Tupac seemed to release more albums after his death than during life.  Now, Michael Jackson is about to do the same.  According to details surfacing late Monday, Sony Music Entertainment is floating a guaranteed $200 million advance to the Jackson estate for a collosal release contract.  According to numerous reports, that means ten albums over 7 years, including remixes, remasterings and unreleased content.  The broader deal is estimated at $250 million. 

That eclipses some earlier mega-deals for the recording industry, including those involving Bruce Springsteen, Robbie Williams, and R.E.M.  But Jackson is a different kind of animal, one that posthumously roared in 2009.  Now, Sony is aiming to keep the beast alive - through recordings, videogames, DVDs, and whatever else makes sense.  "There may be theater. There may be films and movies. There may be computer games - or multimedia platforms that I don't know about today that will happen in 2015," Columbia Epic Label Group chairman Rob Stringer recently told the Los Angeles Times.

Sounds a bit greedy, though according to the Wall Street Journal, the estate will retain control over image licensing, merchandising, and other revenue-generators.  Now, the bigger question is whether Jackson continues to sell strongly through 2017, or whether the surge of 2009 simply flattens.