Posthumous albums are the works of a musician that are published, after they have passed away, for the public audience to hear.
There are many artists who have had their legacy continued with the release of music long after their death. Tupac, one of the biggest names in rap from the 90’s, is an example of what happens to an artist’s music once they’re gone. He has many posthumous albums under his belt. Some were good such as The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory but others were awful such as Pac’s Life. I understand that it’s distasteful for labels to drop a deceased artist’s work, especially when they aren’t around to place their input anymore. Fans can complain, but their words won’t affect the decisions made by the higher ups. They need to realize that this is just a part of the music business.
Labels sign artists onto multi-million dollar deals, but sadly death can occur at any moment. The artist won’t be able to complete their end of the deal, and the label steps in deciding what happens next. There are instances where an estate is formed for the artist; their will declares who has control of projects and keeps the money left over. Families, most of the time, are obligated to finish the deal signed by their family member. Estates works with their record label, and compile a new album that releases a couple months after the artist died. This is done to capitalize on the artist’s new popularity and make as much money as possible.
A recent example is with the rapper XXXTENTACION who posthumously released the album SKINS. This project came out a little under 6 months after his passing, and it worked out very well for his team. They garnered 132,000 total sales in the first week which included 52,000 in pure album sales, and 122 million streams on services such as Spotify and Apple Music, according to Nielsen Data reported by Billboard. The estate and label made a healthy amount of money from this album alone.
There are many artists who have had their legacy continued with the release of music long after their death. Tupac, one of the biggest names in rap from the 90’s, is an example of what happens to an artist’s music once they’re gone. He has many posthumous albums under his belt. Some were good such as The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory but others were awful such as Pac’s Life. I understand that it’s distasteful for labels to drop a deceased artist’s work, especially when they aren’t around to place their input anymore. Fans can complain, but their words won’t affect the decisions made by the higher ups. They need to realize that this is just a part of the music business.
Labels sign artists onto multi-million dollar deals, but sadly death can occur at any moment. The artist won’t be able to complete their end of the deal, and the label steps in deciding what happens next. There are instances where an estate is formed for the artist; their will declares who has control of projects and keeps the money left over. Families, most of the time, are obligated to finish the deal signed by their family member. Estates works with their record label, and compile a new album that releases a couple months after the artist died. This is done to capitalize on the artist’s new popularity and make as much money as possible.
A recent example is with the rapper XXXTENTACION who posthumously released the album SKINS. This project came out a little under 6 months after his passing, and it worked out very well for his team. They garnered 132,000 total sales in the first week which included 52,000 in pure album sales, and 122 million streams on services such as Spotify and Apple Music, according to Nielsen Data reported by Billboard. The estate and label made a healthy amount of money from this album alone.