Music (ASCAP) and administered by Warner Chappel.
Prince was not only contracted to release these recordings for WB records but also to publish them together with Warner Chappel publishing!
And TRC?... Yes, Controversy music again, since he can freely be Prince again, the name isn't contracted to WB anymore.

In order to publish his songs and release the records seperate from WB he had to make a clear distinction between "The Artist", "Producer" and "Author" , whose recordings were being owned and released by NPG records and whose compositions and lyrics owned and published by Emancipation music...
and Prince (also author, producer and artist) who was contracted via Controversy Music to Warner Chappel and via Paisley Park to WB records. That's why the npg operator on Exodus says: "No this is not that record company (paisley park) this is NPG records..." and "When it comes down to download your work into your fans computers you can't have ANY contractual obligations!"

And what happened after he got rid of his final contractual obligations?... that's right...
He started to download his work in to his fans computers!

Hope this helped clear things up a little bit, once gain I don't know all the facts (maybe i'm dead wrong! lol), but seriously it must be more or less like I painted out above.

I never believed in the "changing name story"...Its only
a way, 4 Prince, 2 go away from the WB

Abrazo said:

I think his publisher is Universal. So anyone can cover his songs without permission, as long as they buy the license to do it. Unless they plan to change the arrangement significantly.

Supernova said:

Yes, since TRC Universal Music is his publisher, but I'm not sure if somebody can do a cover just by paying a license fee. In essence I believe he could deny permission if he didn't like how the song is being covered, but maybe this is different in the States. It could be that once the original song has already been published once, there is no reasonable ground to deny permission. There is of course the "If I was Prince collection", full of covers. I don't know if he gave permission for all these songs to be covered. But if somebody could do a cover just by paying a license fee, they could still come into trouble because of the author's moral rights. Anyway I don't know for sure how those deals work with Prince, too bad.

Abrazo said:

This isn't true though. When a song is already recorded and released, ANYONE can cover that song. All it takes is buying the license to do so, not permission from the songwriter - unless the arrangement is going to be changed significantly.

here's a thought:
I believe that I read somewhere that Prince had a clause that songs record pseudynymously were handled differently... i.e., a song penned by "Alexander Nevermind" wasn't the same as a song recorded by "Prince." Of course I haven't seen any contracts that the man signed, but this seems to be something that is plausible as to a benefit arising from the name change.
Then too, I look at it as a type of myth building on the part of Prince as well... death, rebirth. He is really in outerspace you know.

What's up super?? I didn't say it was true what i was saying. It could be either that or this. I did express some doubt there didn't I? Like that it could be something else then I thought? lol
this american system of compulsory licences does NOT exist in my country, so I was a little confused there lol
here is

a quote

See you were right and I was not wrong, in fact I mentioned it could be a possibility, I just wasn't sure lol

But US law differs from the law in the netherlands. here is what it says more or less, in English lol:

If somebody else than the original author arranges the composition then he needs the permission from the original author (or its rights succesor). Unless (and now it gets complicated lol) the original author has assigned his rights to a collective rights society. The society will not deny permission for the cover then. However, the rule remains, that if the one doing the cover doesn't get the approval from the original author and the cover thus is not authorised, the performings rights society will ONLY collect moneys for the original author or rightowner if the cover gets released! lol slight difference there

Also MORAL rights can also have an impact. Alltho' I believe that in the US moral rights for creators are still not broadly accepted it is in Europe and America has to go along with it as far as it can. But that's an entirely different subject. lol