Music
13 Oct 16

Prince's Vault of Unreleased Music reportedly has $35 million price tag

Prince's vault of unreleased music is reportedly being shopped to all three major labels (Universal, Sony, Warner) for a figure that may be as high as $35 million. The collection is said to consist of thousands of hours of recordings from over four decades.

In an article from Billboard, the site comments that "sources close to the situation" and people handling Prince's estate came up with the $35 million figure. The estate is being managed by Londell McMillian, his longtime attorney and manager, and Charles A. Koppelman, an exec who signed Prince to a short-term deal at EMI in 1996.

Despite the news, the late artist’s estate has not yet begun the mammoth task of cataloguing the music in the vault, so it is still unknown exactly what it contains. Prince was signed to a number of different record labels during his career so some of the recordings could already be under ownership.

Billboard reports that a deluxe edition of 1984’s Purple Rain could be released in early 2017. The deluxe edition was announced back in 2014 but there have been no further updates on the record until now.

Between October 2015 and October 2016, Prince and his estate earned around $25 million before tax, but seeing as Prince reportedly left no will, the case to decide his rightful heirs is ongoing.

Back in September, it was confirmed that Prince’s legendary home of Paisley Park would be turned into a museum and opened to the public. After some delays, the studio complex opened last week and Hot Press were among the first people to get a look inside the estate.