Prince Kaybee admits he doesn’t own his masters, but sees no problem with it

After an almost year long debate, club DJ and music producer Prince Kaybee has closed the topic with sentiment that “owning your masters is not always an advantage”. 

The club DJ's views were brought back in the spotlight after singer Tshego alleged he didn't get any royalties for some of his songs that he has masters to and that were recorded under Cassper's label, Family Tree.

Taking a seat at the table of many social media users who joined the conversation, Kaybee revealed how owning your masters was not really the best option if you do not know how to profit off them.

In a thread he shared on Twitter, Kaybee stated owning and profiting off of masters only worked for a few artists and not everyone would be lucky to make money from them.

“Let me start off by saying: I do not own my masters,” he said.

“There is compromises in every business and gents sometimes want to have their cake and eat it by owning masters and keeping sales, but it works for a selected few.”

He added how from his experience, “art was not meant to be kept by one individual” but was made for a society to consume and its wealth to be shared saying that as a creator, one can't “own its full value at all times”.  

The Fetch Your Life hitmaker also advised how nice it sounds being “independent artist” but the harsh realities thereof aren't as simple as many may think.

“Sometimes independence sounds nice 'cause of the hype, but very few artist are ready to bear with the realities of being an indie.”

This is not the first time the DJ has used his platform to educate people on the masters debate.

Earlier this year, he and “arch-nemesis” DJ Maphorisa once got into a spicy twar after Lawd Porry ousted Kaybee, Lady Zamar and Mafikizolo for not owning their masters.

Maphorisa did so as his bid to “educate” the industry on the importance of owning the master recording and rights of your work as an artist, saying he and his artists own theirs fully.

While Kaybee didn't welcome Maphorisa's advice, he hit back with a list of businesses that he owned and alluded that the Scorpion King could've made his point without dropping any names.

Kaybee told TshisaLIVE that he decided to respond to Maphorisa because he needed to be informed of the other income streams he had.

While not owning the master rights to one's music can be a touchy subject for many artists, Kaybee explained that he had no grudge against Maphorisa and would still definitely greet him if he bumped into him in public.