If he doesn't, could Warner Bros. "Release It" without his consent? Ya know, he put out his best material while on the Warner Bros. roster. The quality of his music has gone downhill since he released "Chaos & Disorder" and formed NPG Records, IMO.
[Edited 4/12/09 22:43pm]

SCORPI09 said:

That's always a golden question. One could assume he does own it. He recorded a lot of Emancipation while still technically under the WB umbrella, yet he owns that. He released it AFTER his release from the WB. He released a lot of stuff from the 80's and 90's on Crystal Ball, and a few things on the NPGMC ("Splash", etc).

I've said for a long time that it'll take Prince dying and being six feet under ground before a lot of that stuff ever sees the light of day. If he released it, he'd edit the "SHIT" out of it, literally, and the "FUCKS" and the "DAMNS", etc.

we'll be lucky if he doesn't destroy the tapes.

stanleylieber said:

a few years ago someone reported that the oldest tapes in the vault were starting to deteriorate. supposedly h.m. buff had tried to get prince to let him transfer everything to digital but prince refused.

stanleylieber said:

hope that's not true. Prince would b insane!
[Edited 4/13/09 12:37pm]

Warner only owns the songs he gave them officially at the time (released albums and singles). They don't own any of his outtakes or vault songs.

stanleylieber said:

I've heard this too. The half-life rate of decay of those magnetic tapes have probably been reached. After Prince goes boots-up, there may be better ways to restore them, but right now, there's usually only the one shot "bake and burn" method.

SCORPI09 said:

He ought to own them, but that does beg the question of how much input Prince had to WB's "old friends from the vault"

Much as Prince hates big record companies I've come to the conclusion that they form a pretty good quality control barrier, When you think about how many albums prince has released since he left WB that could have been improved if someone had sent them back with a post it saying "remove this song, lengthen this one etc..."

Spank86 said:

prince delivered both 'chaos and disorder' and 'the vault' to wb at the same time in early 1996, including artwork. those two releases plus a third greatest hits collection (which became 'the very best of prince') were supposed to constitute the deal he made to be released from wb.

[/quote
Much as Prince hates big record companies I've come to the conclusion that they form a pretty good quality control barrier, When you think about how many albums prince has released since he left WB that could have been improved if someone had sent them back with a post it saying "remove this song, lengthen this one etc..."[/quote]

Why? It's not like somebody was standing over his shoulder doing that back in the day. I really think WB blew it, when they denied Prince putting out "Dream Factory". He pretty much did what he wanted til then.

Spank86 said:

Prince was in COMPLETE control of the tracklist of that album. He provided the masters to WB along with C&D in order for him to fulfill his contract in 1996 and allow him to release Emancipation. WB decided to hold onto Old Friends for a while before releasing it.

As someone said above...WB only own the songs that Prince gave them the master tapes of (therefore the officially released stuff). What Prince recorded in the studio belongs to him UNLESS he handed over the tapes. Once WB have possession of the tapes then they retain ownership of those recordings for between 25-30 years after which the ownership of the master recordings revert back to Prince.

That was why, at one point, Prince was toying with the idea of re-recording ALL of his back catalogue because then he *could* have released new versions of say Purple Rain under his own label. He either thought better of it OR perhaps the lawyers suggested this could be blocked by WB OR he rightly, in the end, considered it to be a waste of time when he could be writing/recording new songs.

By way of an example, Prince owns the master tapes of The Gold Experience but came to an agreement with WB to release it. That is why it is the ONLY album released by WB that also has the NPG Records label on it. It is out of print because Prince has not let WB "borrow" the master tapes again to make further pressings.

Prince own it, yes.

Even if he didn't, WB would still need his consent to release stuff, so there's no getting around it, it's only coming out if and when P. wants it too!

Prince? You here?



























Look into the screen, look into the screen, the screen, the screen, not around the screen, don't look around the screen, look into the screen, you're under.When you wake up you'll feel the urge to release everything in the Vaults. Three, two, one... You're back .

PANDURITO said:

That should do it.

squirrelgrease said:

LOL are U a professional hypnotist? Thanks, Dr. Pandurito!
[Edited 4/13/09 12:45pm]

depends on the contract i guess.

Ownership of masters could only apply to the tracks "delivered" to WB a certain point in time or it could be broad enough to cover all tracks recorded during a period of time (since they "funded" the recording expenses through the advance).

I think its the former since he did release Crystal Ball, Last Heart and Splash et all without WB.

PANDURITO said:

Little Britain rules!!

I've wondered about this before.

Corporate media organizations sometimes have "work for hire" policies. I remember hearing that Disney requires animators to sign an agreement giving Disney rights to any character designs/ideas for a period of 2 years AFTER the animator departs employment at Disney (the notion being the animator's concept probably happened while working for Disney). I think this is true at Viacom (MTV, Nickelodeon) too...

I wouldn't be surprised if WB had similar terms for recording artists (i.e. they have first claim on demos if they can date the material back to the period of employment).
[Edited 4/13/09 13:43pm]

sunlite said:

Actually, WB refused to release Crystal Ball, not Dream Factory. There's no evidence that he ever submitted Dream Factory for release. Instead, it seems he moved on to Crystal Ball soon after he broke up the Revolution.

I don't remember where I read it, but he doesn't own Purple Rain. WB will release it to him in the year 2020.

S3V3N said:

Recording artists are rarely employees. Perhaps a "jingles" songwriter for an ad agency.

S3V3N said:

true, but legally unenforceable.

Unless of course you can bring so many lawers to the table the other side simply gives up.