I was curious as to what everyone thinks Prince should do with his recording status. Should he stay in his current independent state or should he link up with a major for some type of distribution and promotion deal? Possibly a major would give him a five or six album deal that allows him creative control and ownership of his masters. Or should he continue to put out his music all on his own? If you think he should go with a major which one and why or if you think he should remain independent and why?

Doesn't matter as long as the good music keeps coming and Prince feels he's okay.

There's no going back now. Besides he's burnt too many bridges. I think he'd find the major labels rather wary of dealing with him. Also after all that he's said about major record companies he would look like the worlds biggest hypocrite if he jumped into bed with a major now.

I heard he signed a contract w/Warner. That’s why the ‘Best of’ came out. What else will result from this new contract (if it’s true)?

Sorry SexualFreak, simply not true. As Warners own the rights they can release as many "Best Of" or compilations as they wish.

1crush - not true actually.

Prince's $100 million 1992 contract with Warner Bros allowed them to release one more compilation and VBOP was it. That contract is now complete and Warners can no longer release anything BUT they are free to add his songs to multi-artist compilations.

If I remember rightly in 1993 when Prince announced his intention of leaving WB he owed them 6 studio albums plus WB had the right to release two compilations.

Come = 1
Black album = 2
Gold Experience = 3
Girl 6 = 4
Chaos and Disorder = 5
The Vault Old Friends for Sale = 6

plus compilations "The Hits..." and "Very Best of..."

one more thing:

Warner Bros own the masters for all Prince albums (except Emancipation, Crystal Ball/The Truth, RUTJF, TRC and any NPG albums such as New Power Soul).

This means they can exploit these master recordings by including trax on compilations with multiple artists (as I said above).

I too would have thought they had the right to release as many "best of" albums as they wanted but from what I have read this is not true.

Because WB own the masters it is up to THEM to "re-master" the albums for CDs. They probably will not, nor will they probably bother exploiting Prince's back catalogue. That is the reason Prince wants his master recordings back - so that HE can exploit them how he sees fit.

Prince should do what he wants since it's his career and it effects him and his life.

But the music industry is going through a lot of changes now. It's not nearly the same place it was back in 1978 when Prince first signed and got creative control. Or even the late 1980s for that matter.