Prince Compares Music Industry’s Record Contracts To Slavery, Gives Warning To Younger Artists

It may not be the first time you’ve heard that signing a record contract is signing away your life, but it is probably the first time you’ve heard it from Prince. Recently, the seven-time Grammy award winning music phenomenon feels that entering a contract with a record label is the equivalent of slavery.

“Record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word – slavery. I would tell any young artist… don’t sign.”

The statement, which was made during a meet-and-greet in Paisley Park Studios in Minneapolis, may be striking but was not a complete diss to the music industry. Instead, Prince offers insight about how to trailblaze through music using one’s own capital — with Jay-Z as the example.

“Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves. Jay Z spent $100 million of his own money to build his own service. We have to show support for artists who are trying to own things for themselves.”

Prince, who recently signed a deal with Jay-Z’s Tidal, believes that the company offers something that other streaming services haven’t yet, which is the opportunity to cut out the middleman, allowing artists to be paid directly. According to NPR, Prince’s new deal allows him more freedom to make the music he wants and collaborate with the artists he wants to while being in full control of his own project. This was reportedly Prince’s reason for his recent decision to pull his music from all other streaming services.

Just last year, Prince signed a new deal with Warner Bros., which reportedly “opened his eyes” to his rights. Such rights in his eyes include certain copyright laws.

“A brand-new studio album is on the way and both Warner Bros. Records and Eye are quite pleased with the results of the negotiations and look forward to a fruitful working relationship.”

Prince is now focusing his energy on other unfair problems, like the dominating issue in world of radio. His recent target was Clear Channel, who he feels is guilty of such homogenization. Prince is joining in the beliefs of many other artists who have called out the music industry for its unfair contracts, which pay artists too little or reap a large percent of artist revenue. Prince’s last album, “Art Official Age,” was released last year, and now Prince is working on another project.

[Image via E! Online]