WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Beyond his far-reaching influence on the pop landscape, Prince leaves a legacy as the first star to take on the music industry in a fight for creative – and financial – freedom.

“Record contracts are just like – I’m gonna say the word – slavery,” Prince, who died at the age of 57 on Thursday, told US public radioNPR in an interview.

The superstar’s harsh words – and loaded gesture coming from an African American – sum up his contempt for record labels and his fight for artists’ rights.

“I would tell any young artist… don’t sign,” he added.

It’s with Warner that Prince’s crossing of swords was most acrimonious, even driving him to renounce his own stage name for several years in the 1990s.

That same label had signed the precocious Kid from Minneapolis in 1977, when he was just 18 years old, keeping him on for the five years it took to bring out his first global success, “1999”.

It was also Warner that for 12 years, from 1985 to 1992, helped Prince financially to set up his own label, Paisley Park Records, which signed on young talents such as percussionist Sheila E and former greats such as George Clinton, principal architect of P-Funk, and the singer Mavis Staples.

Breaking point

By the turn of the 1990s, however, the relationship had soured. The artist wanted to be able to release more music, more often — and felt reined in by a label reluctant to flood the market.

The falling-out edged closer in 1992 – the year Prince signed a new US$100 million contract for six albums.

It was billed at the time as the most lucrative ever signed, far ahead of those with superstars Michael Jackson (US$50 million) and Madonna (US$60 million).

But the price to pay was high – with Warner granted ownership of the original master tapes for Prince’s entire catalogue stretching back to 1978.

The relationship declined rapidly from that point on.

In 1993, on his 35th birthday, Prince announced he was changing his name to an unpronounceable “love symbol” – leaving the media little choice but to describe him, awkwardly, as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”

In a further protest at the terms of his contract, Prince performed on stage with the word “slave” on his cheek.

Prince’s rebellion caused him some harm on the business front, but most of his fans stayed faithful. In 1993, all 72,000 tickets for his concert at London’s Wembley Stadium sold out in less than an hour.

Keen to ensure its return on investment, Warner then committed what Prince viewed as an act of treason by putting out a compilation of his best songs.

Internet ‘completely over’

At the end of 1995, Prince decided there was no going back.

“Over the course of their nearly two-decade-long relationship, the artist and WBR have developed irreconcilable differences,” he said in a statement.

It’s with a new label, NPG Records, that Prince went forward, focusing on concert ticket receipts, signing occasional contracts with big labels but also using the internet to get his work directly to the public.

But Prince’s love story with the web was short-lived.

The artist battled in recent years for videos of his performances to be taken off

YouTube to protect his rights.

In particular, he denounced the rise of streaming sites, criticising the low percentage returns provided to artists by the likes of

iTunes orSpotify.

In 2010, he declared that “the internet is completely over”.

“What I meant was that the internet was over for anyone who wants to get paid,” he told the

Guardian several years later.

“And I was right about that.”