“It’s uncertain how much music is contained within the vault, but those close to Prince believe the number of unreleased tracks to be in the thousands.”
The value of the late rock star’s vault, which allegedly is teaming with thousands of unreleased songs, has finally been approximated. This is according to a recent story in Twin Cities Business titled “Prince Estate Looks to Sell Vault of Unreleased Music for $35M.” According to Billboard, the Prince estate advisors Charles Koppelman and L. Londell McMilan are contemplating the sale of the vault for as much as $35 million.
A source with knowledge of the situation said the “Big Three” record labels—Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group—are all in talks to acquire the musical contents of Prince’s music vault. The magazine’s July feature, “A Princely Sum,” spoke of the difficulty involved with properly appraising so many hidden recordings.
There’s some guesswork involved in deciding the value of the estate, as it’s hard to know how much the estate can profit from his future royalty streams, the unreleased music, and Prince’s name and likeness.
Although an issue remains, what still isn’t clear is the extent of the vault’s contents.
According to Susan Rogers, a long-time recording engineer for Prince, when she left in 1989, there were already more than 2,000 recorded songs in the vault. In addition, Prince’s former tour manager Alan Leeds commented that Prince also recorded every concert he ever played. This means there are potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of live show recordings that could be produced and put on the market.
Billboard’s source said there is at least one Prince recording to be released in the near future. This is part of a 2014 deal Prince made with Warner Bros. The record company is purported to be releasing a deluxe edition of Purple Rain. That record release, as well as a new greatest hits collection, is anticipated to hit stores in the coming months.
Reference: Twin Cities Business (October 13, 2016) “Prince Estate Looks to Sell Vault of Unreleased Music for $35M”
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