Prince Leaves Universal Publishing

The music of Prince is no longer handled by the Universal Music Publishing Group, it has been reported by Music Week, with the highly successful artist terminating the long-term arrangement he had with the company.

His was a worldwide deal, last resigned in 2005, and covered his enormous back catalogue as well as all future releases while he was signed with the group. In a statement, Prince's manager Kiran Sharma did not give any information as to who might handle his next publishing deal.

“We are pleased to announce that Prince and Universal have reached a mutual agreement in terminating their long standing publishing deal," Sharma said. “It is an exciting opportunity for Prince to consider fresh and new ideas for all his music.”

Not that there has been a great deal of new music from Prince in recent years; the artist said last year that he would hold off recording new music until piracy is controlled.

The mutual agreement between Prince and UMPG certainly sounds as if the relationship ended on a more pleasant note than that between Prince and Warner Music Group in the early-90s, when the artist famously changed his name to a symbol to free himself from the label.