margi said:

Germanegro said:

Given legal freedom to do so and private funds to execute, the heirs could take the many recordings that Prince has left in his storied vault, once preserved and indexed, and:

>

1) Manage their own distribution under NPG Records via their own enterprise--such as Sananda Maitreya does with his Treehouse Records, or Prince himself had done with the NPG Music Club.

>

2) Do a wholesale distribution to 3rd parties for P2P sales as Prince had experimented with his last Hit n' Run collectioins.

>

3) Obtain limited contracts for distribution rights to indie labels to collaborate on product development and sales of product.

>

Any of these options could work, given a solid business plan and legal clearances.

>

They could go the route of many other artists and estates (M. Jackson, Dylan, Elvis, etc.) and work out a mega-deal with a major label to handle this kind of stuff.

>

The wait continues. The dealings move along at a pace that it will. If the estate's critical expenses are getting paid, I--as a fan-- cannot be stressed. I for one would be willing to support efforts through crowdfunding if it would come to that--like some fans around here who talk about doing what they could to get their hands on Prince stuff.

I can't understand why it is so hard to fathom that Prince's music does not and never will belong to the family. Prince set up a LLC in January 2014 to hold his music released and unreleased ( the vault) with a charter to produce income from such assets and distribute proceeds to the beneficiaries of the LLC. No taxes are attracted to the LLC and the beneficiaries are not made public. Their may be trusts also never to be made public. He knew a Will was pointless as it would be contested as his Dad's will was. He knew his family. The LLC may never have been made public but the Court got involved. The beneficiaries may be his charities. I find it somehow denegrating to Prince and his legacy that the family are suddenly recording artists. Prince didn't have them recording in PP.

If this were true then how did the UMG deal go ahead? Sure, it was a dog's dinner of deal but if his music, released and unreleased, is under lock and key with this LCC then the estate wouldnt have been able to get such a deal off the ground in the first place.

Personally I think the music (outside of any WB and Tidal contracts) is available to the estate, and consequently the family when all this is over. How much there is beyond those contracts is anyones's guess, but I believe the Tidal deal was only a 5 year deal anyway (if it even exists). If there is an LCC involved it may complicate things but it certainly hasn't stopped the estate from trying to sell of the distribution or publishing rights (or whatever the fuck that UMG deal was) of his post WB music.

margi said:

Germanegro said:

Given legal freedom to do so and private funds to execute, the heirs could take the many recordings that Prince has left in his storied vault, once preserved and indexed, and:

>

1) Manage their own distribution under NPG Records via their own enterprise--such as Sananda Maitreya does with his Treehouse Records, or Prince himself had done with the NPG Music Club.

>

2) Do a wholesale distribution to 3rd parties for P2P sales as Prince had experimented with his last Hit n' Run collectioins.

>

3) Obtain limited contracts for distribution rights to indie labels to collaborate on product development and sales of product.

>

Any of these options could work, given a solid business plan and legal clearances.

>

They could go the route of many other artists and estates (M. Jackson, Dylan, Elvis, etc.) and work out a mega-deal with a major label to handle this kind of stuff.

>

The wait continues. The dealings move along at a pace that it will. If the estate's critical expenses are getting paid, I--as a fan-- cannot be stressed. I for one would be willing to support efforts through crowdfunding if it would come to that--like some fans around here who talk about doing what they could to get their hands on Prince stuff.

I can't understand why it is so hard to fathom that Prince's music does not and never will belong to the family. Prince set up a LLC in January 2014 to hold his music released and unreleased ( the vault) with a charter to produce income from such assets and distribute proceeds to the beneficiaries of the LLC. No taxes are attracted to the LLC and the beneficiaries are not made public. Their may be trusts also never to be made public. He knew a Will was pointless as it would be contested as his Dad's will was. He knew his family. The LLC may never have been made public but the Court got involved. The beneficiaries may be his charities. I find it somehow denegrating to Prince and his legacy that the family are suddenly recording artists. Prince didn't have them recording in PP.

If this were true then how did the UMG deal go ahead? Sure, it was a dog's dinner of deal but if his music, released and unreleased, is under lock and key with this LCC then the estate wouldnt have been able to get such a deal off the ground in the first place.

Personally I think the music (outside of any WB and Tidal contracts) is available to the estate, and consequently the family when all this is over. How much there is beyond those contracts is anyones's guess, but I believe the Tidal deal was only a 5 year deal anyway (if it even exists). If there is an LCC involved it may complicate things but it certainly hasn't stopped the estate from trying to sell of the distribution or publishing rights (or whatever the fuck that UMG deal was) of his post WB music.

