Prince compares record contracts to slavery

by Jeremy Mersereau

August 10, 2015

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"I would tell any young artist... don't sign."

The Artist Currently Known As Prince has long held a healthy distrust of the New Music Paradigm, pulling his entire back catalogue from streaming services back in June and his videos from YouTube last year. “Essentially, streaming has offered labels the ability to pay themselves twice while reducing what is owed to artists from pennies on the dollar to fractions of pennies on the dollar”, the Purple Liker posted on Twitter in June, quoting a Daily Beast article.

Now it seems Prince has come around to the whole streaming thing thanks to Jay Z, announcing his new album HITNRUN will be a TIDAL exclusive. “After one meeting, it was obvious that Jay Z and the team he has assembled at TIDAL recognize and applaud the effort that real musicians put in2 their craft 2 achieve the very best they can at this pivotal time in the music industry,” Prince said in a statement. “Secondly, TIDAL have honored Us with a non-restrictive arrangement that once again allows Us to continue making art in the fashion We’ve grown accustomed 2 and We’re Extremely grateful 4 their generous support.” Sigh… it’s not the least professional communiqué I’ve ever seen, I guess; that honour goes to my neighbour Randy’s invite to “Randey’s Nite of 1000 Barbeycues”.

To promote the album/Jay Z’s brilliance, Prince invited 10 journalists to his Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis last Saturday, where he told his informal covenant that “record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word – slavery,” and that he “would tell any young artist – don’t sign.”

According to NPR, Prince went on to heap praise on TIDAL and Jay Z, telling the assembled media that the deal gives him the freedom to collaborate with with other artists on songs and control a broader swathe of his music revenue, both of which would be much more restricted under a conventional record deal with a label. “Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves,” Prince said, apparently from the head of a glass table emblazoned with his symbol. Yeah, sounds like this guy needs more resources.

Unfortunately recording devices of any kind, including cell phones, were banned from the event, so we may never know the true size of the glass table, or how funny Prince looked like sitting in his high chair. Alcohol was also banned for the night. “A night listening to a tiny rich eccentric pontificate endlessly and I’m not even allowed to get drunk? Sounds like fun, let me get my coat” – NPR guy.

Tags: Music, News, Prince, tidal

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