I was watching a video podcast called "Everyday Struggle" produced by Complex Magazine featuring DJ Akademiks and rapper Joe Budden and today's guest was Lil Yachty. When Joe Budden asked Yachty if he signed a 360 deal with his label, Capitol Records, Yachty said he did not know. That made me think of Prince's interview with Tavis Smiley where he said "anybody that signs a 360 deal is crazy. But hey, it's a free country". I think his legacy of pushing for industry reform for greater distribution of the wealth among recording artists from recording companies is woefully underscored. In his interview with Miles Marshall Lewis with Ebony magazine that was off the record, he mentioned how disappointed he was that Lil Wayne and Birdman were locked in a battle of wills over millions of dollars that is owed to Lil Wayne. So many musicians and artists have talked about how he helped them extricate themselves from bad record deals and even helping certain artists win their master recordings i.e. Anita Baker and Najee. I wish Prince would have followed Curtis Mayfield's lead and used his leverage in 1992 during negotiations with WB to more of a premium of owning more of his music and compromise on being the highest paid artist in the industry.

There are many artists today that owe a debt of gratitude to Prince and his own struggles over record company CONtracts. He went to bat for TLC by making sure that the public knew of their situation by mentioning them in alot of televised performances (at the end of songs he would mutter 'Free TLC.') TLC was the biggest selling group during their time and had to file bankruptcy because of their bad contract. Prince definately helped alot of people whether they know it or not.

kingricefan said:

There are many artists today that owe a debt of gratitude to Prince and his own struggles over record company CONtracts. He went to bat for TLC by making sure that the public knew of their situation by mentioning them in alot of televised performances (at the end of songs he would mutter 'Free TLC.') TLC was the biggest selling group during their time and had to file bankruptcy because of their bad contract. Prince definately helped alot of people whether they know it or not.

Mariah Carey also noted that he helped her alot with her contract struggles before signing with Island Def Jam

bashraka said:

I was watching a video podcast called "Everyday Struggle" produced by Complex Magazine featuring DJ Akademiks and rapper Joe Budden and today's guest was Lil Yachty. When Joe Budden asked Yachty if he signed a 360 deal with his label, Capitol Records, Yachty said he did not know. That made me think of Prince's interview with Tavis Smiley where he said "anybody that signs a 360 deal is crazy. But hey, it's a free country". I think his legacy of pushing for industry reform for greater distribution of the wealth among recording artists from recording companies is woefully underscored. In his interview with Miles Marshall Lewis with Ebony magazine that was off the record, he mentioned how disappointed he was that Lil Wayne and Birdman were locked in a battle of wills over millions of dollars that is owed to Lil Wayne. So many musicians and artists have talked about how he helped them extricate themselves from bad record deals and even helping certain artists win their master recordings i.e. Anita Baker and Najee. I wish Prince would have followed Curtis Mayfield's lead and used his leverage in 1992 during negotiations with WB to more of a premium of owning more of his music and compromise on being the highest paid artist in the industry.

Well this part is the bone of contention amongst many fans or what folks called "naysayers." It appeared he wanted the glory and bragging rights rather than the important principles (that would have brought him the glory etc in the long haul..but he wanted short money). It wasnt until he realized what he had done that he went on the crusade.

I wonder if he still had Fargnoli and the rest in his stead, if he would have signed that contract. If they would have guided him in a more worthy contract etc. (I'm assuming Farnoli and the rest of Sphaghetti INC were gone by then).

.CavalloRuffaloFargnoliedit

[Edited 5/2/17 13:34pm]

rdhull said:

bashraka said:

I was watching a video podcast called "Everyday Struggle" produced by Complex Magazine featuring DJ Akademiks and rapper Joe Budden and today's guest was Lil Yachty. When Joe Budden asked Yachty if he signed a 360 deal with his label, Capitol Records, Yachty said he did not know. That made me think of Prince's interview with Tavis Smiley where he said "anybody that signs a 360 deal is crazy. But hey, it's a free country". I think his legacy of pushing for industry reform for greater distribution of the wealth among recording artists from recording companies is woefully underscored. In his interview with Miles Marshall Lewis with Ebony magazine that was off the record, he mentioned how disappointed he was that Lil Wayne and Birdman were locked in a battle of wills over millions of dollars that is owed to Lil Wayne. So many musicians and artists have talked about how he helped them extricate themselves from bad record deals and even helping certain artists win their master recordings i.e. Anita Baker and Najee. I wish Prince would have followed Curtis Mayfield's lead and used his leverage in 1992 during negotiations with WB to more of a premium of owning more of his music and compromise on being the highest paid artist in the industry.

