Universal to manage Prince’s NPG catalogue, unreleased material

Universal Music Group has struck a licensing deal with Prince’s estate to manage the late superstar’s own label NPG’s catalogue, as well as a collection of unreleased material. The deal is effective immediately.

Reports were that Sony Music and Warner Music had also bid for the rights, with offers between US$40 million and US$50 million.

Now, this means that Prince’s music publishing (which gained administration rights last November), merchandising (through Bravado) and much of his recording comes under the Universal umbrella. Next year, Universal also gets the US rights to some of the Prince’s other records.

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of UMG, said: “Prince was one of the greatest musical talents of all time – an incomparable genius as a performer, recording artist and songwriter.

“It’s an absolute honor to once again be selected by Prince’s estate to be the home for publishing, merchandise and now for so much of his incredible body of recordings.

“UMG is committed to honoring Prince’s legacy and vision by creating the highest quality products and experiences.”

The NPG catalogue contains 25 albums, including Emancipation, Musicology and 3121.

In the meantime, Prince’s Warner Music catalogue returned to all the major streaming services on schedule in time for the February 12 Grammy awards ceremony. These include Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Prince famously pulled his music from all the platforms except TIDAL and Google Play in 2015 in protest to the service’s small royalty rates. In June 2016, a US judge urged that Prince’s music be monetised ahead of a massive tax bill.

The Warner catalogue includes perennial hits such as Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret, 1999, Sign O’ the Times and Dirty Mind which are expected to generate millions of streams in the wake of the Prince tribute during the awards ceremony.

Spotify revealed it had been working with the major label, rather than the star’s estate, on an outdoor campaign in the United States and England.

As for digital radio, Pandora users can hear Prince’s music on his dedicated stations while iHeartRadio also launched the iHeartPrince radio station on February 12 that is available to free and premium subscribers.