Amy Winehouse’s label destroyed the demos for her unfinished third album

By Sam Barsanti | July 2, 2015 | 1:49am

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In a sharp contrast to the way Michael Jackson’s record label has treated every single scrap of unreleased music he made before he died, Amy Winehouse’s label—Universal Music U.K.—has destroyed all of the unfinished demos she was working on for her third album when she died. According to Billboard, Winehouse had “finished the writing process” a few weeks before her death, and as far as the label could tell, it had about 14 song demos that were ready to go. All it needed to do was make the questionable leap from “normal record label” to “kind of gross and tasteless record label” by coming up with a way to make money off of them. CEO David Joseph chose not to make that leap, though, and destroyed the demos instead.

He told Billboard his decision was “a moral thing,” and that while he knew he would never allow the music to be released, he wanted to make sure that nobody else would be able to either. It’s a surprisingly respectful choice, especially considering how common—and occasionally successful—posthumous album releases are. Of course, Island Records did release Lioness: Hidden Treasures—a collection of unreleased Winehouse songs—a few months after she died anyway, so whatever.