If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the passing of some of our greatest pop stars over the years, it’s that death is no match for corporate greed. An artist may no longer be on this earth, but that doesn’t mean their record company can’t take advantage of them by constantly releasing “new” music that they left behind before they left this earth. That’s likely what will happen with Prince, whose vault apparently contains enough music for there to be a new Prince album every year for the next century. Hurrah?
Bremer Trust, which was appointed administrator of Prince’s estate following his death, literally had to drill the vault in his Paisley Park mansion open since they didn’t know the code (and neither, apparently, did anyone else).
A little more detail, courtesy of Consequence of Sound:
According to Prince’s former sound engineer, Susan Rodgers, the vault pre-dates the release of 1984’s Purple Rain. “When I left in 87, it was nearly full,” she explained in an interview with the Guardian. “Row after row of everything we’d done. I can’t imagine what they’ve done since then.”
It remains to be seen whether the music will ever be released. Prince had no will at the time of his death, and already his family members are fighting over his assets.
Well, there’s that. Ah, ain’t consumerism grand?
Oh great now we have to act like we love all this new music while people tell us what a genius Prince was.