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NEW YORK (Billboard) -
 
The enduring importance of Bob Marley's music was underscored when Fifty Six Hope Road Music, the Marley family-owned company that holds the rights to his music, recently announced an impending lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Verizon Wireless.

The Marleys maintain that an exclusive deal reached between those companies, with the objective of turning several Marley hits into ringtones, "was not in accordance with Marley's longstanding contract with Universal Music Group." Verizon, for its part, removed but has since re-added the ringtones.

But the estate and UMG are working in tandem to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Marley & the Wailers' "Exodus," due October 16 via Tuff Gong/Island Records/UMe. The album will be available as a single CD or in a two-disc set with the "Live at the Rainbow" DVD. (An earlier "deluxe edition" of the album, supplemented by alternate tracks, was released in 2001.)

College students will be the target audience for these releases, and theatrical screenings of "Live at the Rainbow," which documents Marley's June 1977 Exodus tour performances at London's Rainbow Theater, are scheduled for key college territories.

"The college market is a prime target because that's when people really start discovering new music," UMe general manager Mike Davis said.

Originally released June 3, 1977, by Island, "Exodus" was designated the album of the century by Time magazine in its January 4, 2000, issue.

Recorded at London's Basing Street Studios during the 14 months Marley spent in exile there following the December 1976 attempt on his life at his Kingston, Jamaica, home, "Exodus" is the only Marley album entirely recorded outside Jamaica. It's more diverse than his previous releases, drawing on dub elements, disco and soft R&B balladry as well as Marley's quintessential roots reggae.

"You can hear a percussive African influence," said Marley's son Stephen, whose debut solo album, "Mind Control," debuted earlier this year at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Reggae Albums chart. "You could tell he really (did) deal with reggae universally; that is how he approached the music and the message.

In Marley's lifetime, "Exodus" was his most successful release. It spent 56 consecutive weeks on the U.K. charts and spawned three top 40 U.K. hits.

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"Bob was in love and generally happy, and that was expressed on the album," Island Records founder Chris Blackwell said.

The label released 10 Marley albums before his death in 1981 and several posthumous works -- including 1984's "Legend," which has sold more than 9.2 million copies since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data.

"Thirty years later, 'Exodus' won't generate the excitement of a new release," Blackwell said. "But I am hopeful we can sell a good amount and bring recognition to how important an artist Bob Marley is. "
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