“I Would Tell Any Young Artist … Don’t Sign.”

NPR:

“Record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word – slavery,” Prince told a group of 10 journalists Saturday night, during a meet and greet at his Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis. “I would tell any young artist … don’t sign.”



His pitch to the group was simple: Typical record company contracts turn artists into indentured servants with little control over how their music is used, particularly when it comes to revenue from streaming services playing their music online — and he wants to change that. He (also) advocated seeing artists paid directly from streaming services for use of their music, so that record companies and middlemen couldn’t take a share.

A good, if intentionally hyperbolic, message from The Purple One. His behavior regarding his catalog seems, from the outside, a bit erratic (to say the least) but he appears content in that he’s making these choices himself, and that’s commendable. However, if Prince is really interested in shaking things up then I’d love to see him follow Louis C.K.’s lead rather than hitching himself to Tidal.