PRINCE SOAP OPERA'S NEXT SCENE

A judge anticipates receiving word from Universal Music this week regarding Prince’s contract with Warner Bros. and whether Universal would take steps to void its $31m deal, The New York Times reported.

Kevin W. Eide of Carver County District Court in Chaska, Minn., recently provided the Warner contract for the perusal of Universal’s lawyers. Neither Warner nor Universal have commented on the situation.

Experts who spoke with the Times’ Ben Sisario see nothing but harm coming to the estate and future deals becoming even more complicated.

“TV and film companies are going to be a little bit leery about acquiring those rights,” said lawyer Steve Winogradsky, an expert in licensing music for television and films, “unless they get very, very good representations from the licensing parties that they have all the rights and will indemnify them.”

Rarely do major deals get canceled, but this saga has been filled with allegations of mismanagement and deception on the part of estate representatives.

“It’s no surprise they might want to walk away,” said Larry Miller, the director of the music business program at the Steinhardt School at New York University. “There is a cloud over this set of rights. But clouds pass.”