Prince's Mythical Vault Is Up For Sale, Deluxe Edition Of 'Purple Rain' May Be On The Way

Another day, another kink in the management of Prince's estate. According to a Billboard report, The Purple One's mythical vault is now up for sale with a hefty price tag of $35 million attached. All three major labels are said to be discussing the rights to the music inside, as Prince has released music with almost every single label under the sun, even during his Warner Bros. Records days. They also report that a deluxe edition of Purple Rain (redundant as hell) could be arriving in the next few months, making good on a promise that was announced back in 2014.

There are precisely two foreseeable outcomes of a sale like this: the unreleased catalogue gets mined, chopped and compiled into an anthology type release or we have another Once Upon A Time In Shaolin situation on our hands, where a private sale is made and the contents are locked up and kept as a trophy piece for one very wealthy person. Personally, this writer would love to see the vault as a whole transported and installed into the Smithsonian's newly-opened National Museum of African American History and Culture, right next to The Mothership, Chuck Berry's Cadillac and Dilla's MPC. But that's just music nerd fantasy, so let's hope for the former, shall we?