This has been bugging me for a while.

How does Prince (or any artist wishing to be in control of their work 100%) ... how do they know the exact amount of downloads/purchases made via online (or otherwise) sites?

N.E.W.S is available for purchase/download online, but how does Prince know the companies he signs deals with are not ripping him off like traditional record companies, who sell artist albums through the 'back door', with the artist getting only a fraction of what's owed to them in royalties because the true sales are not accounted for. Is there any way of knowing for sure when you hand over distribution to third parties?

Sananda Maitreya also gets third parties to distribute his work (in the form of physical CDs only tho). What happens in this case? Does Sananda (or his company) pay for the manufacturing of the discs themselves, then hands them over to distributors/retailers in certain territories for distribution, with any unsold items after a certain period returned back to his company? How does it work and how can an artist know the true numbers being sold and be quite certain the people he deals with do not pirate/exploit/lie about sales?

Also, if the songwriting/composition/whatever is shared with other artists, how are royalties administered/distributed among the authors of the work in question? Do you have to have your own publishing/administration company to administer royalties properly if and when you are deciding you want 100% control over your work, as Prince does? Or does Prince just make "one off" payments to musicians he works with, with no royalties being payed out to them?

with written work either you have an agent you trust to monitor royalties for you or you simply trust that your publisher isn't lying when they send you the annual statement pertaining to sales.

ic, thanks. Looks like there's still a lot of room for deceitful people to me. Would love to know the exact deals Prince and Sananda and other artists like them made. 'Cause owning your masters/controlling some marketing is just a small part of the complete picture to total control (and fair payment for) an artist's work.