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Warner Bros. Discovery is negotiating to sell around half of the storied Warner studio’s film and TV music-publishing assets for approximately $500 million, three sources confirm to Variety. The news was first reported by Hits.

While it is unclear exactly which assets are on the table, one source says that the rights to “slightly less than half” of the catalog, with a price of around $500 million, are likely to go to a major label, with Sony said to be in the lead. The catalog is believed to include music from such films as Purple Rain, Evita, Sweeney Todd, Rent, several Batman films and many more titles, as well as songs included in films such as "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca — iconic titles to be sure, but again, it is unclear exactly which rights are in play. Top attorney Allen Grubman is said to be overseeing the deal for Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

However, some observers cast a skeptical eye on the deal, saying that many of the company’s assets are more than a half-century old and are “declining” in value and difficult to exploit. They are said to consist largely of film themes and cues — with comparatively few conventional songs — that would seem to have little familiarity or resonance in the present or future. The catalog is currently under a multi-year administration deal with Universal Music Publishing.

Reps for Warner Discovery, Sony and Universal either declined or did not respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

I guess this is only publishing?

Am3121 said:

If the deal can put purple rain in theatres for the 40th anniversary next year and give us a 4k release with deleted scenes then I am all for this deal to happen

All it takes is one wascally gen-z'er going to that theater re-release and tweeting some critical emoji toward the girl in the trash can scene or something else and POOF scrubbed from all media never to be mentioned again. Hope everybody kept their CDs.

FrankieCoco1 said:

I don’t know but this could mess up things with regards to a 40 year anniversary super super deluxe of Purple Rain, any Parade deluxe, plus’s Batman or Graffiti Bridge. They’ll be a lot of admin to untangle, which I’d imagine is difficult for the current Prince management group to get their heads around. May be it’ll be a good thing but time will tell.

I don't think this has any impact on whatever release if it's just a publishing deal.

WhisperingDandelions said:

Am3121 said:

If the deal can put purple rain in theatres for the 40th anniversary next year and give us a 4k release with deleted scenes then I am all for this deal to happen

All it takes is one wascally gen-z'er going to that theater re-release and tweeting some critical emoji toward the girl in the trash can scene or something else and POOF scrubbed from all media never to be mentioned again. Hope everybody kept their CDs.

Never gonna happen, but thanks for the laugh

JorisE73 said:

FrankieCoco1 said:

I don’t know but this could mess up things with regards to a 40 year anniversary super super deluxe of Purple Rain, any Parade deluxe, plus’s Batman or Graffiti Bridge. They’ll be a lot of admin to untangle, which I’d imagine is difficult for the current Prince management group to get their heads around. May be it’ll be a good thing but time will tell.

I don't think this has any impact on whatever release if it's just a publishing deal.

Exactly.

I think it's a publishing deal :

-

"The catalog is currently under a multi-year administration deal with Universal Music Publishing."

WhisperingDandelions said:

WhisperingDandelions said:

All it takes is one wascally gen-z'er going to that theater re-release and tweeting some critical emoji toward the girl in the trash can scene or something else and POOF scrubbed from all media never to be mentioned again. Hope everybody kept their CDs.

This is literally insane and if you believe this is how it works you are paranoid and/or way old and/or spend too much time at the house.

No hate Dandelions. I just think this is deluded. As with most "cancellations" something like that may be discussed by a fringe minority on twitter for a few days before going away cause no one gives a shit, but nothing P did warrants any fear of him being erased from history and as far as I know even the really, really bad people who did really bad things and are now cancelled haven't been erased from history or "never mentioned again"

There's a lot, a whole lot, wrong with the way sensationalist news and social media handles these sorts of things, but what you're describing is abject fear mongering in a way that will never even come close to happening.

[Edited 6/24/23 19:44pm]

[Edited 6/24/23 19:48pm]

Am3121 said:

If the deal can put purple rain in theatres for the 40th anniversary next year and give us a 4k release with deleted scenes then I am all for this deal to happen

.

Which part of "music rights" do you find hard to understand?

bizzie said:

lustmealways said:

aiight, like I said, truly hope you are all 100% correct on this.

bozojones said:

drinking too much of the Fox News koolaid

I have no interest in politics, this was an odd aside.

I see what I see. People play favorites out there, and unfortunately Prince just isn't a favorite (or even barely known, for what we know him for anyway) outside Prince circles.

oh, and, one more emphasis:

lustmealways said:

as far as I know even the really, really bad people who did really bad things and are now cancelled haven't been erased from history or "never mentioned again"

No, that isn't my fear. I have the Prince I need if that hypothetical were to occur. It's not like R. Kelly where I forgot to save all his official YouTube music videos and now I can't because those actually were erased from history btw, though there's ofc low qual bootlegs out there, that would probably be our worse case scenario as far as the official oeuvre is concerned.

Purely selfish reason for my chicken little fear-mongering: we'd probably get less SDE's and Vault stuff if he were "cancelled", either just slightly/briefly or completely based on every org'ers own individual belief in "cancellation". That's all.

[Edited 6/25/23 11:34am]

WhisperingDandelions said: