Prince estate respond to fans’ concern over rumours of AI use on new ‘Timeless’ release
Prince’s estate have spoken out following some fans being concerned about AI potentially being used on the new ‘Timeless’ album.
The late singer’s estate confirmed back in June that it would be sharing a collection of rare and unreleased tracks from Prince in the form of new album ‘Timeless’. The release is made up of 10 songs from across the iconic musician’s four-decade-long career, all of which had never been released before and were carefully curated by the estate.
Songs on the tracklist were recorded between 1977 and 2016, and the album arrived in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of Prince’s death from an accidental fentanyl overdose at the age of 57.
Now, following tracks ‘With This Tear’ and ‘Stone’ being released ahead of the full album arriving on August 28, Prince’s estate have responded to rumours from fans that AI was used to complete the album, particularly on one song called ‘Calabama’.
“As concerns have arisen regarding the credits, timing and arrangement of Prince’s song ‘Calabama’, which appeared on ‘Timeless’, we are respectfully responding to provide more context and clarity,” their statement on Instagram read.
“Consistent with Prince’s songwriting and production approach on numerous previous recordings, a group of horn players who played with Prince were assembled to overdub Prince’s synthesiser track with the intended horn line, and this version was released on ‘Timeless’,” they added, saying that finishing touches were added posthumously, but only by real musicians.
“All of Prince’s original recorded parts remain intact, with trombone, saxophone, and trumpet added by Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield, and Lynn Grissett.”
The statement confirmed that all of those musicians “had close ties to Prince and were credited on the album packaging”. They also shared that in all songs – barring ‘Calabama’ – there were “no overdubs” used posthumously and “no AI” ever used in any of Prince’s music.
The statement also shared that the estate plans to “provide even more details regarding the release of the music” with fans for more clarity, and added that the late singer’s vault is an “archive of massive size and historical depth”, and just because some of the music isn’t finished, they don’t believe that should “prevent” it from being available for fans.
Concluding, they told fans to raise any further questions or issues regarding the music with “kindness and respect” going forward.
“Some may object to the completion of the unfinished portion of ‘Calabama’ (even using Prince’s handpicked musicians and aligned with his creative intent) while others have been very supportive of it and the music overall (which we thank you),” they wrote. “In closing, no one or two individuals are responsible for the business of Prince and we all wish to foster healthy communications within the Prince community.”
The announcement of the new album came midway through ‘Prince Celebration Week’, which was announced by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and ran from June 1 to 7. To mark the occasion, the city’s skyline was illuminated in purple on June 6, and there were various listening sessions held at Paisley Park and downtown Minneapolis throughout the week.
In other Prince news, earlier this year, the late singer’s estate refused to allow his music to be used in the new Melania documentary. The film’s producer Marc Beckman shared the update, explaining in an interview that a “lawyer that manages the estate” had got in touch, saying: “Prince would never want his song associated with Donald Trump.”
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