Mariah and Prince figure it out
Not everyone is impressed with Mariah Carey's record-breaking album deal. Especially not Prince. In April, Carey signed with Virgin Records for five albums at $23.5 million per album - setting a new standard.
"Prince called me... and said, 'You think you got a good deal, right?'" Carey tells Movieline in August. "And then he starts to say how they sell the record for $18.99 and most artists make less than a dollar on each CD. So he says, 'C'mon, do the math with me.' I said, 'Prince, I failed math before [his 1984 album] 'Purple Rain' came out.'"
In the mid-1990s, Prince battled with his record company, Warner Brothers, over artistic control and album content before disassociating himself from the label. So he was only too happy to help Carey with the calculations.
"'OK, if you sell 10 million records, that's $100 million for them, and if every album you've ever done has sold eight million, what do you think you made for these people anyway?'" Carey recalled Prince telling her. "I said, 'Well, [Virgin] is such a great company.' And he says, 'That's like the old slave mentality, saying my new master is better than my old master.' Talk about taking the wind out of my sails," said Carey.
But instead of getting angry at Prince, Carey said she was glad he was there to push her. "I need to keep my eye on things," she said, "because I've been frigging taken advantage of like you wouldn't believe." (New York Daily News Online)
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