If you believe Prince, he is totally happy being in control of his business. He can (for better or worse) do whatever he wants now. During his battle with Warner's, I think both sides made errors. However, there is one thing I always looked at. There were a few times in P's career where he had to re-sign. If his first deal included 3 albums (which was common then) dirty mind would have fulfilled that contract. At that point he hadn't really generated massive sales for Warner's. The fact that they even let him release dirty mind (which im sure was a gamble) shows how committed they were to his vision. Prince re-signed and Warner's (and us fans) were rewarded with the calm (Controversy), before (1999) the storm (Purple Rain). Im not sure how his contract obligations went after this, but I think between atwiad and the big 1990's deal he had to have had other renegotiation's. During that time or even before the 90's deal was the time to leave the system. In the end, Prince wanted it both ways. He wanted the big bucks to finance his projects, but he wanted to call all the shots. The only way to truly do this is to use YOUR OWN MONEY. What do you guys think?

yeah he got greedy in the 90s with that $100Million contract. When if he was smart he may have very been able to have settled for way less and been able to recover his masters.

nah he was not going to get his masters no matter what. he was trying to go indie ever since

"the most beautiful girl n the world" single.

but check some one like prince during the late 80's and ealy 90's needed a company like warners.

he was making music left and right. I could hardly see how he caould do the marketing and distribution deals on his own. Prince was all about the music nothing else. he makes the music

the company handles all the other stuff....

look what happened to his paisley park lable. it went no where caus he was one music minded.

I think he should have done. in the 90's what he is doing now. Sign 1 album deals with a big

machine...... good thread

nyse said:

nah he was not going to get his masters no matter what. he was trying to go indie ever since

"the most beautiful girl n the world" single.

but check some one like prince during the late 80's and ealy 90's needed a company like warners.

he was making music left and right. I could hardly see how he caould do the marketing and distribution deals on his own. Prince was all about the music nothing else. he makes the music

the company handles all the other stuff....

look what happened to his paisley park lable. it went no where caus he was one music minded.

I think he should have done. in the 90's what he is doing now. Sign 1 album deals with a big

machine...... good thread

Thanks nyse. I personally agree that he needed warners or some company to handle his business. That's why I never totally agreed with his warner is the devil campaign.

its a hard situation. around that time period Prince was flooding the maket left and right with

material. his albums were in competition which each other for shelf space. warners wanted Prince

to stop releasing music and give his fans time to digest him music. which is indeed a good

buisness model. But prince as prolific as he is felt NO ONE will shut down his creative out put.

Prince's music was not free... so he wrote slave on his cheek.

I can feel both sides of the war. it is a very complicated situation.

.

[Edited 3/12/12 11:12am]

OnlyNDaUsa said:

yeah he got greedy in the 90s with that $100Million contract. When if he was smart he may have very been able to have settled for way less and been able to recover his masters.

Exactly..that was the biggest fuckup of his career and I bet he would privately agree

Personally, I think it's not about the record label, but about the management team. As long as he was with Cavallo & Fargnoli (Ruffalo wasn't that involved in P, was he?) the right decisions were made : finding a middle ground both parties, P & Warners, were comfortable with. P might still be with Warners had he kept on Fargnoli, who was really good at winning over WB. He might have gotten approval for 90% of his artistic choices - if not more.

rdhull said:

Thank god he didnt go sooner. The 80s could have been a disaster.

File this under, "It's funny cuz it's true."

mightycow said:

Personally, I think it's not about the record label, but about the management team. As long as he was with Cavallo & Fargnoli (Ruffalo wasn't that involved in P, was he?) the right decisions were made : finding a middle ground both parties, P & Warners, were comfortable with. P might still be with Warners had he kept on Fargnoli, who was really good at winning over WB. He might have gotten approval for 90% of his artistic choices - if not more.

I think you are totally right about the management. If im not mistaken they were the ones that got warners to gamble on Dirty Mind. Whether Prince wants to admit it or not, he needs a sounding board when it comes to business.

It seems like he is too greedy and stingy nowadays. I hate him now as an indie artist. It seems like he has no interest anymore in releasing anything. At least with WB we got an album a year plus some b-sides and remixes. With all of the music in the vault why doesnt he just put some stuff together and release it if he doesnt want to record anymore. Being a fan of his now is so boring. On the plus side it does free up more time to listen to other artists!!

rdhull said:

Thank god he didnt go sooner. The 80s could have been a disaster.

He really should look back on those years objectively. It was managment, warner brothers and P that made that magic happen. Prince's strong suit is not business . But if he didnt want to be a "Slave", the way to solve that was going indie. I agree rd, there would have probably been many disaters if he made that move.

mightycow said:

Personally, I think it's not about the record label, but about the management team. As long as he was with Cavallo & Fargnoli (Ruffalo wasn't that involved in P, was he?) the right decisions were made : finding a middle ground both parties, P & Warners, were comfortable with. P might still be with Warners had he kept on Fargnoli, who was really good at winning over WB. He might have gotten approval for 90% of his artistic choices - if not more.

