Prince gains control of his entire catalogue

Prince has regained the publishing rights to his entire catalogue, and assigned them to his own NPG Music Publishing.

By moving all publishing in house and taking the reins from Universal Music Group, this marks the first time in 20 years that Prince’s rights have been independently controlled and administered. UMG last had control of Prince’s publishing; the major label housed iconic tracks like When Dove’s Cry, Nothing Compares 2 U and Purple Rain for almost two decades. The publishing agreement ended on March 31.

Prince established NPG (New Power Generation) Music Publishing as a limited liability company (LLC) over a month ago. The press release states the LLC was founded “by artists for artists,” and is “led by some of the best talent in the industry.”

Prince’s most recent single FALLINLOVE2NITE is out through L.A. Reid’s Epic Records label, however Kobalt Music are signed on for a label services deal.

The release says NPG are actively seeking to ink sync deals for Prince’s tracks on platforms such as television, gaming and film. In fact, it was NPG who secured the placement of FALLINLOVE2NITE during Prince’s cameo on TV show New Girl, which screened after this year’s Super Bowl in the US.

The in-house deal is part of Prince’s longstanding determination to have complete control of his music. His contractual disagreement with Warner Bros. Records in 1993 led to him changing his name to an unpronounceable ‘love symbol’ (which actually forced Warner Bros to issue media with a floppy disk containing the symbol), while doing public performances with the word ‘Slave’ written on his cheek. Until recently, the artist had employed notorious Web Sheriff John Giacobbi to wipe the Internet of all unauthorised traces of his music.