*The title track of Prince’s “Deliverance” EP, the lone song made available on iTunes and Apple Music earlier this week from the album’s six planned for release Friday, has once again been made available for sale despite a court order shutting down sales of the entire album. The song, however, remains off of all streaming service.
As previously reported, a United States District Court judge in Minnesota granted a temporary restraining order to the estate of Prince against the planned release of “Deliverance,” which Prince recorded between 2006 and 2008.
The title track became available on iTunes and Apple Music Tuesday night along with a press release promising “new undiscovered Prince recordings” to be released Friday (April 21), the one-year anniversary of the musician’s death.
That same night, Prince’s estate sued George Ian Boxill, the project’s co-producer, claiming Boxill was “unauthorized” to release the music.
“The Estate is taking immediate legal actions to prevent Mr. Boxill’s continuing violations of his agreement and the rights of the Estate and its partners in Prince’s recordings,” the estate said on Wednesday before the ruling. “Any dissemination of the recordings and underlying music compositions, or fixation of the same in any audiovisual work or otherwise, is unauthorized and in violation of the Estate’s rights to the master recordings and musical compositions.”
On Wednesday night, a judge agreed with the estate, writing that Boxill “shall not publish or otherwise disseminate any unreleased recordings that comprise the work of Prince Rogers Nelson that are alleged to be within the scope of the Confidentiality Agreement between Boxill and Paisley Park Enterprises.” The ruling also forced Boxill to immediately deliver all of the recordings to the estate.
David Staley, co-founder of RMA, the Vancouver, Washington record label behind the EP, says that because the title track “Deliverance” was commercially released prior to the temporary restraining order, it is exempt from the ban.
“I was pleased by the ruling last night, which in a nutshell indicated everything that has been released up to the time of the judge’s ruling, late evening April 19th, can be and should be enjoyed by the fans,” Staley tells Rolling Stone. “This includes the ‘Deliverance’ single and all other released works. My team and I are excited for the ‘Deliverance’ single to be available again to Prince’s loyal fans. I, like Ian, feel ‘Deliverance’ is a very timely song and believe it will bring comfort to many in these trying times.”
The restraining order is set to expire on May 3rd, with a hearing planned before then to determine the next course of action.
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