In the world of music, there have been few artists as prolific and successful as the late Prince. Now, the general public is being given the rare to chance to co-own the very first single that Prince ever released, but it comes at a hefty price.
As the Star Tribune reports, Chris Moon, a former studio owner, is putting up the rights and co-ownership of Prince’s ‘Soft And Wet’ for sale on eBay, for the princely sum of US $490,000 (AUD $617,670). Oh, and free shipping too (unless you’re in Australia, where it’ll cost you $1).
Chris Moon formerly owned the Moon Sound Studio in Minneapolis where, in 1976, a young high school student began to change the course of music. With Prince composing music around the lyrics that Moon had written, the pair crafted a demo tape which eventually saw the musician signed to the Warner Bros record label. One of the songs on this demo was ‘Soft And Wet’, which would later be released as Prince’s first single.
“I wrote the lyrics and Prince wrote the music. When he was getting ready to release his first album with Warner Brothers, we signed a song royalty agreement in which we equally shared in the writing credits of the song,” explained Moon on his eBay post. “I got the writing royalties for the lyrics, he got the writing royalties for the music and ECNIRP took the publishing. He have been sharing in the royalties of that song over all these years … and still do.”
“I have owned ‘Soft And Wet’ since I wrote it, I have enjoyed hearing the song countless times over the years, been paid well and am proud of it,” Moon explained. “I would now like to see someone else enjoy owning it, it has achieved everything and more for me so I feel it is time to pass the torch to a Prince fan who will continue to cherish and enjoy owning it as much as I have.”
Of course, such a sale has obviously raised a few eyebrows, with the Star Tribune even tracking down Moon to confirm the authenticity of a sale such as this. “It’s very unusual, but it’s completely real,” Moon said. “Nobody has ever done anything like this before that I know of, so I understand why some people don’t believe it.”
However, as Moon says, the chances of you raking in the residuals from a sale like this are pretty small. After all, it only reached #92 on the US charts upon release, and as Moon says, it was MC Hammer that actually made him the most amount of money.
See, when MC Hammer released his 1990 album Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em (y’know, the one with ‘U Can’t Touch This’), it included a tune called ‘She’s Soft And Wet’, which heavily sampled Prince’s original.
“When it came out he sold 10,000,000 copies of that album which meant I sold 10,000,000 copies of ‘Soft & Wet’,” Moon revealed on eBay. “To date that MC Hammer album has now sold over 22 Million copies worldwide… and each time that album sells so does a copy of ‘Soft And Wet’.”
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be making a mint. “Anyone who buys this probably shouldn’t be doing it for financial purposes,” Moon admitted to the Star Tribune. “It’s more about owning one of the most unique collectibles ever related to Prince.”
So if you’ve happened to miss out on some of the more intriguing items that have gone under the hammer in recent times, including Prince’s handwritten lyrics to an unreleased song, or even Kurt Cobain’s Blockbuster video card, maybe now is the time to right those wrongs and start owning some of Prince’s famous songs?
Check out Prince’s ‘Soft And Wet’ before you make the decision to buy it:
