14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the fact that many competent people in the music industry blasted Michael Jackson's latest posthumous album “Xscape” as a “money-making attempt,” the pop superstar's estate is said to be planning a lot more albums of this sort in the future, ensuring that his name remains in the charts for a long time.
The report comes from Rolling Stone and it claims that new fewer than 8 such albums are currently in the works, based on the vast number of recorded songs that Michael left at the time of his passing.
Rodney Jerkins, the man who served as producer on Jackson's second posthumous album that was released last month, is quoted as saying that there are more surprises in store for fans of the late superstar.
The issue with such albums is explained by Dan Beck, a former Epic records executive, who has done some close work with Jackson in the past. In his words, “After a while, a certain part of the audience stops listening.”
It turns out that there is such a thing as saturating the market and overexposure, even in today's dynamic and volatile music industry. But that doesn't seem to be stopping the Michael Jackson estate, who is keen to bank on the singer's work and legacy while it's still fresh in people's mind.
Apart from the albums, there have also been extensive efforts to bring the musician's image back to life, using state-of-the-art holographic technology. Fans will surely remember the chilling performance Michael Jackson gave at this year's Billboard Awards, which received a lot of praises from those in the audience as well as from people at home watching it on TV.
There is a reason why Michael Jackson was named the highest-grossing dead star in the world back in 2013. Since his death in 2009, his estate is said to have earned a profit in excess of $600 million (€440 million) thanks to performances with Cirque du Soleil and a big contract with Sony for new albums.
At the moment, Michael's latest album “Xscape” was met with mixed reviews and has peaked at number 2 in the charts and began to fall drastically after its first week. However, critics are in accord that it was a much better effort that the first posthumous album entitled “Michael” which was released in 2010.
The fact that several modern producers such as Timbaland were brought in to “spruce up” the samples found in the vaults seems to have paid off for the estate which now has even bigger plans for the future.
What's your opinion on the matter? Do you think that it's right for the estate to keep putting out more albums in the future? Sound off in the comments below.