Primary Wave

The project that I signed to them, the album I signed to them, was a record I had written with Mac Davis about 10 years previous.

And at the time, Mac and myself were both on the same publisher, Primary Wave.

And Mac had seen me performing on The David Letterman Show with my old band, knowing we had the same publisher, had reached out and asked to sort of get together and write a song together.

So we did.

And so Mac and I went over to his house the next time I was in LA, and we wrote a song together and hung out and drank coffee and played guitar and got on very well and decided we wanted to do it again and worked together a bunch of times.

And before we knew it, it had this kind of collection of songs, this kind of collection of sort of 10, 11, 12 songs.

That was something that Primary Wave were obviously very familiar with, and they had heard that record from the beginning.

And it was Primary Wave who relaunched Sun Records whenever it was, two years ago, three years ago, whenever they relaunched it.

Six-year legal battle ensued.

And so his estate now is managed by a coalition of heirs and music industry professionals that says primary wave holding a significant stake.

But it said that following Prince's death in 2016 without a will, the estate was split among his six half siblings, three of whom sold their interest to Primary Wave.

I've never heard of Primary Wave.

Have you ever heard of that?

No, that's a new one to me.

Well, I had a business manager that used to work with my father, then we couldn't have a meetings of the mind.

We just had to separate and he went with, uh, Primary Wave who, uh, handles a lot of popular artists and I have a producer who's the media man.

He knows everything about my dad's music and history and, you know, his performances, who he performed with even after his big fame but who he performed with, you know, in Massachusetts, who, you know.

And, um, so I don't really have to do much in terms of the being a business manager thing but because I don't have a business manager I'm doing it myself.

Um, hmm.

Hit the wall.

Um, well, I would say Primary Wave.

Um, so I wasn't a part of that in the beginning, and so they didn't talk to me and they talked to my former business manager.

And so my publisher was like, "Well," you know, there was a thing we'd r- written and rec- uh, we recorded, um, a record, and it was gonna be sort of four or five months or longer before we were gonna be ready to sort of release and start working it.

So my publisher at the time, Primary Wave, put me to work.

And like, "Well, what about writing for other people?" And I just never even, for whatever reason, I'd never really even thought about it, I don't know why, um, as a concept.

I just always, I didn't assume.

No, that's very true.

How did your, uh, how did your relationship with Sun Records come about?

Um, that is, so that, that, you know, essentially came through, um, my relationship with Primary Wave.

So I, I was, um, one of the first writers signed to Primary Wave when they set up many moons ago.

Because if we don't have a vision for it, we're not gonna get there.

So that panel is with folks from Musical.ai, from Cobalt, from Primary Wave and Cross Border Works.

So you've got a really interesting mix of folks who can talk about this question of what happens if it works out okay? So that's one of our probably grow the TAM themes.

Another one that's kind of interesting, we're still fleshing out the panel itself, but it's called Music is Worth More, Tech that Multiplies Revenue, Not Disrupts It.

The

estate of singer-songwriter Robert Palmer is partnering with Primary Wave Music.

The deal gives Primary Wave shared rights to Palmer's name, image, and likeness.

Palmer died in 2003.

He was 54.

Might

as well face it, you're addicted to love.

The estate of singer-songwriter Robert Palmer is partnering with Primary Wave Music.

The

estate of singer-songwriter Robert Palmer is partnering with Primary Wave Music.

The deal gives Primary Wave shared rights to Palmer's name, image, and likeness.

Palmer died in 2003.

But there was another major development.

Three of Prince's heirs eventually sold their interest in this estate to Primary Wave, the independent music company that acquired stakes in Prince's music and publishing assets.

The remaining three siblings retained their interest with the estate ultimately divided between those family members and Primary Wave.

But by twenty twenty-two, the major disputes surrounding the estate had been settled.

So the irony is pretty striking.