Rights to use a song in a commercial are up to the publisher and not the Record Label owner of the Master.

He now owns his publishing rights (Which Warners wanted more of a cut in for his masters, which he sings about in "White Mansion" on 1996's Emancipation.)

Universal Music Publishing signed a deal with Prince in September 2001, to get a percentage of his royalties. Prince decided to do this because trying to track your airplay by yourself is extremely hard. Every time a Prince CD is played in a jukebox or on radio, Prince gets royalties for that.

In NYC, April 9th 2002 I believe, Prince asked Music Club members if he should give Little Red Corvette to Chevy for their 50th Anniversary. So Prince was in negotiations with them since before April of this year. Since Warner's no longer gets a cut of his publishing rights, it made it easier. Universal, which owns the rights to the Live footage of the SOTT film and Little Red Corvette, made it easier to cut Warner's out of the equation by using that footage instead of the 1982 Warner Video clip (although, when Prince signed his deal with Warner's in 1993, it was for full video control. Part of that had to do with Prince making a video for every single song on a CD including classics such as "Walk Don't Walk, which was directed by Lisa Bonet. although these videos never saw the light of day, Warner's would pay for the production costs.)

Before Prince started his solo career in 1978, he made several radio jingles for Minneapolis radio which was traded for studio time at Chris Moon's studio.

Also, this is not Prince's first time with commercials. In 1989/90, it was reported that Prince wrote the jingle for Diet Pepsi "Uh-huh". (originally known as the you got the right one baby with the Uh-huh girls by former Mcdonald's Mac Tonight guy Ray Charles) Although never made public and just making the "so-called journalists" columns, Prince made 7 million dollars for writing it.

In 1993 Prince again might have dabbled in commercial jingles again. Coca-Cola after two years of declining sales, started a new campaign entitled "Always Coca-Cola". It again was reported in the Euro papers that Prince wrote the tune for it n was paid 10 Million Dollars as well as Coca-Cola sponsoring the 1993 Act II tour overseas. Prince played part of the jingle instrumentally on of the Euro dates on the tour, which was reported in the finale issue of Controversy Magazine.

In 1999, Prince was approached by Coca-Cola again to use the song "1999" for another ad campaign. Reported in Rolling Stone, Prince was offered over 11 million dollars for the rights to the song. Rolling Stone said Prince refused only for the reason that Warners would also get a cut of that check.

Prince, being an independent artist now, which many of his fans or "fams" fail to remember, has a harder time getting radio & play on video networks due to his Independent status. If a independent artist like Prince gets played on MTV, with no label, & as he likes it, very little promotion or doing any appearances on MTV shows, record labels would be bitching left and right. "Why does Kid Rock have to be a judge on this show to get his video played but Prince doesn't do anything and is getting 4 spins a day?" Something is dead wrong with MTV and perhaps that has to do with who has been running it since 1985. Judy McGrath who has had several run-ins with Prince since 1986s horrible MTV promotion of "Under the Cherry Moon's" premiere.
Mcgrath's stance on Prince is; "he should stick to what he does well and that is sexy videos, which he has not done in a while". Maybe Judy hasn't grown since 1985 but it is evident Prince has.

Prince selling rights to his songs for commercial use is something in it's self. An artist who according to the media, has fallen from grace is still in high demand, no matter what is reported. The guy has no friends in radio, none on any video networks, cept for VH-1, which has been trying to get Prince to do a special for the network for quite some time, and no friends when it comes to record labels, is still being able to do what he wants and throwing his fans for a loop in the process.

jeremiah freed

"It is a sad what MTV has done to the World"-Joni Mitchell

the 777 Update

http://groups.yahoo.com/g...ewsletter/
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 8:11:28 PDT 2002 by jseven]
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 10:29:02 PDT 2002 by jseven]

jseven said:

This kind of lie is why the "777" update is published on a Yahoo group.



.
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 9:35:58 PDT 2002 by lovemachine]

I am sure this piece was written with the best intention of providing explanation and clarification. However, it really requires some thorough editing, with more research and supporting evidence. As it stands, its wording is very confusing.

Bitching from a record label is probably the reason why Soul Train backed out of giving Prince an Artist of the Decade award a couple years ago. They announced that he would be getting the award, and then a couple weeks later they changed the name of the award from "Artist of the Decade" to "Male Artist of the Decade" and announced that Whitney Houston would be getting "Female Artist of the Decade."

They watered down the award so that two people were awarded instead of just one -- Prince, an independent artist who had only a one-off deal with Arista.

Of course nobody knows for sure, but I suspect that Arista leaned on Soul Train to get them to make that change. Whitney has a longterm contract with Arista, while Prince had a one-off deal.

lovemachine said:

How is it a lie? It was reported in various books that this deal took place.

The Update was moves to YAHOO by me because AOL had a hard time with how many members were on the mail list.

Right now I do not have the funds to move it to it's own website. Unless you would like to pay for it.

Read what I wrote. I said it was REPORTED. Prince NEVER made an announcement being as fact but then again, he hasn;t said he is a JW yet, and hasn't said he is married.

The fact that something is on a yahoo group means nothing.

It is something I write n maintain n I guess I can put it anywhere I desire.

You are entitled to your own opinion but I will not be called a liar. Prove me wrong n leave it at that. If i am lying, where is your proof?

langebleu said:

just wrote it this morning n got tired of people thinking it was Warner's decision, not Prince's.

As for the evidence, I used everything I could. Supporting evidence is hard.Prince does not make it easy. Most of the things I had on it reported on it but never got clarification from Prince. Warner's knew nothing of it because they were kept in the dark by him.If anyone has any other info that they wish to say bout this, say it.

