How Prince Made $10 Million from One Album With No Label!

How Prince's Crystal Ball album grossed over $10 million in direct-to-fan sales.

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It's been 3 years since Prince passed away from an apparent prescription drug overdose. As a major fan of Prince, I was inspired to scour through the web for interviews of one of my personal heroes. In my search, I stumbled on an hour-long interview given to Tavis Smiley during the time when Prince had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, and was mostly known as “The Artist”. I had seen portions of this interview previously, but never in its entirety.

The interview is an important one because Prince is very candid about his views toward the business model of the traditional music industry, the importance of artists owning their masters, and his pioneering vision for independence. In one segment of the interview, he is asked about his declining record sales since leaving the Warner Brothers label, to which he responded “I sold 200,000 copies of Crystal Ball at $50.00 a pop. You can do the math on that.” Of course, I did the math, and if Prince was telling the truth, that’s a whopping ten million dollars! So, I decided to investigate the claim.

Crystal Ball was a 3CD box set released in 1998, and his first fully independent release since leaving Warner Bros (his previous effort, Emancipation, was distributed by EMI). The album was initially only available by phone order, and the original set contained 5 discs (including 2 bonus discs: an album called The Truth and an instrumental album by the NPG Orchestra called Kamasutra). In addition to direct phone order, the album was distributed to select retail stores after 2 months. As for Prince’s claim of selling 200,000 copies, research suggests he is not far off. Publicly available Nielsen Soundscan reports show that Crystal Ball sold at least 113,000 copies. Soundscan reports did not always account for international sales, and many direct-to-consumer sales (like Prince’s phone order system) also routinely went unreported. Given these facts and Prince’s determined stance against traditional industry norms, it is well within reason that he sold the 200,000 stated copies, bringing in gross revenues of about $10 Million.

While Prince was already a well established global icon in 1998, it is important to note that he accomplished this feat well before the days of iTunes and the digital revolution (though he clearly saw it coming). If Prince was able to do this back then, independent artists certainly have the ability to do the same now. We’ve seen it recently with artists like Nipsey Hussle, who sold 1000 copies of a limited edition mixtape for a whopping $100 each in 2013. The moral of the story is that when you control the rights to your music, it only takes a little creativity to make a huge impact on the world, and also on your bank account.

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[ivandesantis]

Best line I ever heard Prince say about his recordings was : If you don't own your masters then the masters own you.

[sherrychristy]

There was nothing average about Prince. He was truly magical, I don't think he was even from this world. He was music in human form.

[genigeni]

I realised very late in my life that Prince was a one off. He was a man of many talents.

[genigeni]

I did not understand what he all about? Now I do seeing all these artists bought and sold! He was fighting the establishment!

[noneya]

Prince was the first to create buying albums on line and streaming didn't get any credit for it. it wasn't going fast enough for him that's why he ditched it and said the internet is dead. He was way ahead of his time first to create emojis too in a sense 👁️💜U . He was brilliant on so many different levels

[blackurustrikes]

I have PROFESSIONAL experience with how frequently SoundScan UNDER reports record sales. SoundScan only tracks American and Canadian record sales. And an artist of Prince's caliber would easily and often achieve combined record sales in Europe, Asia, Africa equal to or greater than those in North America.

So, yes, if SoundScan reported +113, 000 records sold, Prince's total worldwide sales units very likely exceeded 200, 000.

[lykedady]

Actually Prince was a huge star for 20 years before 1998's Crystal Ball album. Debut album was in 1978.

[genigeni]

Not only he was musically talented. He was a business man.

[sachaarthurton]

Ownership is the key to everything not just in music any business ownership is what You will see you will have the fruits of your labor

[FuelFireband]

Thanks so much man Prince is a Legend not only was he a gifted musician, but he knew the music business and learnt as much as he could. I am the lead vocalist and Manager of my original hard rock band and I am learning as much as I can about the business aspect of music.

[federal]

Prince sold CDs only at the concert if you attended for one of those albums. Buy a ticket and it came with a CD. I don't believe they were to be bought at a random store either. He did do a deal with Target though.

[frankiehalls]

Dont know who you are. But am a 70 year old AFRO TRINIDAIAN retired gramps.I love and am proud of our Afro centered musical contributions to the world.And i will never give up on it. First time 'ave tuned in to you.What youre doing is absolutely necessary and amazing. Your flow and easily accessable approach in desseminating this "knowledge" is so so beautifully liberating and revolutionary. Keep doing it and never give up on the FUNK.Your presentation is extremely motivating thanks.

[vincelfk]

The number was 1-800-New-Funk with a compilation previously released of the same name, that also sold other exclusive Prince merch. Once he reached a certain amount of orders he also had an exclusive deal with Best Buy that carried a four CD version of the set. The three Crystal Ball albums + the all acoustic album The Truth. The 800 New Funk version of Crystals Ball which was also sold on his website at the time also came with the kamasutra disc which was an all instrumental ballot inspired by Mayte's dancing. This was the first album by an artist sold exclusively on the internet. o(+>

[sirisongbird]

Unfortunately, there's nothing to learn here except these devils killed him for his efforts. LET'S CHANGE THAT😡😡😡

[theteleisewilliamsexperience]

Crystal Ball came out in 1997 New Power Soul was 1998. Beyonce wouldn't make as much money because she would have 2 pay writers, producers, session musicians, etc

[knnthinatl]

I ordered it online. He also created the mold selling online. He won a Webby.

[INCHCRUSHER]

That and buying his catalog marked his ass for death. What he did with Crystal ball was basically destroy the record companies. Funny how it was named Crystal Ball.

[JJDPROMEDIAPRODUCTION]

I think Prince made more on the Musicology project. here he sold the CD with the purchase of a ticket on the tour.

[jasonh]

Thank you for this video. Huge Prince fan.

[JOHNKOOL]

Wilfred Bony out here making music vids on YT, I respec it