Prince's Music Vault Being Shopped For $35 M; Purple Rain Deluxe Edition Coming Next Year
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Prince’s much-vaunted vault of unreleased music is being shopped for as much as $35 million by estate advisers Charles Koppelman and L. Londell McMillan, a source close to the situation tells Billboard. All three major labels are said to be in talks for rights to the music, the source said.
The source also said that a deluxe edition of Purple Rain -- which was announced as part of the artist’s 2014 deal with Warner Bros. but has not yet materialized -- will likely be released in the coming months, possibly as soon as early 2017. As Billboard previously reported, a new greatest-hits collection is expected to be released later this year.
Reps for Koppelman, McMillan and Warner Bros. either declined comment or could not be reached for comment, although McMillan refuted this report on Twitter Wednesday night, calling it "absurd" and adding, "There are so many false rumors. The devil be up all night! BUSY! Lol."
What exactly is in Prince's studio vault -- which contains thousands of hours of music recorded over four decades -- is unclear, as the estate is still sorting through the artist's assets and determining who will control the estate; sources say the estate has not yet begun cataloging the music in the vault. Ownership of certain unreleased material also remains unclear, as Prince was under contract to Warner Bros. from 1977 until the mid-1990s and subsequently cut one-off or short-term deals with every major label group (including Universal’s Republic, Sony’s Columbia, Epic and Arista, and EMI) and several indies as well as streaming services over the years.
When Prince’s 2014 deal with Warner Bros. was announced, the wording of the press release suggested that the artist at least verbally agreed to issue upgraded versions of his Warner Bros.-era albums and mine his vault for previously unreleased material, beginning with a Purple Rain deluxe edition. (Several contemporaneous tracks were released as B-sides and many more have appeared on bootlegs, and several full concerts from the Purple Rain era were professionally recorded, including a March 1985 show that was released on the now out-of-print home video Prince and the Revolution: Live.) But when asked about the status of the Purple Rain reissue shortly after Prince’s death, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Cameron Strang told Billboard, "I definitely discussed it with Prince. At times he toyed with doing something with it and maybe worked on it, but he considered Purple Rain a masterpiece, and I think he liked it the way it was."
Prince apparently did not leave a will, which has made the management of the estate deeply complicated.
In June, Koppelman (who orchestrated Prince’s first post-Warner Bros. deal, with EMI) and attorney McMillan (who represented the artist several times over the years) were appointed musical advisers to Bremer Trust, the temporary administrator of the Prince estate. The announcement came just days after a Minnesota state judge granted Bremer limited authority to hire entertainment industry experts to help manage the music holdings. The two have been reviewing a large number of opportunities from major labels, major publishers and performance rights organizations, sources say.
Since his death on April 21, Prince has sold 1.95 million albums and 4.9 million song downloads in the U.S. through the week ending Oct. 6, according to Nielsen Music.
The case determining which of Prince’s family members will be officially declared heirs is ongoing. His sister Tyka and five half-siblings are likely to be declared the rightful heirs, but a judge is still deciding whether a purported niece and grand-niece and nephew should count as well.
The complexity around the estate reached another level last week when Prince’s Paisley Park studio complex in Chanhassen, Minn., opened to the public for just three days after a full opening had been announced. A wrench was thrown into the process just days before the opening when the city council voted against a rezoning request that would allow Prince’s estate to operate as a museum.
Comments
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? is worth no less than a hunnid mill...
plus they need to remaster all his late 70's albums, all the way to Love Symbol -
if i had 35 mil lying around, that would be the easiest 35 mil spent ever. -
Don't get me wrong 35 is alottttt of money but for Princes music that seems low and disrespectful
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That's just the sticker price... it'll actually go for over 100m to the highest bidder
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I think we should just let these legends and their music rest when they pass on. Especially for a guy like Prince who was a control freak with his music.
Unless he gave specific approval of some of the songs in the vault. We should be happy with the music Prince put out when he was here.
I don't wanna see him done like they did Pac, Big and MJ. -
His fam probably have no clue what to do with them tapes and just following the advice given to get a check.
