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Prince – A Long Fight With the Industry

Posted by Fairmusic Team on August 14th, 2007 under cases | Permalink

The story doesn’t begin with Prince giving away his new album for free. His fight with the music industry and his unorthodox marketing ideas have a longer history. Here’s an overview.

Masters and Slave

In 1992 Warner Music and Prince announced a 100-million Dollar deal. Soon after that the artist felt he was enslaved by the contract. He wanted to own the master tapes of his recordings. (No artist with a major label contract does.) But mostly he fought with the label about his output, how many albums and how long they should be. Prince was a bit too productive for traditional marketing strategies. But on the other hand, three- and five-CD albums released within a short timespan are difficult to sell.

What’s in a name?

In autumn 1992 Prince changed his name and from then on he identified himself with the love-symbol that can be found on most of his albums. He no longer wanted to be Prince Roger Nelson. He argued that he wasn’t „Nell’s son“, referring to the history of African-American names that originated from slavery.

Prince wanted to get out of his contract with Warner and he wanted his masters back. At about that time he started to write „slave“ on his cheek. In concerts, at award shows and even in negotiations with the music industry he appeared with „slave“ written on his face. Not everyone thought that this was the right term. Black Music journalist Nelson George said: „He was less a slave and had more artistic freedom than any black artist I know of.“

Finally Prince’s contract with Warner ended on December 31, 1999. Even before that time Prince founded his own label, NPG (New Power Generation), and released a triple CD called „Emancipation“ in 1996 that was distributed by EMI.

The artist and the internet

In 1997 he released a five CD box, „Crystal Ball,“ of previously unreleased material through his own website. According to the webmagazine Internet Life he was the first major pop star to sell an entire album exlusively on the web. He surveyed fan opinion regarding a fair price for the box. 250.000 copies were sold for 50 Dollar each.

The Artist formerly known as Prince questioned the reason for having music industry as far back as in 1995. He said: „Once the internet is a reality there won’t be any need for record companies. If I can send you my music direct, what’s the point of having a music business?“

CD included
In this summer his album „Planet Earth“ was given away for free with a copy of the Sunday Times. Columbia Records, the distributor of “Planet Earth”, therefore refused to release the album in the UK. They thought giving away music for free was just „ridiculous.“

But it was not the first time Prince gave away one his albums. His USA tour in 2004 grossed 87,4 Million Dollar. Tickets were sold for 60 Dollar. The ticket price included a copy of the then actual album „Musicology“.

In 2006 the album „3121“ reached number one in the US album charts. Prince started a kind of „numbers game.“ He played a concert in a hotel in Los Angeles with only 130 seats. The tickets were sold for 3.121 Dollars, dinner included. For his London concerts in the O2 Arena fans had to pay 31,21 British Pound including a free CD to see him and his band.

The newspaper give away was just the latest addition in a long series of acts, that some call „ridiculous“ or „nuts“. Others see it as a long struggle for creative and economic independence. After all Prince is still there playing concerts for a big audience and his music is heard, whether for free or not.

Quotes from Sutcliffe, Phil, Who’s crazy now, in: Mojo. The Music Magazin. Nr. 166. Sept. 2007. pp. 86 - 93