Death no reason to stop scoring hits

LOS ANGELES: When the American Music Awards presented the award for best soundtrack in November, it was 1984 all over again.

The winner was Purple Rain, the soundtrack album for Prince’s film of the same name. The win was driven by a spike in sales after the pop icon’s accidental overdose death in April.

Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, hair streaked purple in memory of her brother, accepted the award on his behalf.

“He is still one of the world’s most respected and loved artists,” she said, as the audience shrieked its assent.

In the music world, dying is no impediment to continued stardom, or record sales.

Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix are among the stars who became icons in death, winning new generations of fans and millions of dollars in royalties and licensing fees even decades after their demises.

Thanks to a vast archive of studio recordings, Hendrix has had four times as many albums released after his death than before, with the last, People, Hell and Angels debuting at number two on the Billboard sales charts in 2013, 43 years after Hendrix’s death. David Bowie and Prince also have the potential to keep producing, and earning, well beyond the grave, said Jeff Jampol, a self-described”pop culture legacy manager” who worked with estates of Joplin, Morrison, Michael Jackson and others.

“Great art lives, hopefully, forever,” he said. How it lives can depend on the decisions made by those who take control of the musician’s legacy, publishing and branding after death.

Bowie, a famously savvy businessman, ensured that the rights to his work would remain with his family, but assigned oversight to his longtime business manager. His estate has been estimated at more than $100 million — and could be worth “tens to hundreds of millions” more in future earnings, Jampol said.

Bowie’s longtime producer, Tony Visconti, told the BBC that “I know personally” there is more new, unreleased music by Bowie to come,alluding to “a lot of nice stuff ” to be released in 2017.

Neither has the world seen the last of Prince. The artist left behind an actual vault brimming with unreleased music — but apparently left no will, leaving his estate, estimated at up to $300 million before taxes, by default to Nelson and five half-siblings after a judge ruled out dozens of claimants.

That estate includes Prince’s recording complex, Paisley Park, which has opened as a museum to Prince’s life and work, and two new albums,the Prince 4Ever compilation released by Warner Music in November and a reissue of “1999” due out in 2017.

There is potential for many more, as representatives negotiate with record companies for publishing rights to the vault, which has are ported asking price of $35 million.

Bowie ensured that the rights to his work would remain with his family. His estate has been estimated at more than $100 million