Prince – More than a Musician

Few names are as iconic as Prince and his untimely passing just over a week ago shocked the world.

Prince was without a doubt one of the most talented musicians, songwriters, arrangers, producers and performers to have ever lived and his musical legacy will endure in the nearly 30 studio albums he produced.

Of great importance also is Prince’s advocacy for complete artistic freedom and the legal protection of this which inspired other artistes to engage in ownership battles over creative rights and, in turn, enabled them to earn their fair share of profits.

My thoughts today though center around Prince’s challenges to the “idea” of Intellectual Property laws and, flowing from this, the importance from the inception of contractual dealings, of protecting one’s intellectual property assets so as to retain control over one’s compositions, image and even name so as to ultimately earn an income from one’s artistic endeavors.

In the 1980s, Prince released what are arguably the biggest albums of his career pursuant to a contract with Warner Bros he entered into 1977 when he was only 19. As his success grew during the following decade, so did his yearning for autonomy – he wanted to release as much music as he created and more frequently, he wanted to gain the rights back to his legal birth name “Prince” and most importantly, he wanted the copyright in the master recordings of his musical works, the ownership of which he allegedly unknowingly, had relinquished to the record company. This was all refused and it has been argued that the legal distraction and chaos that ensued greatly affected Prince’s popularity sapping as it did his energy from his music. He went on to terminate the contract with Warner Bros but continued releasing new work recorded at his own studio for a variety of labels under a new “name” which was a symbol that could not be pronounced and he became known as “the Artist Formerly Known as Prince” in 1993. He later took back his original name in 2000. In a strange turn of events, Prince went on to resume contractual relations with Warner Bros in 2014 when he regained ownership of his catalog of work.

Arising from this brief synopsis of Prince’s professional life is firstly, the importance of artistes owning the copyright over master recordings of musical works thereby controlling to a high degree musical output and also earning higher royalty payments. This becomes even more necessary in the present digital age when music is freely streamed and sold over internet sites at times violating copyright. Secondly, just as Prince obtained trademark protection for the symbol he created as the representation of himself initially and then as a key part of how he branded himself, artistes must recognize that the strongest form of protecting one’s brand is by registering a trademark.

In ending, I leave you with two basic definitions I gleaned from the World Intellectual Property Organization’s website www.wipo.int :-

COPYRIGHT (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

TRADEMARK is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises. Trademarks date back to ancient times when craftsmen used to put their signature or “mark” on their products.

Prince and all he stood for will surely be missed.