Prince owned a record label. So did Micjael. and Madonna.ts pooled But he wasn't over the whole label. It's usually slash something or owned by another company. If the big artists pooled their money do you think they could own one. That woullow music quality and creativity. No corruption and trickery. Only thing we need Mtv and Clear Channel to cooperate.

To operate a successful record company the CEO's have to understand the fiduciary responsiblity of the company. Business people are needed to run any enterprise. To answer your question, Prince want 100% control and secondly, it would fold as soon as the first release flopped.

He'd own they'd operate.

He'd run the major aspects and the degreed would run the othe intricute aspects.

Great idea

How about calling it Train Wreck Records.

Because that's what would happen if Prince ran a record co.

Didn't work the first time why should it work now.

No offense but what a stupid idea.

isn't that what he already has now? it's called NPG Records

he's got his own studio, he could record a whole album solo

playing all the instruments.

the only thing he needs is distribution. which wouldn't be as

big a problem as it seems to be if he was happy to just put

his stuff on his own website.

but prince wants a big advance when he releases an album.

can't really fault him for that, but it seems to become more

and more of a hindrance toward actually releasing stuff.

i wonder what happened to the distribution deal they said he

penned with Kobalt a while back.

IstenSzek said:

isn't that what he already has now? it's called NPG Records

he's got his own studio, he could record a whole album solo

playing all the instruments.

the only thing he needs is distribution. which wouldn't be as

big a problem as it seems to be if he was happy to just put

his stuff on his own website.

but prince wants a big advance when he releases an album.

can't really fault him for that, but it seems to become more

and more of a hindrance toward actually releasing stuff.

i wonder what happened to the distribution deal they said he

penned with Kobalt a while back.

I think it is all about distribution and the demand for a steep advance... this is likely what killed the '20ten' album. Warner Brothers didn't bite, so he released a shorter, edited version via the newspapers.

~G.

Alan Leeds quite clearly expressed what happened with Paisley Park Records, which was a label in its own right (though corporate owned): Prince wanted a label but he was way too busy to take care of it properly and for him it was mostly a way to release more music under disguise, and to create the impression that he was behind a musical movement of some sorts. The problem is that Prince never ever appointed anyone to handle the label corectly, it was a mess, with his management (Fargnoli & Co) doing things on one side, Alan Leeds doing what he could to save the furniture, etc. And as for WB, to them it was just a vanity label, a waste of time and money to please one of their 2 major, most profitable artists. So nasically, save a few records that were handled a bit more properly because Reprise Records was involved, namely "Taja Sevelle" and "Pandemonium"), WB didn't really get involved either.

Then Prince created NPG Records. At first it was supposed to be a true label, as proven by 1-800 New Funk and the outrageous quantity of records Edel was originally supposed to release or rerelease. Then, all of a sudden, Prince changed his mind and decided that NPG Records was there to release his own records and side-projects, period. What happened? No one knows, but probably Prince realized that he didn't care, that he didn't want to put any time or energy in anything besides his own music and its distribution. Could NPG Records have been a successful label? Certainly. Not on a major scale but it could have been a reasonably successful independent label. But for that Prince would have needed to dissociate himself from it and to appoint a group of qualified people to handle it on a daiily basis. As stated above, he's a control freak and he's also way to disorganized to do this, so he just decided to let it go. And that's when suddenly Prince's jazz albums became Prince records instead of Madhouse: he didn't need to play hide and seek anymore.

IstenSzek said:

isn't that what he already has now? it's called NPG Records

he's got his own studio, he could record a whole album solo

playing all the instruments.

the only thing he needs is distribution. which wouldn't be as

big a problem as it seems to be if he was happy to just put

his stuff on his own website.

but prince wants a big advance when he releases an album.

can't really fault him for that, but it seems to become more

and more of a hindrance toward actually releasing stuff.

i wonder what happened to the distribution deal they said he

penned with Kobalt a while back.

