I know this will quickly be moved to Associate Performers, but this is actually more of a question with relation to Prince.

As the Bria Valente album has been release in her name, and not Prince's, has he given her the masters? Or does he own them?

Swa
[Edited 6/6/09 22:54pm]

Swa said:

Who is Bria Valentine

Spotted the mistake when I revisited - thanks for pointing it out. Corrected now.

Swa said:

You would have to read contracts. The name of the artist on the album, or what is said on any liner notes does not determine who owns the rights to master recordings .

Exactly, it would be impossible to say for certain without seeing the contract
(if there was one). However, I think it's pretty safe to assume that Prince
owns them, not Bria.

Does it matter?

i personally like the album, but i can't see it staying in print or anyone wanting to cover or sample any of the songs, so he might aswell give the masters to Bria. Does Mayte own the masters to Child of the Sun? no, and she was his wife!!!
[Edited 6/7/09 10:24am]

If history is any indicator, then the short answer is...hell no, he hasn't given her the masters! However, as has been pointed out already, the only people who know for sure, are those that have read the contracts.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

But then doesn't this go against his point of view saying that to deny an artist their masters is to deny them creative freedom. I know when he released the New Power Soul triple release he stated that both Larry and Chaka owned the masters.

So just wondering if he extended this principle to Bria.

That's a completely different scenario.

Larry and Chaka were very heavily involved with their respective albums,
they wrote and co-wrote most of the material. Elixer is basically just a Prince
album that he wanted to have a female lead vocal on. It's no more 'her' album
than the Apollonia 6 album was to Apollonia.

BorisFishpaw said:

I agree to some extent, but then the argument here would be that the producer or the writer should own the master and not the performer. I'm sure Prince wouldn't give up his recordings of cover songs over to the original writers.

It's a tricky issue when someone who has made a principle of owning what you create as an artist still retains control over it. In that case it should have been a Prince album featuring Bria, rather than release it in her name.

Any other points of view?

Swa