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Prince Sues Artists Who Contributed to Cover Song Album

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 26, 2008 - 12:29pm.

San Francisco - In his latest effort to control use of his music and likeness on the Internet, recording artist Prince has served a lawsuit on the creators of a 81-track cover song tribute compilation -- made in honor of Prince's 50th birthday on June 7 -- and demanded that all copies be destroyed, The Daily Swarm reported, citing the Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

Fifty Norwegian artists who contributed tracks to Norway-based label C+C Records' "Shockdelica" album, which entered that country's official charts this week at No. 8, have been sued thus far.

The label maintains that no one involved has made any money on the project, which included a first run of 5,000 CDs and digital distribution via the label's website.

Under the standard compulsory license associated with releasing cover songs, the label would owe about $8 per copy sold to Prince, Wired.com estimated.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/2pjr3 (The Daily Swarm)

http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/06/10/537749.html

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/06/prince-sues-to.html

http://www.ccrecords.musikkonline.no/shop/displayAlbum.asp?id=34576

Published in DMW Daily, June 26, 2008
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Music | Copyright | Price | Shockadelica | C+C Records |



Comments

I thought Prince used to be cool

Submitted by Gavroche (not verified) on June 26, 2008 - 9:03pm.
He's been so fussy with music/likeness lately, but in this case, he has a legitimate right to the royalties. The deal with covers is that if you cover a song you pay the writer/publisher the statutory royalty of 9.1 cents or 1.75 cents per minute of playing time or fraction thereof, whichever is greater. So anybody can release covers of Prince songs if they pay the royalty. Read more about how this works at evolvingmusic.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/wtf-is-music-publishing/ The reason the royalties amount to about $8/cd is because there are some many songs on the release, so its 81 x 9.1 cents (81 track release...seriously?). But, it seems fair that Prince shouldnt collect until some money is made!

so prince has NO concept of music law?

Submitted by muskratboy (not verified) on June 27, 2008 - 5:32am.
sorry prince... nothing you can do to stop a cover song, as long as they got the compulsory license. not sure how this even makes it to lawsuit territory... there is simply nothing prince can do to stop publication, as long as they don't change the words and they got that mechanical license. oh yeah, and Prince is a total douchebag, apparently. and ignorant of music law. but mostly just a douche.

Prince Sues Artists Who Contributed to Cover Song Album

Submitted by Bernard Lavilliers (not verified) on June 27, 2008 - 6:45am.
Now that's something like it, thanks for the links.

Prince MAY have concept of law

Submitted by NascarB (not verified) on June 29, 2008 - 9:26am.
The fact is that Prince can control (prevent) anybody from recording his music. The compolsory mechanical license can be denied to you if Prince has held onto the rights exclusively. That is, if he has never given ANYONE a license to cover. However, you can not pick & choose who you give a license to cover, once you allow "John Smith" to record Purple Rain in polka, it opens the flood gates for any artist to cover the song without being denied by Prince. You still have to pay prince but you can't be denied. So...if prince has never licensed the songs on this compilation he can have it yanked! Question: Why not license the rights to anyone who wants to cover your song all over the world in a billion languages and cash billions of dollars from it? As soon as Princes record sale royalties for his music stop supporting his lifestyle in the next few years, we might see him singing a different tune!

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