Well this part is the bone of contention amongst many fans or what folks called "naysayers." It appeared he wanted the glory and bragging rights rather than the important principles (that would have brought him the glory etc in the long haul..but he wanted short money). It wasnt until he realized what he had done that he went on the crusade.

I wonder if he still had Fargnoli and the rest in his stead, if he would have signed that contract. If they would have guided him in a more worthy contract etc. (I'm assuming Farnoli and the rest of Sphaghetti INC were gone by then).

.CavalloRuffaloFargnoliedit

[Edited 5/2/17 13:34pm]

Everybody that worked with Steve said he was an asshole. Even Alan Leeds said his management did not know what they were doing as far as Paisley Park was concerned and remember it would have been Steve's job to try and get those masters for Prince that is what managers get paid to do.

laurarichardson said:

rdhull said:

Well this part is the bone of contention amongst many fans or what folks called "naysayers." It appeared he wanted the glory and bragging rights rather than the important principles (that would have brought him the glory etc in the long haul..but he wanted short money). It wasnt until he realized what he had done that he went on the crusade.

I wonder if he still had Fargnoli and the rest in his stead, if he would have signed that contract. If they would have guided him in a more worthy contract etc. (I'm assuming Farnoli and the rest of Sphaghetti INC were gone by then).

.CavalloRuffaloFargnoliedit

[Edited 5/2/17 13:34pm]

Everybody that worked with Steve said he was an asshole. Even Alan Leeds said his management did not know what they were doing as far as Paisley Park was concerned and remember it would have been Steve's job to try and get those masters for Prince that is what managers get paid to do.

Fargnoli and the rest may have been assholes but those assholes got Prince to the apex and icon status. Its been reported that Fargnoli was the one who suggested he release Dirty Mind as it was. I can see others in the circle feling they were assholes but regarding Prince? Nah. Yeah I know later Prince talked about mgt etc being bloodsuckers (JUGHEAD YALL!), but in his erly career they were awesome.

rdhull said:

Sorry guys, I've loved him and his music for decades but lets be honest. Prince was kinda of an idiot w/r/t to business and contracts. He signed his big WB contract and ONLY after got around to reading it. He only signed because he wanted a big headline.

Ownership of the masters issue was no secret. Other artists were able to navigate this without losing their minds/ He never read the contract and didnt care to. He had bad advisors and refused to listen to those who knew what they were talking about.

His one-off post WB deals were always a train wreck (EMI, ARISTA, etc).

And most recently he may have FUBAR'd for generations his IP rights, he used either incompetent lawyers or even non-lawyers to "negotiate" his recent WB deal that no one knows what it really means. The two guys who came in (Kopp and Londell) seems to have screwed things up even more. Anyone remember Kobalt? what was that? Tidal?

In all I'd say Prince had the business accumen of Donald Trump (Black Version).

laurarichardson said:

rdhull said:

Fargnoli and the rest may have been assholes but those assholes got Prince to the apex and icon status. Its been reported that Fargnoli was the one who suggested he release Dirty Mind as it was. I can see others in the circle feling they were assholes but regarding Prince? Nah. Yeah I know later Prince talked about mgt etc being bloodsuckers (JUGHEAD YALL!), but in his erly career they were awesome.

--I think they helped and remember they were getting their 10%. Purple Rain was Prince's idea and he gave them an ultimatum to get the movie deal or he was going to find new mgmt.

Of course they got their percentage. They do get paid for their work. And yeah PR was Princes idea. They did moe than "help." They made his idea come to fruition. All of them.

Prince signed his contract because he was 18 years old and poor. I would also expect that since Owen was able to get him to be able to produce the recording WB was not going to give him master tapes as well. In addition, not that many artist own their master recordings and an 18 year was not going to get them.

How was his one-off deals a train wreack? EMI was closed down and Clive Davis was removed from Arista and replaced by that fool L.A. Reid. In the end the labels closed and people got fired and Prince moved on with his masters.

He kept the master tape in all those deals and according to AGE live they split the revenue on the Musicology give away with each side walking away with 6 million a piece because the cd cost like 10 cents to manufacture. ( You can explain how this was bad and why you do not hear much about it in the media)

He used an entertainment attorney named Rhonda Trotter not sure what proof you have that she was incompotent. If anything if he has different terms for each album in the WB deal and the soundtracks have license rights with WB forever this stops greedy assholes like Lonnie and Kopplecrook from undoing deals he already had in place which is not a bad thing since that is what he wanted.

