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Troy Carter to advise the Prince estate
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 11 April 2017
Former artist manager Troy Carter has been named as the new entertainment industry advisor to the Prince estate. The appointment has been confirmed by Comerica, the bank that took over as the permanent administrator of the late musician’s estate earlier this year.
As previously reported, there was disagreement between Prince’s presumed heirs over which individuals should be involved in managing the musician’s legacy and intellectual property long-term. Some of his siblings opposed the permanent appointment of the two men who had performed that role since Prince’s death last year, Charles Koppelman and L Londell McMillan. Noting the ongoing disagreements, the judge overseeing the estate declined to appoint individual advisors when approving Comercia’s role in January.
Confirming it was now engaging the services of Carter, the bank said in a statement yesterday: “Comerica Bank is proud to acknowledge that Troy Carter has been named entertainment advisor to the Prince estate. His considerable music industry experience and expertise will be invaluable as the work of the Prince estate moves forward. In light of the confidential nature of estate settlement matters, however, we will have no further comment other than this acknowledgement”.
Meanwhile Carter himself confirmed his new advisory role to Billboard, saying: “It’s an honour to serve as entertainment advisor to Prince’s estate. His music, message and independent thought has been a major influence throughout my career. I’m humbled to work with his family and Comerica Bank to advance his musical legacy into the future”.
It seems that with Carter’s appointment, Koppelman and McMillan will no longer be working with the estate. It’s not clear how involved Prince’s siblings will be in ongoing decision making, though presumably they have approved Carter’s advisory role.
Of course it’s an interesting appointment given the Prince estate’s ongoing legal wranglings with Tidal, the streaming service with which the musician allied prior to his death. There are now disagreements over quite what deals Prince agreed with Tidal and its boss Jay-Z. Meanwhile, Carter’s day job these days is as Global Head Of Creative Services at, yeah, that’s right, good old Spotify.
