The Legacy of Prince: How He Spoke Up for the Creative Community
April 2026 marks 10 years since the passing of legendary funk R&B artist Prince. Prince has a profound legacy defined by innovation, gender blending artistry, and influential ambiguity. The notorious singer had a timely renaissance this past year when his most known song, Purple Rain, was played during the finale of the renowned Netflix series Stranger Things.
With 39 studio albums, over 100 million records sold, and achieving 19 top 10 hits on the Billboard charts, it goes without saying that Prince has made an everlasting impact on the music industry. Over the course of his career, Prince won seven Grammys and is among the prestigious list of musicians to have won an Academy Award. His prolonged success earned him a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.
Prince’s career has not just been defined by music, though. Throughout his lifetime, Prince gained a reputation in the music industry for going to extreme lengths to defend his art. From removing his music from streaming platforms to even changing his name, Prince continuously challenged evolving industry norms and asserted control over his creative identity.
‘Prince v. Warner Bros. Records’: An Unfair Contract
In 1993, the intense battle between Prince and his then label, Warner Bros. Records, later renamed Warner Records, began. The dispute was centered around Prince’s master recordings, which he did not own at the time. The label maintained its ownership due to long-term contracts that he signed when he was just 18 years old before he became the worldwide sensation that we know today. Prince argued that these contracts took advantage of him, and despite the agreements, he, and all artists, should have creative control over their art.
This contract not only temporarily revoked his ownership but would also not allow him to release new music. While Prince wanted to release music constantly, Warner Bros. Records observed an overly saturated market where profitability would not be maximized if his work was released at a round-the-clock rate.
These constraints on his ownership of his work and the face at which they were produced caused Prince to protest with both a name change and a song highlighting his frustrations.
A Name Change in Protest
In the midst of this battle, Prince famously changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, which was later copyrighted at “Love Symbol #2,” leading the public to refer to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince.” This artistic approach was a part of his rebellion against Warner Bros. Records, symbolizing that by being revoked of his creative rights, he no longer held identity with his own name.
While the official meaning behind the name change remained mysterious for many years, he opened up to Larry King in a 1999 interview saying, “I had to search deep within my heart and spirit, and I wanted to make a change and move to a new plateau in my life, and one of the ways in which I did that was to change my name. It sort of divorced me from the past and all the hangups that go along with it,” referring to his long-time relationship with Warner Bros. Records.
Prince’s Song Highlighting His Perspective of the Music Industry
Along with changing his name, from 1993 to 1996 Prince appeared and performed publicly with the word “slave” written across his face, the word he often used to refer to his original Warner Bros. Records contract. This word remained significant throughout the course of his career, with his 1996 album Emancipation featuring a song titled “slave.” While he rarely made public statements, in a 2015 meeting with journalists, he said “record contracts are just like — I’m gonna say the word — slavery.” For Prince, this was not a metaphor intended for shock value, but a way to highlight his perspective from an inside lens of the music industry.
The Conclusion of the Lawsuit
Finally, in 2014, Prince regained ownership of his Warner Bros. Record catalog by signing a landmark deal, which allowed the rights to his early masters to revert to him after the 35-year copyright termination window approached. Both parties continued working together until his passing in 2016 under new provisions stating that the two-split ownership, where Prince regained/would regain control of the majority of his masters and Warner Records attained global distribution and exploitation rights.
When asked about the settlement, Prince told EW “I’m not mad. They’re not bad people. I’ve known them for more than half my life. But the system is old and it doesn’t work anymore. It’s the past,” seeming at peace with the court’s ruling. Warner Bros. Records and Prince maintained this civil relationship until his passing.
Streaming Dispute Before and After Prince Passed Away
Being highly protective of his music rights and artistry, in 2015 Prince decided to withdraw his catalog from most major streaming services, favoring only Tidal. Tidal is subscription-based streaming service that offers high-definition audio for over 110 million tracks. More importantly to Prince, though, is that the service pays significantly higher royalties per stream compared to competitors.
Prince went as far as comparing platforms like Spotify and Apple Music to “carjacking,” claiming that there’s no boundaries in place for artists to avoid being exploited. In general, Prince was never a fan of online music. In a 2011 article with The Guardian, he said, “It affects a different place in your brain. When you play it back, you can’t feel anything. We’re analogue people, not digital.”
To Prince, the streaming era represented the next stage of an industry that seriously undervalued musicians. From witnessing the downfall of physical music and the uprise of digital, he once stated that “the internet’s completely over,” meaning “over” for artists seeking fair compensation. He believed that each technological shift had only deepened the wound, as distributors grew more powerful while the artists’ worth increasingly shrank.
After his sudden passing in 2016, many who had just discovered or rediscovered his music were disappointed to learn that his music was not widely accessible; however, in 2017, the Prince Estate started rejoining many of the platforms on his behalf to coincide with a Grammy Awards tribute and to boost the revenue of his estate.
Other Aspects of his Legacy
Aside from his championed efforts in the copyright community, Prince’s legacy spanned even wider. He was considered an LGBTQ+ icon due to his progressive gender-fluid fashion sense and persona, as well as his sexually ambiguous messages in songs like “If I Was Your Girlfriend.”
Prince’s androgynous style has continued to be celebrated in the fashion community, with many referencing him as a “revolutionary style icon.” His outfits were bold and lavish that blended masculine and feminine ideals, often featuring ruffles, lace, and a paired heel. He was a trailblazer for the fashion and LGBTQ+ communities and still celebrated for his defiance of traditional, male norms.
Conclusion
In the 10 years since his passing, Prince’s legacy is still widely recognized and admired among the creative community. Beyond his timeless music, his efforts to protect copyright and original artistry continue to serve as a blueprint for artists seeking to maintain control of their personal narrative.
After observing the fall of physical music and the rise of Napster, and later streaming services, Prince became increasingly opposed to modern distribution systems, deeming them exploitative. He was infamous in the music community for stretching to unseen lengths to protect his art. From making his own music widely inaccessible to even changing his name, Prince took relentless action against those who attempted to steal from him.
Prince’s prolonged endeavors and deserved triumphs have made him a champion in the copyright community. While his physical life on earth is over, his legacy and purpose are still celebrated everyday by not only those who listen to his music, but by those who identify with him to encourage themselves to fight the bigger fight against infringers. As the world remembers and honors Prince and his legacy, it is vital to continue his fight to protect artists. While factors such as streaming services and generative AI grow stronger, a question to ask yourself in these evolving times is, “What would Prince do?”
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