Prince's death does not mark the end of his music career

Musician Prince Kristian Dowling | Lotusflow3r.com | Getty Images Prince's decades-long music career, which already spurred nearly 40 studio albums, is far from over despite his

passing. In addition to Prince's widely popular — and prolific — catalog of music, some reports indicate that Prince had created enough unreleased music during his life that his estate

could issue an album a year for a century after his death, according to the_ BBC._ Representatives for Prince did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Legendary

musician Prince dies at 57 Private collection of Prince memorabilia for sale "I started the vault," Susan Rogers, Prince's former sound engineer, said in an interview with

BBC, explaining that the bank vault containing Prince's music — released and unreleased — at Paisley Park was nearly filled when she left Prince's employment in 1987. Tweet 1 Tweet

2 Tweet 3 Posthumous musical releases are not uncommon in the industry. The estates for Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. released songs and albums post-mortem. Seven of

Tupac's 11 platinum albums were released posthumously, according to _Forbes._ Similarly, David Bowie, who passed away in January, recorded demos for five new songs, according to _The

Rolling Stone_. However, _Newsweek_ reports that there is a long list of unscheduled musical releases slated to arrive starting in 2017. As of about 2 p.m. ET "The Very Best of

Prince" topped Apple's iTunes album chart — with "Purple Rain" in the third position.