The Impossible Dream

Well,you can't say he isn't trying.0(+> has made it officially clear that he wants to terminate his contract with WEA.Of course,they're having none of it,and don't respond to his offer to fulfil his contractual obligations with 3 already recorded albums,thus freeing him to look elsewhere for a more elastic contract.From the fans point of view,the ideal solution would be for WEA to accept the albums and 0(+> would sign immediately to some record company who'd allow a more prolific output.Imagine,albums by Prince and 0(+> being released in quick succession,twice as much music.0(+> would of course disassociate himself with the "Prince" albums,but although in theory we support his fight against the record company,in reality few fans would make the distinction between Prince/0(+> albums,just purchasing 0(+>'s releases.Let's be honest,if there's an album of "new" music released by the short guy from Minneapolis,we're going to grab it with both hands,regardless of the name on the sleeve.

It seems likely that he'll be made to sit out his contract's life for a while longer yet.He's already said that he's not going to take it to court,having learned a valuable lesson from George Michael's lengthy,costly,unsuccessful venture there.There's no way the case would ever stand up in court anyway.Changing his name and using that argument was never going to work in the 'real world'.If getting out of a contract was as simple as that,every music act who'd expressed discomfort with their record company would do it,and the chart would be full of "The artist formerly known as George Michael","The group formerly known as REM",etc. and the top 40 rundown would take days!The claim of restraint of trade would be laughed out of court-1993 saw 3 greatest hits albums released,1994 had 4 albums worth of Prince (or Prince- associated) material released on record or video specials (The Beautiful Experience),1995 another 3 Prince -related releases,one exclusively to video (The Undertaker),the court would say WEA had been more than co-operative towards 0(+>.He knows this all too well,thus is trying the official route out of his contract.

It's hard to see whether any record company would accommodate 0(+>'s prolific nature,as ultimately they are all part of a profit-motivated industry,and though they may try to care for the needs of their artists,money is always a guiding force in policy decisions.Again,0(+> is aware of this and may not care to sign into another contract,becoming the ultimate independent artist.

Perhaps 0(+>'s best hope is the ever-expanding internet and the network of fans.His dream of giving away music directly to the fans could easily become a reality.Promos of "Slave" and "New World" given away to fans at Paisley Park have found their way effortlessly to the New Power Network on the considerable Internet site devoted to our man,and anyone with access can hear the songs.All it takes is one person to get the songs to tape and a distributor and we've all got them (is this old news already!).What the record company will make of this if too many songs find their way to the net is another matter.A large percentage of the bootleg material is either alternative versions of already released material (normally with more instrumentation which had to be cut short due to time limitations for official release) or in Prince's unique case,the original versions of songs he has given to countless other artists to record themselves.Either way it's unlikely the songs will be officially released,when considering the rate at which he records new material,he's not going to go back and release available material again officially,so gives his fans the chance to hear it via bootlegs.Warners may not consider such material a loss.Judging by the huge bootleg market built around his music,perhaps as long as they get their annual album off him to market as they wish they don't care about the rest.Has Prince's bootleg activities over the years been given the semi-official nod by Warners all along.Maybe they are not so bad after all.Then again,maybe not.