Prince's estate has issued a statement confirming that no artificial intelligence was used on any of the late musician's music, following fan speculation about the new compilation album Timeless. The clarification came after listeners questioned the authenticity of the horn part on 'Calabama', a track originally recorded by Prince in 2003, when comparing it to the version featured on the new release.

The estate, working with Prince's management team and record label NPG Records, explained that in the original recording Prince had called for horns to be added but had used a synthesiser to represent the sound at the time. For the new version, musicians Greg Boyer, Adrian Crutchfield and Lynn Grissett, who had close ties to Prince, were brought in to overdub the synthesiser part with real trombone, saxophone and trumpet. The statement stressed this was the only track on Timeless to receive such treatment, and confirmed plans to release further material from Prince's extensive archive in future. Timeless was released on 28th August, comprising nine studio recordings and one live recording, and arrives following the tenth anniversary of Prince's death in April; he died in 2016 aged 57.