Over the weekend Prince invited attendees at this year's National Association of Black Journalist convention to his estate in Minneapolis, asking them to leave their phones and recording devices at home. It's the first time Prince has ever invited a group of roughly 900 media professionals to his estate. Apparently many were expecting a performance, but the artist proceeded to announce his new album, HitNRun.
The party turned into a mini listening party, where he played two of his new songs from the album. Prince then told the crowd that his newest album will be released on Tidal, a subscription-based service that gives more royalties to artists than other streaming services, on September 7th.
The artist then went on to say, "Record contracts are just like -- I'm gonna say the word -- slavery. I would tell any young artist...don't sign."
NPR's Eric Deggans wrote that Prince told reporters that typical record company contracts give the artists very little freedom over how their music is used, especially with third-party streaming services.
The seven-time Grammy award winner, who asked all streaming services to remove his music earlier this year, is openly trying to make a change. "Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves," he said, according to NPR. "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." At the meeting, Prince stressed his belief that streaming services should pay artists directly for their music, instead of the record companies.
By Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
Prince to release his new HitNRun album via Tidal
Over the weekend Prince invited attendees at this year's National Association of Black Journalist convention to his estate in Minneapolis, asking them to leave their phones and recording devices at home. It's the first time Prince has ever invited a group of roughly 900 media professionals to his estate. Apparently many were expecting a performance, but the artist proceeded to announce his new album, HitNRun.
The party turned into a mini listening party, where he played two of his new songs from the album. Prince then told the crowd that his newest album will be released on Tidal, a subscription-based service that gives more royalties to artists than other streaming services, on September 7th.
The artist then went on to say, "Record contracts are just like -- I'm gonna say the word -- slavery. I would tell any young artist...don't sign."
NPR's Eric Deggans wrote that Prince told reporters that typical record company contracts give the artists very little freedom over how their music is used, especially with third-party streaming services.
The seven-time Grammy award winner, who asked all streaming services to remove his music earlier this year, is openly trying to make a change. "Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves," he said, according to NPR. "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." At the meeting, Prince stressed his belief that streaming services should pay artists directly for their music, instead of the record companies.
By Devon Pyne for RAPstation.com
