Universal Music pushes to have Prince deal cancelled

Universal Music Group this week amped up its request that its $31 million rights deal struck this January with Prince’s estate be declared void, and the money returned.

The alternative, its lawyers told Minneapolis judge Kevin Eide, would be lawsuits that would keep hundreds of the late superstar’s tapes locked in his vaults at his Paisley Park complex in Minneapolis. 

Lawyers for Prince’s current estate administrators, Comerica Bank & Trust, made the same request from Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide. 

Many of the court filings relevant to the case are confidential. But essentially, the case is built around the fact that Prince’s former administrators allegedly misrepresented the truth when they offered Universal exclusive rights to vaulted Prince music made when he was signed to Warner Bros.

The agreement stipulated that Universal Music would acquire exclusive licensing rights to 25 of Prince’s albums as well as much of his famous private archive. 

It would also get US rights to “certain renowned albums” released between 1979-1996, during his golden period when he ruled the global charts. 

Universal was told that some of the material could be released as early as 2018.

It turned out that much of the material would not be available as early, and what Universal paid for was not as wide-ranging as it thought.

By May, Universal had wanted out of the deal. Warner Bros has also threatened to sue over any infringement. 

Universal Music’s attorneys didn’t get to see Prince’s earlier contract with Warner Bros until this month.

The company told Eidie that the deal was complex and ambiguous, and hence it would be difficult for both sets of lawyers to work out where the Warner Bros and Universal contracts overlapped.

The best course of action, it suggested, was to tear up the Universal deal.

But some of Prince’s heirs, who have been granted inheritance from his estimated $200 million, insist that there is no overlapping.