The people running Prince’s estate might want to start checking the couch cushions in Paisley Park, because they’re going to have to come up with a bundle, if they still want to keep the “Purple Rain” singer’s posthumous EP “Deliverance” off the market.
Prince’s estate was ordered to pony up $1 million by a judge on Wednesday in the estate’s ongoing battle to prevent the release of the EP.
The good news for the Prince estate? The judge also extended a restraining order to prevent the release of the tracks.
The $1 million serves as a bond. While the restraining order barring the release of the songs has been extended to 11:59 p.m. on May 22 — unless it’s extended again — the order will be “dissolved” if the estate doesn’t post the bond by 5 p.m. on May 12.
In the days prior to the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death on April 21, the EP’s title track was made available on iTunes, with an announcement that the rest of the EP would be released April 21.
“I believe ‘Deliverance’ is a timely release with everything going on in the world today, and in light of the one-year anniversary of his passing. I hope when people hear Prince singing these songs it will bring comfort to many,” producer George Ian Boxill said in a statement.
However, the estate quickly filed a suit to block the EP’s release,
“The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is aware that Mr. George Ian Boxill, in conjunction with Rogue Music Alliance, has issued a press release announcing an intent to distribute previously unreleased Prince master recordings and musical compositions. The Estate has not authorized any such release and is not affiliated with either Mr. Boxill or Rogue Music Alliance,” a spokesman for Comerica, which administers the estate, told TheWrap in a statement at the time.
“Like the other engineers that had the opportunity to work with Prince, Mr. Boxill signed an agreement, under which he agreed (1) all recordings that he worked on with Prince would remain Prince’s sole and exclusive property; (2) he would not use any recordings or property in any way whatsoever; and (3) he would return any such recordings or property to Prince immediately upon request,” Comerica continued in its statement.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.