Madge owns everything from at least Erotica on.

If I'm not mistaken masters are given to the artist 35 years after the album comes out.

mikek1 said:

And Elton John is an expert on rap catalogues and their value? Queen of the relics needs to shut up about matters of such. Its really hard to say who's catalogue is worth what before they either die or the generation they are popular in becomes of compilation-buying age. Dude knows jack shit about hip-hop or hip-hop fans.
Pretty soon, owning your masters won't mean shit. I used to preach that sermon to everybody I knew and everybody's "people" back in the day but it seemed like no one was listening (including Prince). Now that mp3s are what they are and filesharing is dominant, owning your masters will mean less to artists because collecting royalties will be less significant. The younger artists need to get their touring skills up and hit the road more or they'll be broke and not be able to fend for themselves after they get dropped. Most of the majors are doing distribution deals and leaving it up to the artists to build their own followings. They push you out there and throw a video behind you to eat up the royalties from your first record then its on you. They lose nothing. You lose if you can't hang.

CinisterCee said:

i was gonna mention that line...

BlaqueKnight said:

Prince and friendship is like the word "gangsta rapper". The 2 words don't go 2ghether

Geminis are the MOST fickle when it comes to friendship

But I'm bluffing

Metallica, R.E.M., U2, Bowie.... they all did it the logical and old-fasioned way: they either bought them back, or took smaller heaps of cash in their contracts to be able to own the work and make more money in the long term.


Why wasn't Prince that smart? They all did it while he was bitching and moaning about it.

Tessa said:

U2 actually took it even further - they own 11% of Island. Around the time of "The Joshua Tree", they were owed a considerable amount in royalties from Island. Chris Blackwell offered them a stake in the company instead, which they accepted; bearing in mind the subsequent buying of the label by Polygram not too long after, this proved to be the shrewdest business move they ever made.

Harlepolis said:

Star signs don't mean anthing and have been changed through history; do some research.

I'm a gemini. I am not fickle.

Prince is one of lucifer's workman; here on earth in physical form to ruin others and cause hell.

mikek1 said:

Read the balded highlight I wasn't serious.

mikek1 said:

Mong said:

Exactly, but if read my post it says that if you are an artist and you write your stuff, record your stuff, and are looking to do music as a career, your are dumb to sign with a label at this point. because u arent going to get what you want. There are so many ways to distribute your stuff, and different medias that a label at this point is useless if you are looking for something long term. But if you are looking to be the next Ciara or Cassie then SIGN with a label, you wont own your masters, because you cant own samples, and if you arent writing or playing its not your stuff anyway, be happy if you can get 50 cents a cd. I was dealing with business for 18 years, and have seen how labels play the game and fake the soundscan numbers and dump product in stores/cut discounts just to debut at number 1, but what they dont tell you is that 50% of what they ship to stores doesnt sell, but of course soundscan tracks it as a sale.

And for the record, Prince does not own the master recordings of his work while on Warner Bros. Records from 1978-1996 (including 'Purple Rain', 'Sign O' The Times', '1999', 'Diamonds and Pearls', 'Dirty Mind', etc.). Prince does own the master recordings of his work from 1996-current (including 'Musicology', '3121', 'Crystal Ball', 'Emancipation', 'Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic', etc.). He also owns all of his previous unreleased material from 1978-current. That does include music that he recorded but never did released while on Warner Bros. Records.

BlaqueKnight said:

First of all the younger acts are never going to get their touring skills up to par, mainly because there is no money in them touring. If you look at the top grossing in touring its artists like U2,Jovi,Springsteen,Madonna,Elton etc.
One of the funniest things was a year or so ago when Beyonce went on that tour with Alicia Keys, the tour came to NYC and Madison square Garden, and 70% of the tickets sold, now these are the tops of the younger performers, the point is that the younger audience doesnt really care about a show, they can see you on magzines, videos, movies, whatever, they dont need to put down 50 bucks to see you play for an hour, when they dont wanna pay 10 bucks for a cd. This years quickly thrown together tour for Mariah carey made some money but overall lost money and made no sense because it wasnt pushing a record, who tours a year after their album comes out? Rumour is that Mariah is going to cut a Live CD/DVD and leave Def Jam on that note since her contract calls for one more release and she is nearing 40 years old. As far as Prince is concerned, i dont know what to really say, at this point getting his masters back would mean to renegotiate his WB deal. Many artists have done that when it came time to do reissues and things of that nature, as i spoke of Bon Jovi, their contract was running out back in the middle 90's and they renegotiated, gained control of their masters, allowed Universal to reissue their cds during that time giving the label a certain %, and Jovi fired all his management,PR people whoever, he runs everything now. This is really the only way to do it folks, masters may not seem like much in this media age, but since alot of music now is based on sampling and loops and shit like that, you cant own what someone else owns already, you cant own the sample with JB's horns on it. But i do think that in fear of labels losing their hold, they are going to embrace all media forms, YouTube is now owned, get ready to pay folks, next up MySpace, get ready to pay folks, iTunes say goodbye to 99 cent songs folks, the next year or so will see many changes. Also just a side note, Universal is cutting 75-100 artists at the end of the year, not sure who, but thats what i heard.

lastdecember said:

That's why they released that massive boxset with unreleased songs and demo...Shame other artists that love 4 the fans.

Also we can see that the new so-called artists don't know shit in terms of doing tours...

funkpill said:

Tosh said:

I know; it's like rick rubin owning the chili peppers songs.

George must have paid them to play on his records and therefore he owns the recording? I'm not sure how it works.

for e.g robert plant wo wrote 'kashmir' and 'stairway' doesn't own any of those records!

PFunkjazz said:

Chicago obtained ownership of their master recordings sometime in the late 90s.I don't know exactly how they did it.I think ownership is shared equally by the original members from their 70s lineup.They have allowed Rhino Records to remaster all of their albums,with exclusive bonus tracks and liner notes.It was all done with their cooperation and input.

SoulAlive said:

He can keep it. It's crap. The record conmpanies have got the best stuff he'll ever do anyway.

lastdecember said:

Yes and no. The Stones don't own their sixties masters. Those are in Allen Klein/Abkco's hands. That and an almost total forfeiture of royalties from those recordings was the price of their freedom from him in 1970.

The Stones DO own the masters of their recordings from 1970 onwards. They licence said recordings to whatever record company they're signed to. So far Atlantic, CBS, EMI and now Virgin had/have the rights to their recordings. Still doesn't explain the lack of a huge box set covering the last thirty or so years, but that's a separate thread.

Shapeshifter said:

even a companion to the first singles box set would be decent. instead, they just keep issuing "best ofs" and more and more good, but smaller hits keep getting pushed off from that era.

SoulAlive said:

By comparison, there can't much of a revenue stream owning the masters to their 80s & 90s recordings.