Didn't mean for the wording to be confusing in the least.

jseven said:

J:
Point of clarification. You have to clear both sides (Master & Publishing) in order to place a song in a commercial, unless you do a cover version of the song, in that case you are only dealing with the publisher. However, since the publisher is the copyright holder if you cannot get clearance from the publisher, you will not be able to use the song.

PrimeTime said:

Very interesting. The rules of copyright change constantly.

Some people say that when Universal signed a publishing deal, they also helped him out on the Master front. Doubt it is true or else Pricne would have said something bout that.

It took 3 months after the fact the publishing deal happened for it to make it into the rounds of Billboard.

jseven said:

I'm still waiting for someone to prove this instead of relying on rumors and heresay. Where are the lyrics with Prince's copyright attached?

langebleu said:

You got that right.

jseven said:

Okay show me one source from these alleged books that say that Prince got paid $7 million dollars for writing the Pepsi theme and I will take back the liar remark.

I've read all the Prince books and while there is some speculation that he MAY have written it most people believe he wrote "Uh Huh" after the commercial aired.

Furthermore NOWHERE has it ever been reported that he made $7 million dollars for writing this song.

C'mon show me one source.





.
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 11:39:13 PDT 2002 by lovemachine]

Bladerunner said:

Uptown (either in the magazine or in the Days of Wild book) state that the Coca Cola jingle is copyrighted by Prince.

The Diet Pepsi song is a trickier matter. Hard to tell if he wrote and recorded it or if someone else wrote it and he did a(n unreleased but circulating) cover of it.

Very interesting. The rules of copyright change constantly.

Some people say that when Universal signed a publishing deal, they also helped him out on the Master front. Doubt it is true or else Pricne would have said something bout that.

It took 3 months after the fact the publishing deal happened for it to make it into the rounds of Billboard.[/quote]

I'm not sure about that Master front-it would take a lot of money for him to buy back everything from Warners, but in his old recording contract, there is probably a provision that requires his permission for various uses post-term (or after the contact has ended), if he doesnt have this provision, then Warner (or rather Warner Special Products) can do what they want with the master(s) in terms of compilations, "best of" cd's etc. For synch uses, its crucial that the publisher give approval or else there can be no use.

AaronForever said:

You also must remember that just because he copyrighted a song called "Coca Cola jingle" (or whatever) does not mean that it was ever used by the Coke company. Perhaps Prince recorded a song and when it was finished decided it sounded like something that you would hear in a Coke comericial.

AaronForever said:

Yeah yeah Uptown has said many things over the years a couple of things that I have found out werent true. Still nobody comes up with anything substantial as to who penned the song with any other sources than a fanzine that isn't always accurate.

Bladerunner said:

Uptown lifted large chucnks of their review of "Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic" from a post my friend made on AMP so I don't have much respect for them anymore.

lovemachine said:

Very professional!

lovemachine said:

1) he copyrighted a tune called "Coca Cola jingle"
2) they sponsored his tour
3) in that flashing globe thing, images of a and the Coke logo flashed back and forth
4) he played the song

Coke sponsors a lot of tours over the years that really has nothing to do with it. And still nobody is able to come up with proof of him writing a jingle for either company. A generic 'coca cola jingle' title is vague at best since company jingles that are used as ads have specific titles.

Bladerunner said:

true. but then again, depending on where the copyright info was sourced from, it still remain vague. for example, when such info is listed at the Library of Congress, titles and names are often vague, mis-spelled or completely incorrect.

jseven said:

The publisher can allow someone to do a cover, however, they do not have any say in the use of the original recording.



That's all cute and shit, but his deal with Warner-Chappell didn't end 'till Dec 31st 1999.
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 13:53:19 PDT 2002 by joeycoco]

Why would Prince record the song Uh-Huh, based on a commercial jingle. 'Cause he was bored?, 'cause he thought Brother Ray sounded really cool singing it? More likely that he wrote the song and sold it to Pepsi (why is that so un-heard of?), or someone else wrote it and sold it to Pepsi.
I seriously doubt he created it after hearing the commercial.

Anyway, the Little Red Corvette thing sounds like it could be right. Strange for Prince to offer of a previously released song for a commercial, but J's explaination sounds ok. If you need one.

cracknbush said:

Short answer- He needs to recoup some of that publishing advance

jseven said:[quote]lovemachine said:[quote]

jseven said:

Jseven if lovemachine is entitled to his own opinion why did you remove me from your mailing list for expressing mine?

One easy way to find out about the jingles would be to see if they are listed as "works for hire" inder the Libary of Congress listing.

PrimeTime said:

Primetime: Prince's deal with Universal was an administration deal; deal of this nature do not include advances...

-SWANGhatesthemusicbiz

joeycoco said:

That's all cute and shit, but his deal with Warner-Chappell didn't end 'till Dec 31st 1999.
[This message was edited Mon Oct 14 13:53:19 PDT 2002 by joeycoco]
[/quote]

Yup. It ended Dec. 99.

I thought i put thati n what I wrote?

I need an editor bad apparantly.

mzflash said:[quote]jseven said:[quote]

lovemachine said:

Don;t know what you are talking bout mz, this was not sent out thru the Update.

I have never removes you from the mailing list. Not my style.

I emailed you on this. We will talk about it.

As for everyone else, it is hard to prove things as I said since he is very secretive about everything. Believe what you want n this was an opinion as stated at the begining.

peace.

J7 thanks for clearing that up.

I'm just glad 2 know he's making money and not Warner Bothers. Who cares about the other stuff?