Spot on.

dandeeland said:

It seems like he is too greedy and stingy nowadays. I hate him now as an indie artist. It seems like he has no interest anymore in releasing anything. At least with WB we got an album a year plus some b-sides and remixes. With all of the music in the vault why doesnt he just put some stuff together and release it if he doesnt want to record anymore. Being a fan of his now is so boring. On the plus side it does free up more time to listen to other artists!!

Hmm, I've never found myself bored of P's music. I've been a enthusiast of his music since 1996 and that's been on a hard-core level since that time. It feels like he's just being laid back enjoying life and picking his spots for releasing music and what not. I am a lil spoiled becuz we're not getting the one album a year but, it's still cool.

I'll say this, I think we're due for another album sometime in 2012, perhaps a double album.

dandeeland said:

It seems like he is too greedy and stingy nowadays. I hate him now as an indie artist. It seems like he has no interest anymore in releasing anything. At least with WB we got an album a year plus some b-sides and remixes. With all of the music in the vault why doesnt he just put some stuff together and release it if he doesnt want to record anymore. Being a fan of his now is so boring. On the plus side it does free up more time to listen to other artists!!

90+% of recording artists don't put out albums every year, the average is more like ever 3-4 years. So essentially you were spoiled by his youthful output.

lezama said:

dandeeland said:

It seems like he is too greedy and stingy nowadays. I hate him now as an indie artist. It seems like he has no interest anymore in releasing anything. At least with WB we got an album a year plus some b-sides and remixes. With all of the music in the vault why doesnt he just put some stuff together and release it if he doesnt want to record anymore. Being a fan of his now is so boring. On the plus side it does free up more time to listen to other artists!!

90+% of recording artists don't put out albums every year, the average is more like ever 3-4 years. So essentially you were spoiled by his youthful output.

Lezama, here you go again with the facts, big picture, putting things into perspective ... these things just get in the way of my opinion that Prince is a man of malevolent personal character and twisted motives! You must be a kray-zee purple kool-aid drinker! (<--that means j/k).

WinterIsComing said:

If you believe Prince, he is totally happy being in control of his business. He can (for better or worse) do whatever he wants now. During his battle with Warner's, I think both sides made errors. However, there is one thing I always looked at. There were a few times in P's career where he had to re-sign. If his first deal included 3 albums (which was common then) dirty mind would have fulfilled that contract. At that point he hadn't really generated massive sales for Warner's. The fact that they even let him release dirty mind (which im sure was a gamble) shows how committed they were to his vision. Prince re-signed and Warner's (and us fans) were rewarded with the calm (Controversy), before (1999) the storm (Purple Rain). Im not sure how his contract obligations went after this, but I think between atwiad and the big 1990's deal he had to have had other renegotiation's. During that time or even before the 90's deal was the time to leave the system. In the end, Prince wanted it both ways. He wanted the big bucks to finance his projects, but he wanted to call all the shots. The only way to truly do this is to use YOUR OWN MONEY. What do you guys think?

Knowing what we know now, Prince should have option out after the release of the album in 1992.

TonyVanDam said:

WinterIsComing said:

If you believe Prince, he is totally happy being in control of his business. He can (for better or worse) do whatever he wants now. During his battle with Warner's, I think both sides made errors. However, there is one thing I always looked at. There were a few times in P's career where he had to re-sign. If his first deal included 3 albums (which was common then) dirty mind would have fulfilled that contract. At that point he hadn't really generated massive sales for Warner's. The fact that they even let him release dirty mind (which im sure was a gamble) shows how committed they were to his vision. Prince re-signed and Warner's (and us fans) were rewarded with the calm (Controversy), before (1999) the storm (Purple Rain). Im not sure how his contract obligations went after this, but I think between atwiad and the big 1990's deal he had to have had other renegotiation's. During that time or even before the 90's deal was the time to leave the system. In the end, Prince wanted it both ways. He wanted the big bucks to finance his projects, but he wanted to call all the shots. The only way to truly do this is to use YOUR OWN MONEY. What do you guys think?

Knowing what we know now, Prince should have option out after the release of the album in 1992.

^

Read this... (a re-post):

an old Rolling Stone article, june 1993,

shortly after the album and when he changed his name to the same symbol:

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/ecnirp2004/Prince/RollingStonenr1-1.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/ecnirp2004/Prince/RollingStonenr2-1.jpg[/img:$uid]

troubled times - to watch his frustrations back then, right?!!

thedance said:

TonyVanDam said:

Knowing what we know now, Prince should have option out after the release of the album in 1992.

^

troubled times - to watch his frustrations back then, right?!!

true indeed. I can understand Prince getting tired of the rules and wanting to do it his way on all levels. The only problem is you cant have it both ways(big label dollars and no label involvement). If he had the same technology (internet/ affordable home studio's) back in the day, maybe he would have been indie from the start. But in this scenario the masses may never have heard of him. It takes ALOT of big money to get to the point where Prince is today.

thedance said:

TonyVanDam said:

Knowing what we know now, Prince should have option out after the release of the album in 1992.

^

Read this... (a re-post):

an old Rolling Stone article, june 1993,

shortly after the album and when he changed his name to the same symbol:

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/ecnirp2004/Prince/RollingStonenr1-1.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/ecnirp2004/Prince/RollingStonenr2-1.jpg[/img:$uid]

troubled times - to watch his frustrations back then, right?!!

Thanks for posting this article.