5 Music Business Predictions Prince Was Totally Right About

1

“People think I’m a crazy fool for writing ‘slave’ on my face,” Prince told Rolling Stone in 1996 about gaining the masters to his catalog. “But if I can’t do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave. That’s where I was. I don’t own Prince’s music. If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.”

Prince’s battle with his label, Warner Music Group, came to an end in 2014 when they finally reached a settlement allowing him to own all of his masters. Initially, when Warner refused his request, Prince decided to re-record all of his music on his own label NPG, creating consumer competition for the imprint. However, Prince eventually re-signed with Warner.

Since the “Darling Nikki” artist has been gone, many artists have taken a page out of Prince’s book. It is ideal for artists to own their masters so that they can ultimately decide what to do with their own music. If an artist does not own his/her masters, a record label could grant a license to use that artist’s music without their permission. Jay-Z, Rihanna, Frank Ocean, Iggy Azalea, Ciara, 21 Savage, Chance The Rapper, LL COOL J and more have obtained most — if not all — of the masters to their catalogs.

It was recently revealed that Hip-Hop’s newest rapstress, Ice Spice, came into the game with ownership in mind. In a recent interview, Spice’s manager James Rosemond Jr. told Billboard that not only did the “Princess Diana” rhymer retain the rights to her music, but she also has full creative control.

“No one on the label side touches the music,” 10K co-president Zach Friedman said. “There is no traditional A&R with her. No one’s picking beats, no one’s saying, ‘Do this, do that.’ It’s all her. We’re on her schedule.”

Ice Spice’s deal is rare for an up-and-coming artist, and she partially has Prince to thank for speaking up for artist ownership.

2

Since the onset of digital streaming platforms, Prince was against the idea. The icon didn’t want his music streamed on apps like YouTube, iTunes and more, although he did take a liking to Jay-Z’s Tidal. Following the release of his 2010 album 20Ten, Prince declared that, “The internet is completely over.” He added, “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it … They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you,” Mirror reported. 

“Tell me a musician who’s got rich off digital sales,” he went on. “Apple’s doing pretty good though, right?”

Tidal was the only streaming platform able to obtain Prince’s catalog, although some singles are exclusive on different platforms.

Artists today also struggle with streaming services like Spotify, iTunes and more, hence why many are touring more and relying on physical merchandise for profit. Back in October, Diddy released a video going off about digital streaming platforms and how they try to control the way artists release their music and get paid.

“Yeah we gotta change tone,” the Bad Boy CEO said. “Check this out, if you work for Apple or Spotify and y’all got these rules and regulations, we gotta drop our music when you want us to drop our music — yo, I drop my music when the f**k I want to drop my music. And y’all gonna have to catch up, it’s all good.”

Diddy says Spotify & Apple Music can't control him: "I’m being f*cking free" ?https://t.co/FoC4kxW3kg pic.twitter.com/QFWpJiqqls

— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) October 1, 2022

3

Prince declared years ago that “record labels won’t exist much longer.” Although labels are still up and running, more artists have moved away from the binding conditions of major label contracts to independently release music and profit from it.

In 2004, Prince was transparent on why he wasn’t fond of major labels, stating that contracts were another form of “slavery.”

“The way I looked at it, I owned the work because I paid for it. I created it, so I felt like it should belong to me,” Prince stated. “That said, the record companies felt otherwise. They would always hold this contract up and say ‘Well, you signed it. And I’d just want to talk about this thing and see if we can make it more fair. Of course they wouldn’t change, because if they changed, they wouldn’t really exist anymore.”

Many artists have taken the independent route since then, including Chance The Rapper, Frank Ocean, Tyler The Creator, the late Nipsey Hussle and many more.

In 2017, Chance The Rapper found himself going back and forth with DJ Booth about the validity of him being an independent artist. As the platform called his success as an indie artist misleading to the average artist still trying to come up, Chance fired back with, “Ya’ll steady tellin ppl they need a label/publisher/distributor to achieve success as an artist. Thats a lie.”

He added, “It’s only unrealistic because of the conditioning all artists are exposed to by different forms of media creating the narrative that you need to be discovered or put on in order to be successful. We wouldn’t seek out deals if mfs knew there were other avenues.”

He then advised fans to, “Also have some damn patience, all your favorite artists are locked up in deals and until they get out (and stay out) you wont see the realization of their full potential.”

Also have some damn patience, all your favorite artists are locked up in deals and until they get out (and stay out) you wont see the realization of their full potential.

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 26, 2017

4

Prince was the first artist to package an album with concert tickets, and at the time received backlash for his chart placement.

Upon the release of his 2004 album Musicology, Prince set out on tour and gave away the album with each purchase, which also counted as an album sale. The Fader reported that, “those free albums accounted for about 25 percent of Musicology’s total sales and Prince remained on the chart for 28 weeks.”

Shortly after, the publication changed its stance as chart editor Geoff Mayfield argued, “Concertgoers must be given an option to either add the CD to the ticket purchase or forgo the CD for a reduced ticket-only price.” He added that the CD price should be “comparable to reasonable and customary retail pricing.” 

The new rule was then put in place that an album offered as part of a bundle would count towards a sale only once the buyer opts-in and redeems it. Prince wasn’t penalized on the charts at the time, but would set the tone going forward.

Years later, however, bundling albums and merchandise would become a popular tactic to promote music and concert ticket sales. Artists of today bundle their music with clothing, subscription services, exclusive events and more.

Beyoncé, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Travis $cott, Kanye West and more have all practiced the bundling tactic. In 2018, Minaj clapped back at Billboard upon offering a digital copy of her Queen album, a poster of the cover art and a 3-month trial of Tidal — similar to what Travis $cott’s ASTROWORLD had offered. Despite Minaj expanding her promotion of her album, she felt slighted by Billboard when it came to charting.

“Travis sold over 50K of these. With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him,” she tweeted in August 2018 about concert pre-sale rules and how $cott charted. “He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week.”

“I looked at the numbers the Carters, Kanye, Nas, etc recently did. Travis sold 200K in his first week of clothes alone,” she continued in another tweet. “I spoke to him last night & he said he’s been selling clothes b4 the music. Billboard says they’ll change the rules cuz of this, so it should be changed now!”

Travis sold over 50K of these. With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week. I love my fans for the #1 album in AMERICA! I’ll explain on #QueenRadio 4 albums in, #1 in 86 countries ♥️ pic.twitter.com/CiYEuczgm3

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

I looked at the numbers the Carters, Kanye, Nas, etc recently did. Travis sold 200K in his first week of clothes alone. I spoke to him last night & he said he’s been selling clothes b4 the music. Billboard says they’ll change the rules cuz of this, so it should be changed now!

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

5

Sampling in music isn’t anything new, but “sampling the sampled that has already been sampled” has definitely become more of a thing with today’s artists. Without surprise, Prince predicted that this would happen years ago.

In November 1999, Prince gave an interview where he said that sampling was “getting out of hand” in music and “pretty soon we’ll be sampling the sample, that was already sampled.” He added, “Our lessons have been lessened to a great degree,” while suggesting that, as a music community, sampling be addressed for “what it’s doing to the culture.”

In 2023, artists have made “sampling the sample that’s already been sampled,” a thing. Latto’s 2022 smash hit “Big Energy” features a sample from Mariah Carey’s 1995 “Fantasy,” which first sampled Tom Tom Club’s 1981 single “Genius of Love.”

Some of Prince’s timeless hits have also been sampled by artists including Jay-Z, 2Pac, Kanye West Diddy, MC Lyte and more.