Will Prince's 'Mythical Vault' Keep His Music Alive?

He's rumored to have stockpiled thousands of unheard songs
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 21, 2016 6:40 PM CDT
Will Prince's 'Mythical Vault' Keep His Music Alive?
Prince performs in 1990.   (David Brewster/Star Tribune via AP)

Prince may have ascended to a higher plane Thursday, but that doesn't mean the world will never again hear new music from the superstar. The Week references Prince's "mythical vault" containing hundreds to thousands of unreleased songs. And Billboard states the prolific musician's "infamous 'vault' of recordings has become the stuff of legend." Back in 1996, the New York Times reported Prince had "at least a thousand" unreleased songs. And last year, composer Brent Fischer told the Guardian "over 70% of the music we've worked on for Prince is yet to come out."

So exactly how much unheard Prince music is left (provided he didn't burn the vault's contents as he once said he planned to)? We may never know. "I don't think you'll ever get to hear everything in the vault because you'd have to sit down for 10 years," friend and bass player Sonny Thompson tells the Week. "There is just too much to go through." (Check out some of the other major stories and tributes flooding the Internet in the wake of Prince's death.)

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