PRINCE ESTATE: “NO
FURTHER COMMENT”

The caretakers of the Prince Estate—presumably inundated with media inquiries in the wake of The Wall Street Journal and Variety’s 4/14 reports alleging that UMG may decide to ask the estate to refund the entire $30m it paid to secure the rights to the artist’s unreleased recordings—issued a statement Monday. The primary intent of the statement would appear to be to discourage the media from continuing to question the estate about specifics regarding the material UMG is actually getting for that $30m, while also making clear that the current team had nothing to do with this or any deal involving the rights to Prince recordings.

What follows is the full text of the statement:

"The Prince Estate is currently focusing on exciting new opportunities in all areas of entertainment and intellectual property, and looks forward to further preserving Prince's rich cultural legacy. With respect to Prince's recorded music rights, the Estate has no further comment regarding inquiries relating to the contractual arrangements governing those rights. While the existing recorded music rights agreements were not overseen, negotiated or consummated by the Estate's current team (which includes personal representative Comerica Bank & Trust N.A., Entertainment Advisor Troy Carter, entertainment attorney Jason Boyarski [pictured] of Boyarski Fritz LLP, and the Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. that serves as general counsel to the Estate), the team is nonetheless in the process of assessing all rights relating to Prince's recorded music and continues to be dedicated to cultivating, maximizing and protecting all of the Estate's intellectual property rights."