http://www.rollingstone.c...p?pid=1304

Masters of Our Own Destiny

"That's Chris Blackwell [of Island Records] with the camera. We owe a
lot to him. I met Prince some years back -- I believe in Prince almost
as much as Prince believes in Prince, which is saying something -- and
he had 'Slave' written on the side of his face. I asked him why he was
doing that. He said, 'I don't own my master tapes. I don't own my
copyrights.' Then he said, 'You do own your master tapes. You do own
your copyrights. How did you do that?' I said, 'Lower royalty rate.' We
had a manager [Paul McGuinness] who believed it was a fundamental right
that eventually the stuff should come back to us. And it was this man,
Chris, who agreed to it. It means that on big sellers like /The Joshua
Tree/ and /Achtung Baby/ we took a lower royalty rate. But I will be
eternally grateful to Chris Blackwell for giving us those rights.
Because I am not a slave."

Now there's a disturbing mental image.

Given all the crap Prince gives U2, that's a pretty cool statement. I wonder if Prince ever tried doing that with WB, lowering the royalty rates for albums like PR, 1999, Batman and such...?

Also, i was wondering how P Diddy got his masters back and Prince can't? What did Puffy do that Prince didn't?

Saxjedi said:

Ohhh, I was thinking quite the opposite.

Bono on Prince... I'd like to be the meat in that sandwich!

mrchristian said:

What I wonder is what constitutes a P Diddy master? With all the sampling and guests spots (I've been told that most of the rhymes are penned by the guests).

he had 'Slave' written on the side of his face. I asked him why he was
doing that. He said, 'I don't own my master tapes. I don't own my
copyrights.' Then he said, 'You do own your master tapes. You do own
your copyrights. How did you do that?' I said, 'Lower royalty rate.' We
had a manager [Paul McGuinness] who believed it was a fundamental right
that eventually the stuff should come back to us. And it was this man,
Chris, who agreed to it. It means that on big sellers like /The Joshua
Tree/ and /Achtung Baby/ we took a lower royalty rate. But I will be
eternally grateful to Chris Blackwell for giving us those rights.
Because I am not a slave."[/quote]


Thats what i keep saying all the time when it comes 2 "free music". If u want more freedom then u have 2 settle with lower royalties. Prince wanted it all, high royalties, own all the rights and have 100 % freedom on what he wanted to put on his cd s.
From a companies point a view thats bad bizznizz. The more money a company invest the more risc they take. From the company s point a view its only normal that they want something in return and that they have some saying in the product.
So if u want 100 % freedom and own ur rights, then settle with less royalties. Then the pressure is not 2 high and u can do what u want. On the long run u better off financial 2.
Could somebody plz explain that 2 prince!!! He is 2 stubborn when it comes 2 bizznizz.
All we want is his music. Get a good record deal Prince. We want ur cd s in the stores, we want to buy them when we want for a normal price...

TheResistor said:

Good question, as i'm certain every one of his song's is sampled, but i would think the final product-sample, lyrics, beats- has a master recording, and somehow Diddy got them back when he left his record company.
Goes to show you, you got to bend a little to get a little back--something Prince won't likely do.

Janeau said:

Thats what i keep saying all the time when it comes 2 "free music". If u want more freedom then u have 2 settle with lower royalties. Prince wanted it all, high royalties, own all the rights and have 100 % freedom on what he wanted to put on his cd s.
From a companies point a view thats bad bizznizz. The more money a company invest the more risc they take. From the company s point a view its only normal that they want something in return and that they have some saying in the product.
So if u want 100 % freedom and own ur rights, then settle with less royalties. Then the pressure is not 2 high and u can do what u want. On the long run u better off financial 2.
Could somebody plz explain that 2 prince!!! He is 2 stubborn when it comes 2 bizznizz.
All we want is his music. Get a good record deal Prince. We want ur cd s in the stores, we want to buy them when we want for a normal price...[/quote]
Agreed.
[This message was edited Wed Nov 20 12:41:32 PST 2002 by mrchristian]

Bono rules! Nice story.

VinaBlue said:

I like your style, VinaBlue!

Prince has always hated on U2, saying that he could do their music if he wanted to. So why doesn't he want to?

Easy: Mixing genres/multiple layers/numerous vocals/songs about sex

Hard: Simplicity/songs about politics