Do you think Prince is bankable for a major label signing?

Any maverick music exec's that would fit the bill willing to take on Prince?

He won't sign a major deal, and be under a contract. At most, he'll continue to do distribution and manufacturing deals.

1. yes.
2. isn't the question moreso, would Prince be willing to skool the music execs and would they be willing to listen?

Prince is one of the most bankable talents in the music industry ever. His problem is not that there's no market for him, nor is it that he's too niche. His problem is that he won't let others manage him and do their job. If he'd listen to his management, LoveSexy would have been a bigger hit. The Gold Experience would have been very successful. Prince is a musician extraordinaire--a business man, he is not.



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[Edited 12/28/09 22:33pm]

ernestsewell said:

What do you think Ernest? Besides the distribution and manufacturing deal when was the last time he worked with a major label the whole 9 yards. Was it the Artista deal with Clive Davis?????

Prince is very bankable. If he could have a record deal that gave him absolute control then he'd go for it but that's not good business for the label. He ought to release singles under a label and keep independent for the album package. Easy money.

dolorespark said:

All you have to do is look at your albums.

Emancipation - EMI
The Rainbow Children - Redline Entertainment
Musicology - Columbia
3121 - Universal
Planet Earth - Columbia
LotusFlow3r - Target

Arista wasn't anymore than his deal was with these other labels. It's just that Clive worked w/ him for a "comeback" type hype, but Prince dropped the ball w/ a horrible lead single, a late-as-hell video, and a lack of any sort of compromise when it came to promotion ideas.

DesireeNevermind said:

Good Point. Easy money is sho hard to pass up...

ernestsewell said:

Just curious. I don't have the answer but what were the total cd sales of the 6 releases.

Imago said:

dolorespark said:

www.wikipedia.org

angelface22 said:

You're out of your mind if you think Prince has a viable working business model. Every website he has ever created as a conduit to his fans has failed or left it's subscribers dissatisfied. Go into the lotusflow3r forum and look at the comments for yourself.

He's doing well for an entertainer...but this is a testament to his talent--not his business savvy.

You are out of your mind if you think otherwise.

Imago said:

ok. the longevity of his websites havent sufficed but he still got exactly what HE wanted out of it, didnt he? thats still a poor business man to you? you cant honestly say hes an all around shit business man. The man is a multi millionaire and you think he got it and has managed it to this day by being a dunce of a business man? Ok

He's only bankable if they were to get a slice of the back catalogue.

angelface22 said:

Let's not give Prince some fancy pass because he's some musical genius. No artist sets out to constantly change their website address, cheat their audience, and make empty promises. Prince wanted interaction, and he got it. He got complaints, refund requests, and Better Business Bureau reports. 1800NEWFUNK was probably a better venture that he should have stuck with than the later version of NPGMC. There were no outrageous fees, or crappy content. There was just a place to order things, communicate, and read news.

So yes, Prince IS a poor business man. Very, very bad. I've NEVER seen any artist who has tried to, and succeeded in, pulling the type of shady shenanigans that Prince has. His sites became more and more heavy and clunky with too much Flash (the content and the hype), and not a lot of content. What did he want to get out of these sites? What exactly did he want out of this later versions of his site? MONEY! That's what. NPGMC year one was probably the only version of any website that he charged you to be a part of, where he actually delivered enough content to warrant spending $100 for membership. Year two saw ANOTHER fee of $25, and 99 cent downloads. Downloads which people can no longer enough because of him putting Digital Rights Management (DRM) on the files. No one can play the fucking things anymore. That's why I have no qualms about downloading torrents for shit like "Glasscutter", "Silver Tongue" or the Bataclan single, or whatever.

He got to be a multimillionaire because of Purple Rain, let's keep it real. THAT is where the bulk of his initial fortune came from. Tours are where money comes from not album sales. Now while Prince probably shared a greater percentage of points on an album in profits, in the 90's, he wasn't selling anything. People grew tired of his name change and rants about corporate slavery (while talking through Mayte, like a brat), and things like COME, Chaos, Gold, and even Exodus were greatly overlooked. Any artist, even people like Madonna, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen (who have those bigger points on an album, or even own their masters) make more money in either publishing (like MJ, and Paul McCartney, and many others), or touring. Touring rakes in cash like no one's business. Ticket sales, the retail booths.....TONS of money roll in. Prince has money because of THAT, not because he sold 15 million copies of NewPowerSoul, or because he had 10 million people sign up for NPG Music Club. The record company forwarded Prince five or 8 million for a record to be delivered, then promoted it greatly to sell copies and Prince made more money. Made even more on touring for those albums. THAT is where money came from. I would doubt that NPGMC even saw 500,000 members, or half that. Musicology was one of the biggest tours for 2004, and garnered just over $87 million. After paying for crew, venues, and the band, Prince still stood to make the bulk of the money. Some of those costs are defrayed w/ sponsors, and his polyester pockets are getting bigger and bigger. Same with the 02 shows in London. And the money came rolling in...

