At the time of his shocking death this past spring at age 57, music icon Prince had no will in place. In the days after his death, his albums were at the top of digital download charts.
Bremer Trust, the organization temporarily overseeing the late singer’s Chanhassen, MN estate, then opened his storied cache of unreleased music in late April, according to ABC News affiliate KSTP-TV.
Months later, in what is unlikely an unprecedented move and an unprecedented price, Bremer Trust’s estate advisors Charles Koppelman and L. Londell McMillan may be asking as much as $35 million for what’s inside the vault of unheard work, according to Billboard’s sources. Three major labels are said to be in talks for rights to the music.
“We could put out more work in a month than most people could do in a year or more,” Prince’s former recording engineer Susan Rogers told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Ownership of certain unreleased material remains unclear, however. Prince was under contract to Warner Bros. from 1977 until the mid-1990s and later cut various deals with numerous labels, including Universal’s Republic, Sony’s Columbia, Epic, Arista, and EMI, as well as several indie labels and streaming services over the years.
This past June, Koppelman and McMillian were appointed musical advisors to Bremer Trust. The announcement followed a Minnesota state judge’s ruling that the company had limited authority to hire music industry experts to help manage the music holdings.
The deluxe edition of Purple Rain, Prince’s sixth studio album, will be released next year.