That wasn't it
Cloudy Collaborations: Michael Jackson joins Elvis Presley in the greatpost-mortem money grab
The Michael Jackson estate was only kidding when they declared, "This Is It."
The King of Pop is set to join the company of Tupac, Johnny Cash and the original beyond-the-grave recording artist, Elvis Presley, with a record-breaking $250-million (post-mortem) record deal.
The agreement, signed with Sony, is the biggest record deal in history. It requires 10 projects over seven years, Yahoo is reporting.
Included in the deal are unheard recordings and the one-gloved icon's back catalogue. Sony is expected to release an album of previously unreleased Jackson songs by the end of this summer. The company will then rerelease expanded versions of old albums, new remixes of his old songs and DVDs.
If past sales are any indicator, the deal should be a success — Jackson is estimated to have sold about 31 million albums since his sudden death last June at age 50.
Let's hope they all somehow keep making music. Some music scholars are not so enamored with the idea though, arguing that if Michael Jackson didn't feel the songs were good enough to be released while he was alive, they shouldn't be made public now.
The Jackson estate will certainly be bringing in plenty of cash — it holds a 50-percent stake in the music publishing company that owns rights to the catalogues of several icons, including Elvis Presley's.
Like with Presely, the music may not be looked at the same way, but the money never dies. Who needs artistic integrity when the Brink's trucks are backing up?