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I think there maybe one actual finished album he intended for release stashed in there, but I don't know about the rest.
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$35 million, that's a hella low number considering that Martin Shkreli paid $2 million for just ONE Wu Tang album. We're talking about music that was made when Prince was in his prime, ? that was on probably on par with 1999, Purple Rain, Parade, and Sign O' the Times. Songs that probably weren't released because Prince didn't like the way the high hat sounded on a particular sound or songs that weren't released because technology hadn't advance to that point.
I'm interested in hearing the music, but the fact remains since Prince the Gawd isn't here we might be hearing the music as he truly intended the ? to be heard. I understand that dude did entire albums with videos, but there's a reason as to why he didn't release the ? . Maybe he didn't like the final mix of the ? . Just as long as Prince's local Kingdom Hall gets some of those ends, it's cool. I'm also interested in seeing this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK6Gb8RY2NY
(10-min vers) Kevin Smith on Unreleased Prince documentary shot at Paisley Park -
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dalyricalbandit wrote: »Don't get me wrong 35 is alottttt of money but for Princes music that seems low and disrespectful
Exactly. -
They cant sell this for too much though. Whichever music publisher ends up buying it is going to need to spend a bunch of money in mixing, mastering, editing, advertising, etc.
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yall do know that ? is dead right?
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They cant sell this for too much though. Whichever music publisher ends up buying it is going to need to spend a bunch of money in mixing, mastering, editing, advertising, etc.
I think a lot of this has already been done, well except for the promos. I think the dude in the above video said that a lot of his stuff was ready to go, but he just put it in the vault. -
His dopefiend ass sister is lowballing, 35,000,000 will buy a whole lot of snorter
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Cacs gona scoop that up
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As Clay Davis would say "Shiiiittttt!" I wish I had the dough. I buy the entire ? vault and be on some straight Martin Shkreli ? . Straight highsidin' on cats bumpin' dope ass unreleased Prince songs circa '83, '84, '85, 86, 87, 88. I'd even let the IC get an exclusive EP of the songs with videos on the condition I get ménage action with Pico and Charlotte, with a sloppy ? from Katie that includes her takin' a mean nut to the face like Carmen Hayes did in ? 'en Mo' ? .
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This can't be real man
Prince's catalogue is worth way more and if it were being shopped it'd be fetching 9 figures, because that includes the masters and everything else. his catalogue stretches over 30 years. No way his shirt worth what maybe Lil Wayne or 50 Cent's catalogues worth so I'm calling ducktales on this one....
It's not the catalog dude, that's the material in the Prince vault that supposedly contains 80 - 100 years worth of music, videos, concert footage, demos, and as Kevin Smith said, documentaries. -
35mil?? thats it @D0wn hahahaha ? all this does is confirm what iv been saying..
outside of his handful of hits 85% of the ? he made was ? ..
"he got 1000 songs we aint even heard yet" ? we aint even trying to hear that ? !!! hahahahaha
the rights to one of Mike's lesser albums is worth more than this ? ! hahahaha
i do love me some "Adore" tho!!? -
BOSSExcellence wrote: »35mil?? thats it @D0wn hahahaha ? all this does is confirm what iv been saying..
outside of his handful of hits 85% of the ? he made was ? ..
"he got 1000 songs we aint even heard yet" ? we aint even trying to hear that ? !!! hahahahaha
the rights to one of Mike's lesser albums is worth more than this ? ! hahahaha
i do love me some "Adore" tho!!?
If Price Music ain't 100 million or more , it's duck tales. His esstate will set the record straight, and denounce the shenanigans by next week.
Even Prince Non Hits was Hits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaWpMLxUAA8
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? negotiating like Kramer and a Jackie Chiles against the coffee company
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35 mil just sound like the opening bid to me...
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They pimpin his ? out so bad.
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I hope they put "Electric Intercourse" on that PR deluxe edition
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So Umar was right.
Damn... -
Lol considering that a lot of the material is unreleased and unheard, 35 mill is a decent start. Just because prince is a legendary artist doesn't mean everything he recorded was good.