Home Q News Music News Disputed EP of unreleased Prince music pulled from iTunes, court battle continues

Disputed EP of unreleased Prince music pulled from iTunes, court battle continues

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Rogue Music AllianceIt remains to be seen if that disputed EP of previously unreleased Prince material will be released on Friday. 

On Wednesday the late icon’s estate and the singer’s famed home and recording studio, Paisley Park, filed a lawsuit in Carver County, Minnesota, to stop the release of the EP, put together by engineer George Ian Boxill, who worked with Prince on the material in the mid-2000s.

ABC affiliate KSTP in St. Paul reports that a federal judge has yet to rule on a request for a temporary restraining order against the release. But one thing is clear, you can’t get the EP on iTunes anymore. 

The EP was pulled from iTunes pending resolution of the dispute, it was confirmed in a federal court hearing Wednesday, reports KSTP.  But the EP is still available for order on PrinceRogersNelson.com. The EP’s title track, “Deliverence,” a slow-burning gospel-rock tune with lots of guitar and religious lyrics, also is still up on the Rogue Music Alliance SoundCloud account.

As previously reported, Boxill assembled the EP, which also includes a four-song suite called “Opera Man,” from material he worked on with Prince from 2006 to 2008.

According to the suit obtained by ABC News, the plaintiff alleges Boxill signed a confidentiality agreement that all the work the two did together “would remain Prince’s sole and exclusive property” and that “he would not use any recordings or property in any way whatsoever.”

KSTP reports that Boxhill lawyers are arguing that he owns 10 percent of the songs, although his contract with Prince says the songs are Prince’s sole property.  But, Boxhill’s lawyers claim, because the contract was never signed by Prince or his company it is invalid.

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