One of the things that people don't know about the estate of the late Michael Jackson is that Jackson died deeply in debt. The singer took out a $300 million dollar loan that was backed by Sony, and the payments on the loan were crushing his finances. Many of Jackson's financial problems were solved with a new mega-deal with Sony, one of historic proportions. The pact will be for seven years, allowing Sony to have exclusive distribution rights for Michael Jackson content until the year 2017. Jackson has been part of the Sony Epic label for 30 years, and this new contracts continues that relationship.

The new contract with the Jackson Estate is the most lucrative financial deal in music history. One of the key components of the deal was the royalty rate on foreign music sales. While Jackson sells millions of records within the U.S., over 2/3 of his album sales are in other countries. The proceeds from the deal are going to pay back $125 million in debts this year, considerably reducing the overall debt for the estate. Part of the debt, $35 million, was owed to AEG Live, the company behind Jackson's 'This is It' tour. Given that the deal guarantees the Jackson Estate at least $200 million, there will be plenty of money left over for the estate after this portion of its debt is repaid.The most valuable part of the contract consists of unheard songs that Jackson made before he died, including roughly three albums' worth of material. John Branca, the special administrator for the Jackson Estate, claims that there are more than 60 songs that have not yet been released to the public. The new songs are expected to hit the shelves this Christmas. Sony also plans to re-release the album 'Off the Wall' this year.

Sony has already sold five million copies of the soundtrack for the film, 'This is It,' released shortly after Jackson's death on June 25th. The film took the number one spot on the DVD release list as well. Rob Stringer, chairman of Columbia Epic Records, reminded the press that new Jackson releases will span across all different kinds of platforms, including films, movies and computer games. "The stuff we have in the vaults is... fascinating and remarkable," Stringer said. "We're going to build a whole platform with [the] documentary. The outtakes are fantastic! We have a lot of great stuff from around every time period [in Jackson's career]. We're plowing through everything now to understand what we've got."

Since Jackson's death just a few months ago, his estate has sold over 31 million records, proving that he still has massive star power. This number is especially impressive given that the music industry has been in long-term decline. The massive sales have helped to relax the debt burden on the Jackson family, which is reported to be over half a billion dollars. For some, there is the expectation that the best of Michael Jackson may be yet to come.

Lawrence Watkins is the CEO of The Great Black Speakers Bureau and an MBA student at Cornell University. For more information, please visit LawrenceWatkins.com.