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he signed some sort of deal with kobalt that's why the breakfast can wait video is on vevo...

It could've worked in the 80s, and possibly in the 90s and not at all in the 00s/10s. With digital music, an artist can record and distribute their music online completely and keep almost 100% of the money received (minus web costs).

.

Times are different now.

Herb Alpert did this in the 60's with A&M Records. It worked quite well.

cindymay said:

IstenSzek said:

isn't that what he already has now? it's called NPG Records

he's got his own studio, he could record a whole album solo

playing all the instruments.

the only thing he needs is distribution. which wouldn't be as

big a problem as it seems to be if he was happy to just put

his stuff on his own website.

but prince wants a big advance when he releases an album.

can't really fault him for that, but it seems to become more

and more of a hindrance toward actually releasing stuff.

i wonder what happened to the distribution deal they said he

penned with Kobalt a while back.

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he signed some sort of deal with kobalt that's why the breakfast can wait video is on vevo...

ah, ok, so that song/video is the first release together with Kobalt.

nice that means they're still working together

IstenSzek said:

cindymay said:

correct me if I'm wrong but I think he signed some sort of deal with kobalt that's why the breakfast can wait video is on vevo...

ah, ok, so that song/video is the first release together with Kobalt.

nice that means they're still working together

2nd. The 1st was FULU

fluid said:

Prince owned a record label. So did Micjael. and Madonna.ts pooled But he wasn't over the whole label. It's usually slash something or owned by another company. If the big artists pooled their money do you think they could own one. That woullow music quality and creativity. No corruption and trickery. Only thing we need Mtv and Clear Channel to cooperate.

This has been done before. Geffen records for example was founded by David Geffen in 1980 and did it a pretty good, not a great job tho', on allowing "music quality and creativity". Untill they sold out to Universal in 1990. Like so many others also did.

Musicians always sell out in the end. It's a given and very unfortunate.

databank said:

Alan Leeds quite clearly expressed what happened with Paisley Park Records, which was a label in its own right (though corporate owned): Prince wanted a label but he was way too busy to take care of it properly and for him it was mostly a way to release more music under disguise, and to create the impression that he was behind a musical movement of some sorts. The problem is that Prince never ever appointed anyone to handle the label corectly, it was a mess, with his management (Fargnoli & Co) doing things on one side, Alan Leeds doing what he could to save the furniture, etc. And as for WB, to them it was just a vanity label, a waste of time and money to please one of their 2 major, most profitable artists. So nasically, save a few records that were handled a bit more properly because Reprise Records was involved, namely "Taja Sevelle" and "Pandemonium"), WB didn't really get involved either.

Then Prince created NPG Records. At first it was supposed to be a true label, as proven by 1-800 New Funk and the outrageous quantity of records Edel was originally supposed to release or rerelease. Then, all of a sudden, Prince changed his mind and decided that NPG Records was there to release his own records and side-projects, period. What happened? No one knows, but probably Prince realized that he didn't care, that he didn't want to put any time or energy in anything besides his own music and its distribution. Could NPG Records have been a successful label? Certainly. Not on a major scale but it could have been a reasonably successful independent label. But for that Prince would have needed to dissociate himself from it and to appoint a group of qualified people to handle it on a daiily basis. As stated above, he's a control freak and he's also way to disorganized to do this, so he just decided to let it go. And that's when suddenly Prince's jazz albums became Prince records instead of Madhouse: he didn't need to play hide and seek anymore.

Prince never truly controlled Paisley park records. It was a joint venture that WB controlled in the end. And they did a lousy job at controlling it because they let PP produce and release way too much mediocre music, with mediocre marketing and distribution back-up. It was at least 51% the fault of WB it flopped and that turned into a business dispute instead of a label that was supposed to be supporting true talent and truly good music.

