|:. DISCLAIMER: J7 and the folx behind the 777 Update are not affiliated with TDC.Org. Rather, J7 and RolThaDice@AOL.com are part of the Prince online community, and we offered them space on the net to keep us informed of all things Paisley. It has not been edited by the TDC.Org staff in any way, well, except for coding and other small stuff, you know, to make it look nice and pretty for our Motor Babies out there. DISCLAIMER .:|. And now, the latest 777 Update, dated Wednesday, October 16, 2002. "The news, not the bull ...." Newz item #1-Explaining Prince's Corvette deal/publishing owners rights Rights to use a song in a commercial are up to the publisher and not the record label owner of the master. Prince now owns his publishing rights (which Warner Bros. wanted more of a cut in for his masters, which he sings about in "White Mansion" on 1996's Emancipation). Universal Music Publishing signed a deal with Prince in September 2001, to get a percentage of his royalties. Prince decided to do this because trying to track your airplay by yourself is extremely hard. Every time a Prince compact disc is played in a jukebox or on the radio, Prince receives royalties. On April 9, 2002, in New York City, and early One Nite Alone tour dates, Prince asked NPG Music Club members if he should give Little Red Corvette to Chevrolet for the car company's 50th Anniversary promotions. Prince was in negotiations with Chevy before the tour started. Since Warner Bros. no longer gets a cut of his publishing rights, it made it easier. Universal, which owns the rights to the live footage of the SOTT film and Little Red Corvette, made it easier to cut Warner Bros. out of the equation by using that footage instead of the 1982 Warner Video clip (although, when Prince signed his deal with Warner Bros. in 1993, it was for full video control. Part of that had to do with Prince making a video for every single song on a CD, including classics such as "Walk Don't Walk," which was directed by Lisa Bonet. Although these videos never saw the light of day, Warner Bros. would pay for the production costs.) Before Prince started his solo career in 1978, he made several radio jingles for Minneapolis radio which were traded for studio time at Chris Moon's studio. Also, this is not Prince's first time with commercials. In 1989-90, it was reported that Prince wrote the jingle for Diet Pepsi "Uh-huh" (originally known as the "you got the right one baby" with the "Uh-huh" girls by former McDonald's "Mac Tonight" guy Ray Charles). Although never made public, and just making the "so- called journalists" columns, Prince made $7 million for writing it. Again in 1993 Prince may have dabbled in commercial jingles. Coca-Cola, after two years of declining sales, started a new campaign entitled "Always Coca-Cola." It again was reported in the European papers that Prince wrote the tune for it and was paid $10 million as well as Coca-Cola sponsoring the 1993 Act II tour overseas. Prince played part of the jingle instrumentally on one of the European dates on the tour, which was reported in the final issue of "Controversy Magazine." In 1999, Prince was approached by Coca-Cola again to use the song "1999" for another ad campaign. Reported in Rolling Stone, Prince was offered over $11 million for the rights to the song. Rolling Stone said Prince refused only for the reason that Warner Bros. would also get a cut of that check. Prince, now being an independent artist, which many of his fans or "fams" fail to remember, has a harder time getting radio and video play on the networks due to his independent status. If a independent artist like Prince gets played on MTV, with no label, and as he likes it, very little promotion or doing any appearances on MTV shows, record labels would be bitching left and right. "Why does Kid Rock have to be a judge on this show to get his video played but Prince doesn't do anything and is getting four spins a day?" Something is dead wrong with MTV and perhaps that has to do with who has been running it since 1985 --- Judy McGrath who has had several run-ins with Prince since 1986's horrible MTV promotion and premire of "Under the Cherry Moon." About Prince, Mcgrath said, "He should stick to what he does well and that is sexy videos, which he has not done in a while." Maybe Judy hasn't grown since 1985 but it is evident that Prince has. Prince selling rights to his songs for commercial use is something in and of itself. An artist who, according to the media, has fallen from grace is still in high demand no matter what is reported. The guy has no friends in radio, none on any video networks, except for VH-1, which has been trying to get Prince to do a special for the network for quite some time. He has no friends when it comes to record labels, but is still able to do what he wants, and throwing his fans for a loop in the process. - The 777 Update Crew "It is sad what MTV has done to the World"-Joni Mitchell DatelineDetroit | Dance On | Glam Slam | Mission Statement Play In The Sunshine | 777 Update | Contact | Links | Webmaster Last Update: 16 October 2002 TheDetroitCrawl.Org is an independent unofficial fan/enthusiast club. TheDetroitCrawl.Org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorized by, sponsored by, or connected with Prince, NPG Records, Paisley Park Enterprises, Warner Brothers Records, or anewpowerdetroit/PrinceMusicGroupDet fan club.