Will Prince step in to buy back his music in a fire sale ?

He should do a big world tour and buy the whole company. Then he can turn the entire Warner catalog into an overpriced online service that doesn’t work right, never pay the developers, and eventually just shut it down with no warning.

Dreamer2 said:

The Next 15 Big Companies That Are Heading Toward Bankruptcy

Read more: http://www.businessinside...z1EEMnfgdv

Financial distress risk: 8.78%

AGR rating: Conservative

Market cap: $916 million

Background: American music content company that threw a massive Grammy's party but is likely to have its ratings lowered by Moodys.

Data provided by GovernanceMetrics. AGR rating assesses the risk of accounting issues or other events that could lead to bankruptcy.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-close-to-bankruptcy-2011-2#warner-music-group-wmg-8#ixzz1EEN14K6i

Will Prince step in to buy back his music in a fire sale ?

Guys................Ya'll think wayyyyy too much!!

Hahaha, he could buy it all back at a knockdown price or take them over )

There may be a clause in the contracts where artists would get ownership of thier masters a lot sooner. That would be just perfect, in a perfect world. My fingers are crossed for all of them.

greedy rabbit!!!

[Edited 2/17/11 9:03am]

Better yet he can do all the music and create new bands to 'front' his music in the vein of Vanity 6 and Appolonia 6 / Jill Jones!

Except get a strong promoter out there!

[Edited 2/17/11 9:02am]

This thread has been dormant for a while, but the saga of Warner Music Group has continued to unfold. Yesterday it was reported that a group called Yucaipa Companies is the frontrunner to buy WMG, and that their offer is to buy the entire company, not just the publishing:

http://www.musicweek.com/...64&c=1

Are there any orgers in the music business who have insight into what all this might mean for the possibility of Prince remasters, reissues, or new releases from the vault? I used to think that it was Prince's JW beliefs that are the obstacle to any reissue campaign. But his reported visit to Warner a few months ago, the reissue of Purple Rain on vinyl and forthcoming vinyl reissues of the three albums before Purple Rain, and Prince's general mellowness on religious issues recently (at least as compared to a decade ago) suggest to me that the real issue is money. Specifically, how much is WMG willing to offer Prince to cut a deal? Anyone who owns WMG will see potential in the Prince catalog. But will they see enough potential to take a risk and offer Prince the amount of money that will make him think the time is right for reissues? The days of compact discs seem to be numbered, and the current interest in vinyl may be a passing fad. But new owners might have new ideas about how to make money from their catalog assets. Or maybe not. The markets seems to think WMG may be undervalued:

http://www.americanbankin...hits-7-80/

What do you think?

[Edited 4/8/11 23:01pm]

does anyone have any idea how much would prince's wb catalogue cost?

hhhhdmt said:

does anyone have any idea how much would prince's wb catalogue cost?

2 Much for Prince & not enough for the company...Cd's market is dead....WB does not want to sale the back catalogue 2 Prince...Prince can't buy his back catalogue....the reissues will touch only the Fans = this is sad to say but this fabulous dream to see the back catalogue from Prince remastered will never see the light of day...unfortunately...this dream would have had take this shape a few years ago..today is too late!.

[Edited 4/9/11 0:21am]

jpnyc said:

He should do a big world tour and buy the whole company. Then he can turn the entire Warner catalog into an overpriced online service that doesn’t work right, never pay the developers, and eventually just shut it down with no warning.

love2thenines2003 said:

hhhhdmt said:

does anyone have any idea how much would prince's wb catalogue cost?

2 Much for Prince & not enough for the company...Cd's market is dead....WB does not want to sale the back catalogue 2 Prince...Prince can't buy his back catalogue....the reissues will touch only the Fans = this is sad to say but this fabulous dream to see the back catalogue from Prince remastered will never see the light of day...unfortunately...this dream would have had take this shape a few years ago..today is too late!.

[Edited 4/9/11 0:21am]

If the CD market is dead, then why are The Kinks releasing a whole series of first-class deluxe editions of all their work now on CD? There must be some market for that.

[Edited 4/9/11 5:14am]

love2thenines2003 said:

hhhhdmt said:

does anyone have any idea how much would prince's wb catalogue cost?

2 Much for Prince & not enough for the company...Cd's market is dead....WB does not want to sale the back catalogue 2 Prince...Prince can't buy his back catalogue....the reissues will touch only the Fans = this is sad to say but this fabulous dream to see the back catalogue from Prince remastered will never see the light of day...unfortunately...this dream would have had take this shape a few years ago..today is too late!.

[Edited 4/9/11 0:21am]

I think that there will always be a market for CDs. I mean, people still buy LPs. Ipod/Ipad, Mp3s are great, but I don't see the physical CD completely going away. And, especially if Prince's back catalogue somehow became available...in CD form. That's a lot of money that could be made. I know that won't happen, but let's imagine for a sec.

mimi02 said:

love2thenines2003 said:

2 Much for Prince & not enough for the company...Cd's market is dead....WB does not want to sale the back catalogue 2 Prince...Prince can't buy his back catalogue....the reissues will touch only the Fans = this is sad to say but this fabulous dream to see the back catalogue from Prince remastered will never see the light of day...unfortunately...this dream would have had take this shape a few years ago..today is too late!.

[Edited 4/9/11 0:21am]

I think that there will always be a market for CDs. I mean, people still buy LPs. Ipod/Ipad, Mp3s are great, but I don't see the physical CD completely going away. And, especially if Prince's back catalogue somehow became available...in CD form. That's a lot of money that could be made. I know that won't happen, but let's imagine for a sec.

We have to keep in mind too that the U.S. economy is just starting to recover from a huge recession. Things have been especially tight for Generation X since we have children now, which explains why the CD reissues that have been selling have targeted the baby boomers (i.e., the Beatles, Stones, etc.). There are some glimmers of hope in lower unemployment numbers and a healthy stock market. If the economy gets better then people my age will have some extra money to spend, and maybe a new Prince box set would seem nifty to someone who liked Purple Rain back in the day and always wondered what happened to that guy.

I'm not saying love2thenines2003 is wrong. I'd just like to keep a positive attitude. After all, we have the vinyl, we have plenty of vault tracks from "unofficial" sources. Official remasters and reissues would be nice but it's not the end of the world if we don't get them. And no one can say it's impossible. (Well, they can say that, but they don't know for sure.)

[Edited 4/9/11 6:15am]

jpnyc said:

He should do a big world tour and buy the whole company. Then he can turn the entire Warner catalog into an overpriced online service that doesn’t work right, never pay the developers, and eventually just shut it down with no warning.

If WB Music comes uo for auction there will a bidding war, likey by Google, Amazon and Apple. They have more money than they know what to do with and can eliminate the middle man in their streaming services.

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that WMG is most likely going to be sold as a whole:

http://online.wsj.com/art...lenews_wsj

electricberet said:

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that WMG is most likely going to be sold as a whole:

http://online.wsj.com/art...lenews_wsj

Hi!

So I was reading that Warner has not made a profit in 10 years! This can't be a problem with only one label. I wonder if the other big label have been impacted, like EMI, Sony, and Universal. It has to be a challenge in today's technology-driven society to come up with a way to still make money on CDs. Universal has got to pulling in some sort of money from their contract with American Idol, which is a creative way to tap into another market.

But I want to hear the answer to your first question...what does this mean for Prince? What kind of $$ would it take for him to buy back him masters?