Hey Orgers!
I am so happy after the superbowl I can listen to my Huge Prince collection on ITUNES BLASTING OUT LOUD without any weird looks or comments now!...he's def proved himself and I wanted to announce that I got an email blast about recent ITunes news, and it shows that Prince's "The Very Best of Prince" album is IN THE TOP 10 THIS WEEK, RATED AT #9!

CONGRATS PRINCE!, it's not 3121, but it sure is great to see ya on top in the digi world

here is the complete top 10 ITUNES list though

Top 10 Albums
1 Not Too Late, Norah Jones
2 Alright, Still, Lily Allen
3 Katharine McPhee, Katharine McPhee
4 Wincing the Night Away, The Shins
5 Daughtry (Bonus Track), Daughtry
6 These Streets, Paolo Nutini
7 Corinne Bailey Rae, Corinne Bailey Rae
8 Oh, My Nola, Harry Connick, Jr.
9 The Very Best of Prince, Prince
10 Continuum, John
[Edited 2/7/07 9:05am]

Cool!!
BTW, I always play my Prince tunes loud and proud. Weird looks and comments be damned.
But I know what you mean.

start buying.wait a minuete no it's not.#13
[Edited 2/7/07 9:28am]
[Edited 2/7/07 9:28am]

I recall prince stating that he would receive very little money from that album's sales

JakeUn2theJoy said:

well no one makes much money off albums!!
The most he can benefit is if he tours rite away and converts it into cash

yeah I suppose it depends on what your definition of 'much money' is. I've heard on this board from numerous 'connected' people that prince did make a fair amount of money from the VBOP album, he writes and performs every damn tune and it sold millions worldwide, how can he not make much money? the difference is, if he released it on NPG records and sold the same amount, he'd probably earn two or three times as much.

I'd love to know how many downloads you need to get into the itunes top ten?

thats good,but those sales don't go 2 prince.i think that money goes 2 the wb(warner brothers).so don't believe the hype buy straight from the musician himself.respect!!!!!

Good for Prince

rudd4121 said:

How can Prince get NO money from it? I highly doubt his original contract said that after a certain amount of time he'd get ZERO cash, he'll still get royalties, and his royalties will be higher than most due to him being the writer, producer and performer. He'll also just have a high general royalty rate due to who he is.

Looking at it from Prince's perspective, he won't get nearly as much as he does on his own label, hence him complaining about getting a lack of money.

rudd4121 said:

With all due respect (this isn't a flame) I think there are a lot of people on the org who have not got even the most basic understanding of how artists receive payment for their work.

In 1992 Prince signed a new deal with Warner Bros covering six albums of new material plus two compilation albums. This deal included an increased artists royalty rate that was, at the time, rumoured to be 15% of the wholesale cost of the CD/Record (ie the amount the wrecka stow paid for it).

In addition to the artists royalty Prince also receives the "mechnical rights" because he is the writer/author of the songs. This royalty rate often accounts for around 25% of the wholesale price of the CD (for other artists where there are songs written by different people the total mechanical right is split by the number of songs each person writes).

So if we assume a wholesale price of $6 per CD, Prince would receive $2.40 for each album sold. VBOP has sold in the region of 2million copies...

That's a whole lot of money!

However, as softandwet rightly says, Prince is earning a whole lot more in terms of percentages on his non WB releases (although the actual sales of most/all of these releases has been lower) because he owns the recordings and only licences them to a record company on a Packaging & Distribution deal where Prince covers all upfront costs for studio time etc and the record label covers the cost for manufacturing the disks and shipping them. Depending on the deal the cost for the marketing is either shared or covered by one and this effects the overall percentage either party receives.

Finally though, most artists make their "real" money from performing (ie going on tour) as the revenue generated, after costs, is all theirs! Song writers on the other hand make their "real" money from radio & TV airplay as they get paid for EVERY time one of their songs is played (the royalties for this are collected for Prince by Universal Music Publishing).
[Edited 2/16/07 6:58am]

Yeah, that Superbowl performance is doing the damn thing for Prince financially.

My sister-in-law is in Vegas right now for the NBA All Star game and she called me last night...pissed...because she won't be able to see Prince at the Rio while she's there. According to her...it's sold out through April.

I'm waiting for someone out there to answer the phone and confirm this because I wanted to go next weekend for my birthday but if I'm not going to be able to see Prince, I can keep my behind in Detroit and go shopping!

u have a point sexybeautifulone a good one and i understand,but i remember prince talking about this subject when he did a interview with tavis smiley on bet years ago.i think he was unsatisfied with that wage of 5% so with the deal with the wb to get out that contract he gave them the rights of the masters with the understanding he could re-record the songs and make a new master.if im wrong let me know.peace

im sorry that was 2 jaypatton and softandwet

Of course 3121 won't b there as the album is not available on iTunes (the last time I checked anyway). Prince is still behind the curve. I mean, why release Guitar only available 4 download at 3121.com when he can sell more of it on iTunes!!

rudd4121 said:

Yes, you're wrong. Prince gets something from every album sold.