Prince is smart to tour. He's not smart in promotion anymore. He's not smart in releasing a single, or really putting some effort into things. He does some performances on TV, sure. And they're fun to see. 3 nights on Leno. Great. Ellen show. Great. Rant about chemical trails and unnamed presidents before Washington? Bad.

Anyone is if they think Prince is doing things right. The LotusFlow3r fiasco alone is enough to show I'd NEVER EVER signed up for one of Prince's websites. Show me ANYTHING worth $77 on that site. ANYTHING.

isn't this question so 1998?

angelface22 said:

yup. insane.

ernestsewell said:

theres no way i read all of that.

i dont understand why you guys bitch and continue to be OBSESSIVE fans? sorry if it bothers you, but in my book, hes a genius. is he too controlling? yes. are his websites flops? yes. do you continue to buy his music and these memberships to websites anyway? yes. the jokes on you. i doubt hes losing sleep on how much of a poor business man people think he is. to me, hes not.

Imago said:

ernestsewell said:

Totally Agree With You 100%

angelface22 said:

If you didn't read it, then why respond w/ an answer that is based in nothing?

Do we continue to buy into his websites: NO. Get it right. The joke is on someone who thinks Prince "gets what he wants" out of his sites. What a narrow, and selfish, point of view. And who said anything about losing sleep over something? Shows you didn't read, when you should have. Take time and read it. It's the truth.

ernestsewell said:

grow up. you take things so personally, its not that serious. waste your life away coming to prince.org every single day and night to complain about someone you WORSHIP. i aint that far hung up on him but i can see hes smart enough to have you talking about him EVERY SINGLE day.

Truth is no one besides Prince knows the real deal when it comes to his websites and other business dealings--fact. Therefore, no one knows if he achieved his "goals" or not. From the outside looking in, it appears he knows what he's doing. His may not be your business model, nor does it mean that everything he's done has been perfect but in total he's doing/has done well. In any business there are good years and bad years (how many long-standing stores closed last few years?) Prince is fine.

sweething said:

thank you

I am sure if he wanted one he could have one

angelface22 said:

You've read nothing, obviously. I don't take anything personally that Prince does because I don't dish out $100 here, or $77 there for nonsense. So your "personally" nonsense is just that - nonsense.

And now YOU are making it personal because someone challenged your stance and your purple colored glasses, telling me I am wasting my life. You, dear heart, have no idea, nor can speak on/to/about my life.

I don't WORSHIP Prince. I worship God almight. Prince ain't a god, or God, so let that be clear right now. I have no other idols before me. I try to understand his music, enjoy it. His music is part of the soundtrack to all our lives, YOU included. We've all invested time, effort, and monies into Prince's music and career. He's a multimillionaire because of me, and YOU.

YOU have responded to everything I've typed in this thread, pretty much. So who is wasting whose time, exactly?

Now to get the thread back on track...

....Prince won't do a major contract with a label again. He's dead set against it. I think he'll continue to do one off deals with companies. It seems to work for him. As long as the product being promoted is as great as the contract he's part of for that record, everyone can be happy. I'm curious to see what company and venue he uses next time. Maybe 2010 sometime?

I suppose.

ernestsewell said:

So you don't think if he was offered a deal where he got full artistic license he wouldn't consider it? i think he needs to, and hope someday that he would but we'll have to wait and see.I totally agree with you post regarding his business skills etc but i can't help myself when it comes to signing up for this shit in the hope we get some real cool stuff, i'm still waiting? i thought NPGMC wasn't too bad tho'.

bigd74 said:

See, he had full artistic license w/ Warner Bros. He told Oprah, and others, "The songs I wrote, and the content, was never the issue." He always had card blanche with that sort of thing. It was everything else that kept him in chains, in his head. And if he has a contract that allows him at least 50% of the retail sale price, plus other goodies, coupled with full artistic freedom, then why have the contract at all? In 1999, he said, "50/50 is a partnership. 90/10 is employment".

It seems his one-off deals are what works for him. He doesn't need a contract to make good music. He needs a muse. Inspiration. Having a contract doesn't guarantee great music, yet oddly his best music came from being under a contract. HOWEVER, that was because he was in conflict in his life, with relationships and the record company. His frustration pushed him to greater heights. The middle 80's, and middle 90's prove that. It's when he got "free" that his music started to suffer. I don't want Prince in conflict for the sake of great music, but there has to be a middle ground of freedom, happiness, and some motherfuckin' rockin' music that we know he can do.....at least he used to.

I don't think any contract can offer him anything more, money wise, than what he's getting already being independent and garnering the lion's share of the profits.