Unreleased Michael Jackson songs are up for auction … and Jackson’s estate is not happy about it.
Gotta Have Rock and Roll has listed a lot of two cassettes, copied from the original digital audio tapes, featuring never-before-heard songs, including the first version of Jackson’s “7 Digits,” an instrumental recording of “Son of Thriller” and other unedited recordings of songs featuring Jackson, mostly dating to the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The lot has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000.
In the lot description, the auction house writes, “We emphasize this collection is being sold as an artifact ONLY. There is no copyright to any of the songs/materials on the cassettes in this lot. Reproduction of any content on these cassettes is strictly prohibited, and the winning bidder is buying this solely as an artifact in the form of three separate cassettes.”
Jackson’s estate told TMZ the sale was a "sad attempt by an auction site to mislead the public."
The rights to the original master recordings are held by Jackson’s estate.
"What we’re selling is an artifact that holds a lot of value simply because the estate isn’t going to release the music," Dylan Kosinski, president of GottaHaveRockNRoll, told cllct. "The estate is downplaying it because they don’t want it to be released, saying it’s a 'copy' from the original. But the original isn’t released and who DOESN'T want to hear an hour + of unreleased songs."
Kosinski went on to say the auction house was doing its best to ensure the winning bidder understands the tracks cannot be reproduced, however, "they can listen to it all they want."
Bryan Loren, who worked with Jackson on the production of the tracks, is the consignor.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.