Prince Estate Mulling Themed Hotel, Sorting Through 'As Many as 1,000' Unheard Songs

Prince mentioned the idea of a themed hotel to his assistant years ago, says his sister Tyka Nelson. In the future, she hopes to investigate the idea further.

Two years after Prince's untimely death, the estate is moving forward with a multitude of projects ranging from unreleased music to official merchandise.

In addition to the previously announced Piano & a Microphone 1983 album featuring nine new recordings, the estate—as detailed in a new report—is also going through the Purple One's extended vault of unheard sessions and is considering exploring the idea of a Prince-themed hotel.

"It was only an idea my brother had, and he spoke about it to his assistant some years ago," Tyka Nelson, Prince's sister, told Rolling Stone. "In the future it is something I'd like to investigate." The report adds that talks of the possible hotel, which would carry Prince's name, are in the "preliminary" stages.

Michael Howe, a Warner Bros. alum, has been tapped by Spotify's Troy Carter—who also serves as the estate’s entertainment adviser—to parse through Prince's vault. While all the material has now been converted to digital from a variety of formats, the process of cataloging is still in progress. Thus far, Howe said, he's found "hundreds" of unheard songs and "maybe as many as 1,000." By Howe's assessment, the material could be turned into "many albums" for future release. 

As much as 30 percent of the vaulted material was incorrectly labeled, which has complicated the process. In addition to music, some of the vault recordings include "carefree" discussions between Prince and his band. A release strategy has not been nailed down just yet, but the estate has designs on annually releasing previously unheard material. "Everyone is going to hear this music," Tyka added. "Even if it's not up to maybe par. Why else would he keep all this stuff? He wanted it out."

Check out Rolling Stone's full report, including an inside look at the estate’s dedication to honoring Prince's wishes for the Graceland-like Paisley Park museum, here.

Last month, the estate and Sony Music Entertainment announced a new distribution deal for 35 previously released albums, including the classics 1999 and Sign O' the Times.

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