IstenSzek said:

isn't that what he already has now? it's called NPG Records

he's got his own studio, he could record a whole album solo

playing all the instruments.

the only thing he needs is distribution. which wouldn't be as

big a problem as it seems to be if he was happy to just put

his stuff on his own website.

but prince wants a big advance when he releases an album.

That.

He could have turned NPG records 15 years ago into a website based record company selling all his post WB stuff, in digital and physical format.

We can only speculate why he didn't. But I am afraid fear of losing control over copying and income, pride and sloth play a big part.

Tremolina said:

databank said:

Alan Leeds quite clearly expressed what happened with Paisley Park Records, which was a label in its own right (though corporate owned): Prince wanted a label but he was way too busy to take care of it properly and for him it was mostly a way to release more music under disguise, and to create the impression that he was behind a musical movement of some sorts. The problem is that Prince never ever appointed anyone to handle the label corectly, it was a mess, with his management (Fargnoli & Co) doing things on one side, Alan Leeds doing what he could to save the furniture, etc. And as for WB, to them it was just a vanity label, a waste of time and money to please one of their 2 major, most profitable artists. So nasically, save a few records that were handled a bit more properly because Reprise Records was involved, namely "Taja Sevelle" and "Pandemonium"), WB didn't really get involved either.

Then Prince created NPG Records. At first it was supposed to be a true label, as proven by 1-800 New Funk and the outrageous quantity of records Edel was originally supposed to release or rerelease. Then, all of a sudden, Prince changed his mind and decided that NPG Records was there to release his own records and side-projects, period. What happened? No one knows, but probably Prince realized that he didn't care, that he didn't want to put any time or energy in anything besides his own music and its distribution. Could NPG Records have been a successful label? Certainly. Not on a major scale but it could have been a reasonably successful independent label. But for that Prince would have needed to dissociate himself from it and to appoint a group of qualified people to handle it on a daiily basis. As stated above, he's a control freak and he's also way to disorganized to do this, so he just decided to let it go. And that's when suddenly Prince's jazz albums became Prince records instead of Madhouse: he didn't need to play hide and seek anymore.

Prince never truly controlled Paisley park records. It was a joint venture that WB controlled in the end. And they did a lousy job at controlling it because they let PP produce and release way too much mediocre music, with mediocre marketing and distribution back-up. It was at least 51% the fault of WB it flopped and that turned into a business dispute instead of a label that was supposed to be supporting true talent and truly good music.

It was in great part WB's fault that the albums and singles received very little promotion but they had almost nothing to do with the releases in themselves. They would get involved here and there: they tried to make Taja an instrument in the relaunch of Reprise Records and kinda kept a look on her album's recording for that reason only, they asked Prince to have Terry, Jimmy and Jesse involved in Pandemonium, they kinda incitated him to sign-up T.C. Ellis, they supported Ingrid's wishes to sing on her album and they asked P to reconfigure Carmen Electra because a lotsa dough was going to be invested in that particular project's promotion, and they said no to Gold Nigga and as far as we know that's pretty much it. They never signed an artist on the label themselves or said no to an artist being signed on it, they never really got involved in the album's production process or content. Save the few exceptions mentionned above and maybe a few others we may not know of, Prince had complete control over the whole thing.

databank said:

They never signed an artist on the label themselves or said no to an artist being signed on it, they never really got involved in the album's production process or content. Save the few exceptions mentionned above and maybe a few others we may not know of, Prince had complete control over the whole thing.

Thats the jist of the problem. They should have been more involved. They legally and financially controlled the joint venture. They should have kept a check on all the contracts and expenses. They didn't. And they should have promoted the best of PP much better.

Paisley Park records could have been HUGE. Imagine signing acts like Terence Trent D'Arby or even Janet Jackson (her sound was mostly Jam/Lewis anyway). Instead, everything on that label was an extension of Prince's own music . . . which looking back was a blessing and a curse.

.

Madonna's Maverick label did the very opposite. The 2 most famous acts to sign with her label were Alanis Morissette and Prodigy.