The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#2For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise.
After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to the new, unpronounceable name. Warner executives likely were not too happy about that, but couldn't do anything about it.
In 2000, after the contract with Warner expired, Prince went back to using his old name.
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#3For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
I knew about the name change but not the reason. I had always chalked it up to hubris on his part. Thanks :)
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#4For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
Is the part about him legally changing his name really true? All the sources say so, but surely there are laws and regulations around name changes in the US. I have a hard time imagining the IRS having him down as the symbol.
Also, changing your name can't be a legal way of getting out of contracts, can it? If it is, then someone should let Ke$ha know...
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#5Ha! You type "P" for the symbol-- so he doesn't have his own Unicode codepoint?
The font may have an ambiguous license, but it appears that it was meant to be widely distributed to promote Prince. Is it available anywhere? I could make my own, but that wouldn't be the same.
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#6For those who don't know, Prince legally changed his name to a made-up unpronounceable symbol in the early 90's to sidestep restrictions in the contract he had signed with his record company, Warner, which at the time had the rights to use the name "Prince" for music and merchandise. After the legal name change, news outlets started calling him "the artist formerly known as Prince." Meanwhile, Warner had no rights to…
Is the part about him legally changing his name really true? All the sources say so, but surely there are laws and regulations around name changes in the US. I have a hard time imagining the IRS having him down as the symbol. Also, changing your name can't be a legal way of getting out of contracts, can it? If it is, then someone should let Ke$ha know...
I've heard several different reasonings over the years. I don't think it actual got him out of a contract but it allowed him to screw the record company. His new 'name' was difficult to market and they had the rights to the 'Prince' name, not his new one, so any new merchandise they created would not be matching the name he was now marketing himself under. Fans are going to listen to him and not the record company. So all in all he was just screwing them out of money and making their job difficult but it didn't actually end any contract.
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#7He also performed with "Slave" painted across his face/chest. He REALLY didn't like his treatment by the studio.
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#8Ha! You type "P" for the symbol-- so he doesn't have his own Unicode codepoint? The font may have an ambiguous license, but it appears that it was meant to be widely distributed to promote Prince. Is it available anywhere? I could make my own, but that wouldn't be the same.
Here you go - converted to TTF and downloadable:
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/prince-font-install-love-...
(straight to dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvj2ss4jfymvir1/AAD_x2sTAfJM8xsgF...)
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#9Ha! You type "P" for the symbol-- so he doesn't have his own Unicode codepoint? The font may have an ambiguous license, but it appears that it was meant to be widely distributed to promote Prince. Is it available anywhere? I could make my own, but that wouldn't be the same.
Yea I found a article about the font and how they recovered the original.
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/prince-font-install-love-...
Re: The Legend of Prince’s Special Custom-Font Symbol Floppy Disks
#10After all, could any other artist convince a major music publication to integrate a custom font?
“How many people can just say ‘Hey, I’m changing my name to this symbol so can you use it from now on?’ and everyone’s like ‘Alright. Okay. No questions asked. You’re Prince! We’ll do it!’ It was kind of funny to me.”
Then again, music journalism is probably a business where they are accustomed to seeing all kinds of diva behavior.