About this episode

This episode discusses Prince's bold stand for music ownership against Warner Bros. Records on June 7, 1993.

# The Day Prince Revolutionized Music Ownership: June 7, 1993 On June 7, 1993, Prince Rogers Nelson did something so audacious, so bizarre, and yet so prescient that it would take the music industry decades to understand what he was trying to tell them: he appeared in public with the word "SLAVE" written across his cheek. But let's back up. This wasn't just any theatrical Prince moment (though Lord knows he had plenty). This was the day he officially began his war with Warner Bros. Records at the Arsenio Hall Show taping, marking the beginning of one of the most fascinating artist-versus-label battles in music history. Prince's beef was simple to understand but radical for its time: he believed that signing away the rights to his master recordings made him a slave to his record contract. Warner Bros. owned everything he created under the name "Prince," and he was obligated to deliver albums on their schedule, not his own. For an artist who was literally writing songs in his sleep and had a vault filled with thousands of unreleased tracks, this was suffocating. The truly wild part? Prince was at the HEIGHT of his commercial power. This wasn't a washed-up artist complaining about…

Topics covered

• music ownership
• artist-label conflict
• Prince
• Warner Bros.
• music history
• record contracts

Keywords

• Prince
• SLAVE
• Warner Bros.
• music rights
• record label
• Arsenio Hall
• music industry
• artist autonomy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Warner Bros. Records

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