Global Music Rights, a company founded by Irving Azoff in 2014, has acquired the rights for all released and unreleased Prince songs.
In a statement, GMR announced, “A long time advocate of artists’ rights, Prince left ASCAP in 2014 seeking an alternative to traditional public performance licensing practices. The Estate, represented by Bremer Trust, their music industry advisors, Charles Koppelman and Londell McMillan, and attorney Jason Boyarski, concluded that GMR’s philosophy of providing an elite group of writers with heightened customer service and control was most consistent with Prince’s values. As of October 1, 2016, GMR is responsible for licensing for all of Prince’s catalog –both released and unreleased tracks– on a worldwide basis”.
Irving Azoff said in a statement “I couldn’t be happier that Prince, who, during his lifetime, I worked with at various times over the last 30 years, will have his incredible roster of works represented by GMR. Prince was an iconoclast, who never settled for second best, and now his Estate has ensured that the public performance rights are protected in a way befitting their significance.”
Azoff founded GMR in 2014 with Randy Grimmett making it the first new entrant in the United States public performance rights industry in over seventy years.
GMR represents a select group of prolific writers who have written some of the most popular music in the world including Drake, Bruno Mars, the Eagles, The Who, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Ira Gershwin, Smokey Robinson and Pharrell Williams, among others.