Rebeljuice said:

So Prince has his music tied up in an LLC that nobody knows who oversees it or who the proceeds are distributed to? So he left Paisley Park and all the other property he owns in a state where declared heirs would inherit it but the music is in some place that nobody can touch except these secret beneficiaries whom no one knows who they are? This makes absolultely no sense to me.

rogifan said:

Rebeljuice said:

If this were true then how did the UMG deal go ahead? Sure, it was a dog's dinner of deal but if his music, released and unreleased, is under lock and key with this LCC then the estate wouldnt have been able to get such a deal off the ground in the first place.

Personally I think the music (outside of any WB and Tidal contracts) is available to the estate, and consequently the family when all this is over. How much there is beyond those contracts is anyones's guess, but I believe the Tidal deal was only a 5 year deal anyway (if it even exists). If there is an LCC involved it may complicate things but it certainly hasn't stopped the estate from trying to sell of the distribution or publishing rights (or whatever the fuck that UMG deal was) of his post WB music.

So Prince has his music tied up in an LLC that nobody knows who oversees it or who the proceeds are distributed to? So he left Paisley Park and all the other property he owns in a state where declared heirs would inherit it but the music is in some place that nobody can touch except these secret beneficiaries whom no one knows who they are? This makes absolultely no sense to me.

It makes no sense because it is not true.

rogifan said:

Rebeljuice said:

If this were true then how did the UMG deal go ahead? Sure, it was a dog's dinner of deal but if his music, released and unreleased, is under lock and key with this LCC then the estate wouldnt have been able to get such a deal off the ground in the first place.

Personally I think the music (outside of any WB and Tidal contracts) is available to the estate, and consequently the family when all this is over. How much there is beyond those contracts is anyones's guess, but I believe the Tidal deal was only a 5 year deal anyway (if it even exists). If there is an LCC involved it may complicate things but it certainly hasn't stopped the estate from trying to sell of the distribution or publishing rights (or whatever the fuck that UMG deal was) of his post WB music.

So Prince has his music tied up in an LLC that nobody knows who oversees it or who the proceeds are distributed to? So he left Paisley Park and all the other property he owns in a state where declared heirs would inherit it but the music is in some place that nobody can touch except these secret beneficiaries whom no one knows who they are? This makes absolultely no sense to me.

Where are you getting that know one is overseeing it. It is being overseen by Comerica. The LLC keeps the publishing out of probate but it is still an assest of the estate.

I just think it is strange to take an LLC and go back to UMG and have them be the admin. When Comerica could have hired someone to oversee it and continued to handle the admin in house.

To me they are giving money away to UMG who are doing nothing about copyright infringement because now the Estate of PRN is doing take down notices instead of UMG.

We also have no visabliity of the operating argreement for the LLC.

Rebeljuice said:

margi said:

Germanegro said: I can't understand why it is so hard to fathom that Prince's music does not and never will belong to the family. Prince set up a LLC in January 2014 to hold his music released and unreleased ( the vault) with a charter to produce income from such assets and distribute proceeds to the beneficiaries of the LLC. No taxes are attracted to the LLC and the beneficiaries are not made public. Their may be trusts also never to be made public. He knew a Will was pointless as it would be contested as his Dad's will was. He knew his family. The LLC may never have been made public but the Court got involved. The beneficiaries may be his charities. I find it somehow denegrating to Prince and his legacy that the family are suddenly recording artists. Prince didn't have them recording in PP.

If this were true then how did the UMG deal go ahead? Sure, it was a dog's dinner of deal but if his music, released and unreleased, is under lock and key with this LCC then the estate wouldnt have been able to get such a deal off the ground in the first place.

Personally I think the music (outside of any WB and Tidal contracts) is available to the estate, and consequently the family when all this is over. How much there is beyond those contracts is anyones's guess, but I believe the Tidal deal was only a 5 year deal anyway (if it even exists). If there is an LCC involved it may complicate things but it certainly hasn't stopped the estate from trying to sell of the distribution or publishing rights (or whatever the fuck that UMG deal was) of his post WB music.

The LLC is not a part of the probate proceedings so the estate was able to transfer the adminstrtion duties to UMG. UMG does not own the publishing but we will see what happens after the family completly takes over.

If the LLC was never created whoever was admin when P died would still be doing or the estate would have been able to find someone else. They should have continued to run it in house.