The fact that Tidal is saying they paid Prince 3 million up front seems lost on most people who do not realize that most artist are getting pennies a stream.

Prince was not a business genius he was a musician not a businessman but in just a year the

so-called experts have generated more lawsuits and messes then even he caused.

These so called smart people have cost the estate money and you cannot put this off on Prince who by the way did not want to even do business with Universal anymore but two fools brought them back into the fold with disatrous results.

At the end of the day Prince did what he wanted to do with his music and money that suited his purpose. He managed to continue to record and tour long after the record industry was done with him and that is more than most artist can say.

emesem said:

Sorry guys, I've loved him and his music for decades but lets be honest. Prince was kinda of an idiot w/r/t to business and contracts. He signed his big WB contract and ONLY after got around to reading it. He only signed because he wanted a big headline.

Ownership of the masters issue was no secret. Other artists were able to navigate this without losing their minds/ He never read the contract and didnt care to. He had bad advisors and refused to listen to those who knew what they were talking about.

His one-off post WB deals were always a train wreck (EMI, ARISTA, etc).

And most recently he may have FUBAR'd for generations his IP rights, he used either incompetent lawyers or even non-lawyers to "negotiate" his recent WB deal that no one knows what it really means. The two guys who came in (Kopp and Londell) seems to have screwed things up even more. Anyone remember Kobalt? what was that? Tidal?

In all I'd say Prince had the business accumen of Donald Trump (Black Version).

[Edited 5/3/17 7:26am]

[Edited 5/3/17 7:27am]

[Edited 5/3/17 10:24am]

laurarichardson said:

Prince signed his contract because he was 18 years old and poor. I would also expect that since Owen was able to get him to be able to produce the recording WB was not going to give him master tapes as well. In addition, not that many artist own their master recordings and an 18 year was not going to get them.

How was his one-off deals a train wreck. EMI was closed down and Clive Davis was removed from Arista and replaced by that fool L.A. Reid. Are you blaming Prince for their removal.

He kept the master tape in all those deals and according to AGE live they split the revenue on the Musicology give away with each side walking away with 6 million because the cd cost like 30 cents to manufacture. ( You can explain how this was bad and why you do not hear much about it in the media)

He used an entertainment attorney named Rhonda Trotter not sure what proof you have that she was incompotent. If anything if he has different terms for each album in the WB deal and the soundtracks have license right with WB forever this stops greedy assholes like Lonnie and Kopplecrook, sibs and banks from undoing deals he already had in place until they reach the end of their term which is not a bad thing.

The fact that Tidal is saying they paid Prince 3 million up front seems lost on most people who do not realize that most artist are getting pennies a stream.

Prince was not a business genius he was a musician not a businessman but in just a year the

so-called experts have generated more lawsuits and messes then even he caused.

These so called smart people have cost the estate money and you cannot put this off on Prince who by the way did not want to even do business with Universal anymore but two fools brought them back into the fold with disatrous results.

At the end of the day Prince did what he wanted to do with his music and money that suited his purpose. He managed to continue to record and tour long after the record industry was done with him and that is more than most artist can say.

emesem said:

Sorry guys, I've loved him and his music for decades but lets be honest. Prince was kinda of an idiot w/r/t to business and contracts. He signed his big WB contract and ONLY after got around to reading it. He only signed because he wanted a big headline.

Ownership of the masters issue was no secret. Other artists were able to navigate this without losing their minds/ He never read the contract and didnt care to. He had bad advisors and refused to listen to those who knew what they were talking about.

His one-off post WB deals were always a train wreck (EMI, ARISTA, etc).

And most recently he may have FUBAR'd for generations his IP rights, he used either incompetent lawyers or even non-lawyers to "negotiate" his recent WB deal that no one knows what it really means. The two guys who came in (Kopp and Londell) seems to have screwed things up even more. Anyone remember Kobalt? what was that? Tidal?

In all I'd say Prince had the business accumen of Donald Trump (Black Version).

[Edited 5/3/17 7:26am]

[Edited 5/3/17 7:27am]

See below info about Mrs. Trotter and the link showing she is still doing some legal work for the estate. She is at the top of her area of expertise.

http://www.apks.com/en/perspectives/news/2014/04/20140419_noted_copyright_lawyer_helps_pr_10698

http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20FDCO%2020170405D06/DIXON%20v.%20NPG%20MUSIC%20PUBLISHING,%20LLC

[Edited 5/3/17 7:45am]