Did Prince Make $10m From One Album Without A Label?

US 'Crystal Ball' supposedly grossed vast sum through direct-to-fan sales 21/10/21

Having delved into some Prince interviews recently (detailed below), I found out how forward-thinking he was in terms of the music industry as a whole and, more specifically, artists relationships with their record labels. This uncovered the video above, which seeks to tell the story of how Prince made over $10m through record sales of a single album. The video explains his turbulent relationship with Warner Brothers - touring with the word 'Slave' on his head - which lead to his high profile change of name and the subsequent release of 'Crystal Ball'.

He used a private phone number (1-800-New-Funk) and mailing list to get word of his new album out - which was a 5 CD set only available to people who phoned the number and paid $50 each. Pretty ingenious for the time. Have a look at this short excerpt from an interview outlining his stance on the label and his subsequent ideas from the situation:

The same interview in its full length can be seen here:

See the online booklet for Crystal Ball here: http://www.crystalballcd.com/

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.