How does/did Prince ok his songs to be recoreded by other artists?

Jordan Knight - I could never take the place of your man just to name one. As someone who thinks of thier songs as their children, how could he ok this? Was it the labels doing? Don't artists need permission to record someone elses song?

I can't imagine that he would let JK have this song. Wonder, Kravitz maybe, but JK?

I understand Prince wrote/gave songs for/to people -Khan, O'Connor but these were people he worked with.

Any information on this would be great.

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[Edited 1/24/17 14:10pm]

meagemini2 said:

I understand Prince wrote/gave songs for/to people -Khan, O'Connor but these were people he worked with.

Prince didn't have anything to do with Chaka's version of I Feel For You (assuming that's the song you are referring to) or Sinead's version of NC2U - they are both covers, just like Jordan Knight's. People have been covering Prince's songs almost as long as he's been having hits.

i learned on here that the artist doesn't really control who does covers, the business people do. the asking the artist if they can do a cover was only a courtesy. they don't always ask. wierd al yankovic infamously asked if he could do a parody of Prince, prince in those days took himself pretty serious and he said no. wierd al always had it in for prince after that but he respected Prince. I heard later that Weird al had some kind of issue with that one rapper and he sounded scared when he spoke of how coolio confronted him about his parody of gangstas paradise.

[Edited 9/1/16 16:14pm]

I could be wrong on this topic, but I believe that is why Prince was so adamant about getting his Masters back. You can do a cover of anyone's song. But if you sample their music (their voice, their playing), then you have to pay for the license to use it.

PeteSilas said:

i learned on here that the artist doesn't really control who does covers, the business people do. the asking the artist if they can do a cover was only a courtesy. they don't always ask. wierd al yankovic infamously asked if he could do a parody of Prince, prince in those days took himself pretty serious and he said no. wierd al always had it in for prince after that but he respected Prince. I heard later that Weird al had some kind of issue with that one rapper and he sounded scared when he spoke of how coolio confronted him about his parody of gangstas paradise.

Artists usually don't have control over cover songs, especially if they don't own their masters. There's a law called compulsory license, which means an artist is compelled to release another artist's freedom to cover a song. It's why there are so many horrible covers out there of many artists, not just Prince. Prince talked about this on a few occasions, but he also talked about it on the George Lopez show. The Beatles owned their songs and tightly controlled them. It's why you heard few covers (although there was a fair share), and certainly never heard them in commercial ads on TV or on radio. Not until MJ got hold of it, and opened it up. It certainly kept the catalog monetized.

Weird Al asked out of courtesy, but in reality, he could do what he wanted. (MJ loved the songs Al did of his.) It's a parody or satire, and the right to do so is protected. It's why so many artists, songs, movies, etc. can parody someone or something else & not get in trouble for it. It's even why something mundane like a local morning radio show can spoof a song and not get in hot water about it with the artist or the record company.

There's a similar freedom with "sound alike" songs. When you see an authorized biography on Prince, or Madonna, or Whitney, or any artist, where the filmmakers don't have the clearance to use the songs, you sometimes hear a cheap sound-alike instead, usually an instrumental with the same production elements in it (a keyboard sound, or a percussion sound, etc. - note that you cannot copyright a drum pattern or beat so that is easily copied freely).

As far as Coolio - he shut his trap, just like Rick James did with Hammer, when those royalty checks started rolling in.

You all have helped me sort this out. Thank you so much for your input. So now the question is -

Does ANYONE know exactly what Prince DOES own? I mean outside of Prince himself.

Thanks again. All of it is making sense now. Wow, for the times, the Beatles sure did a great job holding onto their stuff - pre-MJ - I mean.

TrivialPursuit sai

As far as Coolio - he shut his trap, just like Rick James did with Hammer, when those royalty checks started rolling in.

I didn't know that, wierd al sounded like he got punked though so it was all good. I think it depends on the artist, I watched an interview by Sir Mix-a-lot where he explained how important publishing was and how much money he got offf of baby got back, ridiculous amount, but he said that was the whole point to make money. Other artists do not feel that way, Bruce Springsteen has turned down ridiculous amounts for his music and i'm sure Prince did too. The businessmen and the artists all deride each other, the businessmen think the 'artists" are foolish and the 'artists" think the businessmen are uncommited to their craft. As far as McCartney and the beatles, Paul really used to piss me off when he'd criticize MJ's usage of Beatles songs in commercials when he bastardized Buddy Holly's and others music every chance he got. Paul, nice guy, always my favorite beatle but definitely got a healthy ego.

meagemini2 said:

You all have helped me sort this out. Thank you so much for your input. So now the question is -

Does ANYONE know exactly what Prince DOES own? I mean outside of Prince himself.

Thanks again. All of it is making sense now. Wow, for the times, the Beatles sure did a great job holding onto their stuff - pre-MJ - I mean.

My guess is that solely based on how long he was on WB, he got back his entire WB catalog. He was due to start getting it back in 2013, with For You. The reversion of copyright is 35 years (40 in some cases; and in other cases the investment holder or record company could argue that a recording has historical significance, and could move to have copyright relinquished for a longer time). That puts For You becoming his in 2013. However...

When AOA and PE were due to be released in 2014, he had already been in talks with WB to get back his catalog in bulk, rather than just letting copyright run out. Part of the deal, IIRC, was that WB would distribute (not own of course) those two records, he would get his masters back, and a remastering process would happen. (Ergo all the vinyl remasters being discussed here. However,Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, and Purple Rain had been remastered in 2011, and that was confirmed to be a remaster, not jus...am reissue.) The idea of WB distributing these two records is more of a publicity move, really. "See how friendly we are!" But it was more about him getting music out, and WB making a few more nickels before they had no financial interest in his music anymore.

Also, to note: Part of that agreement is that Prince licensed the record distribution back to WB exclusively. So the tables turned. Now WB is paying Prince to put out Prince's music. The vinyl clearly states "NPG Records, under exclusive license to Warner Bros. Records". It's like Bill Gates licensing Windows to every computer maker. Except, the only computer-maker is WB. Gates/Microsoft owns all rights to Windows but lets PC makers put his stuff on their machines with certain allowances. It's a cha-ching moment for MS, and why Apple suffered greatly financially (they didn't license their OS). Anyway, same thing here. Prince said, "Sure you can put my music out again after I own it, but you're going to pay me for it". Some of that is probably a nicer shared profit on Prince's part for being the owner of the music this time around. Both parties get paid, and music still gets out, and sounds better.

Someone mentioned that he already owned the NPG Records stuff in the mid-90s before the WB contract expired. (We know he owned The Beautiful Experience.) So if he did own the NPG Records stuff, it stands to argue that he got back everything through Come. And that theory could be a good one, because Come is (was?) scheduled to be released in December 2016 on vinyl. That is likely a remaster, as the others lined up are, too. That would also mean that he owns pretty much all of his music. 100%? Hopefully, but not sure.

Google "compulsory licensing".

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[Edited 1/24/17 14:11pm]