A songwriting credit on Prince’s first solo single is for sale on eBay.
The ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ hitmaker – who passed away from an accidental overdose in April 2016 – co-wrote ‘Soft and Wet’, with Chris Moon, and now his collaborator has put his stake in the song up for sale on the auction website, listing the unusual lot with a Buy It Now price of $490,000.
Chris – who was credited with nurturing Prince’s career in the late 1970s – told the Star Tribune newspaper: "It’s very unusual, but it’s completely real.
"Nobody has ever done anything like this before that I know of, so I understand why some people don’t believe it."
While the buyer wouldn’t be recognised as Prince’s co-songwriter on the track, which appeared on his 1978 album ‘For You’ and peaked at number 92 in the Hot 100 chart, the new owner of the rights would receive songwriting royalties, revenues from streams and album purchases as well as any future earnings the song generates.
But as the song isn’t particularly well known, Moon – who also owns the ‘Purple Rain’ singer’s demos which secured his record contract with Warner Bros., and the full rights to an unreleased song called ‘Make It Through The Storm’ – admitted the buyer is very unlikely to make a profit from buying the credit.
He said: "Anyone who buys this probably shouldn’t be doing it for financial purposes.
"It’s more about owning one of the most unique collectibles ever related to Prince."
‘Soft and Wet’, which is one of the few Prince songs to have a co-writing credit, was sampled by MC Hammer for a track on his 1990 album ‘Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em’ and it is that which has generated the most money for the song.
Chris wrote on his eBay listing: "Around 1990, MC Hammer came out with one of the top albums of the year.
"When it came out he sold 10,000,000 copies of that album which meant I sold 10,000,000 copies of Soft & Wet. To date that MC Hammer album has now sold over 22 Million copies worldwide … and each time that album sells so does a copy of SOFT & WET.(sic)"
Prince songwriting credit up for sale
