Mega Deal For King of Pop
CHETRY: It's 18 minutes past the hour. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business." She joins us now. So we're talking about Michael Jackson.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right.</s>CHETRY: He is not with us anymore but his music lives on.</s>ROMANS: His music lives on and so does the big bet that he'll continue to generate an awful lot of money for music fans and for music companies. We're expecting an official announcement today from Sony music that they are inking a $250 million deal. The hugest deal in history for an artist. Sony and the Jackson estate. This would be ten projects over seven years. According to reports, including one in "The Wall Street Journal" it would guarantee up to $200 million for the estate, which would go an awful long way for this estate to start pay off some of Michael Jackson's debts. As you know, he has more than $100 million in debts. He's got a big loan coming due. Needs to be served, coming up with Sony music as well. So, okay, these are projects. Ten projects over seven years. What are we talking about? Probably unreleased music. Probably more compilations and more albums. All of this is just conjecture. But you have to imagine they are trying to come up with every possible way they can put together his material. Also potentially video games. This is something a lot of people are talking about the new media ways they can use the likeness of Michael Jackson and his music to try to generate some money. This is a very, very big bet that the allure of Michael Jackson will endure long after all the news of his untimely death is over. You know after he died, immediately, the number three -- the big album sales right then were, I mean, he sold so much music in that short period of time. This is a bet from Sony that even as time passes, Michael Jackson is still going to be big.</s>ROBERTS: The big bet, too. You have a "Romans' Numeral" for us this morning?</s>ROMANS: Fifty-seven percent. So there's a decline of 57 percent in sales of something.</s>CHETRY: CDs.</s>ROMANS: Music sales revenue down 57 percent over the past decade. So the music business is shrinking, right? And this is the biggest bet we've ever seen in an industry that's had trouble selling music. So this is an interesting bet against the backdrop of declining sales.</s>CHETRY: I didn't envision decline in sales like the Rock Star game that is so popular on the wii or -- I mean --</s>ROMANS: Yes, that's what I said.</s>CHETRY: Yes you could basically have learned to dance like Michael Jackson, sing like Michael Jackson songs -- huge.</s>ROMANS: I mean there's probably even ways that technology can utilize the Michael Jackson image that we don't even know about yet you know that I'm sure Sony will you know figure out a way to use. It's a very big bet on the allure of Michael Jackson. You know the question is, does the king of pop really -- is he going to selling -- is he going to sell a quarter of a billion dollars worth of music? No one knows.</s>ROBERTS: Big question to ask. Thanks, Christine.</s>CHETRY: Christine thanks.</s>ROBERTS: 20 minutes after the hour. Jason Carroll with his second installment in our series this week, "Growing Up Behind Bars." Should juvenile offenders be sentenced to life in prison for nonlethal crimes? We are asking that question this morning, stay with us.