Prince's legendary music vault drilled open

02 May 2016, 09:07 | Written by Laurence Day

(News)

(Prince)

Prince's mythical vault of unreleased music has been cracked open by temporary executors of his estate.

Over the weekend, The Bremer Trust - who have been given temporary authority of the estate - drilled into the vault, ABC News report. They did so as only Prince himself knew the entry code.

The vault has been the subject of much speculation over the years, with numerous half-finished, mostly finished, and backburnered projects and ideas put inside. Once Bremer Trust opened the vault, they found "enough unreleased music to release a new album every year for the next century."

Susan Rodgers, Prince's former sound engineer, told The Guardian the vault pre-dates 1984 record Purple Rain:

“I joined Prince in 1983 when he was preparing to do Purple Rain. I realized it would be smart for me to get his tapes together in one place. I was aware there were a lot of pieces missing. It became an obsession. I wanted us to have everything he’d ever recorded. I called up the studios he’d been using and said: ‘Have you got any Prince tapes’? This is his legacy. We need to protect these things. It’s an actual bank vault, with a thick door. It’s in the basement of Paisley Park. When I left in 87, it was nearly full. Row after row of everything we’d done. I can’t imagine what they’ve done since then.”

What Prince planned to do with the material is still not quite clear. According to Alan Leeds, Prince's former manager, the musician said "that one day he's just burn everything." Contrasting this, Prince himself said in 2012 that "One day, someone will release them. I don't know that I'll get to release them. There's just so many."

Prince died last month aged 57 at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota. The cause of death is yet to be publicly confirmed, but it has been revealed he did not leave a will.