The future owner of the 31-song album, which the nine members of the group worked in secret for six years, can't reproduce it for sale, but is allowed to bring it on a tour around the world.
- Mar 4, 2015
AceShowbiz - Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind album "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" may be released commercially, but only 88 years after it's sold. The only copy of the album, which is currently being stored in a vault in Morocco, is going to be auctioned off via the website Paddle8. Whoever purchases the album won't be able to reproduce it for sale due to copyright law.
After 88 years, the owner is free to do whatever he or she pleases with the album. They may release it commercially or keep it to him or herself forever. While buyer isn't allowed to sell copies of the project, he or she can still make money off it by bringing it around the world on a "tour" as originally planned by the Wu-Tang rappers.
"Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" took around six years to finish. It has 31 tracks recorded by the nine members of Wu-Tang Clan. There will also be songs featuring Cher, Carice Van Houten and players from soccer club FC Barcelona. Someone last year expressed desire to buy the record for $5 million.
The rap collective has explained the restriction to commercially release the album. "When you buy a painting or a sculpture, you're buying that piece rather than the right to replicate it," said RZA. "Owning a Picasso doesn't mean you can sell prints or reproductions, but that you're the sole owner of a unique original. And that's what 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin' is. It's a unique original rather than a master copy of an album."
Producer Cilvaringz added, "We felt that retail commercialization and mass replication would dilute the status of the album as a one-off work of art and compromise the integrity of our statement."
