Universal Music Teases Unreleased Music, NFTs After Zappa Acquisition

SANTA MONICA, CA — Frank Zappa’s entire estate, including his full music catalog, name and likeness, moved over to Universal Music Group, the company announced Friday.

The deal between the Zappa Trust and Universal Music Group likely means new music for fans of the Los Angeles-based musician, composer, guitarist, iconoclast and activist. The company not only acquired the music from Zappa’s four-decade career but his storage facility called “The Vault.”

Unreleased music is just the start — Zappa fans can expect new movies, merchandise and even NFTs, according to Universal Music.

“To date, there have been 122 official Zappa releases, however, that only scratches the surface of what the future holds as it represents a small fraction of the recordings in Zappa’s expansive and exhaustive Vault that have been made publicly available,” the company said in a news release. “UMG plans to dive into The Vault for new archival projects for decades to come.”

Zappa’s family and Universal Music are no strangers; Friday’s announcement is an expansion on a previous partnership with UMG involving the Zappa catalog.

Zappa died in 1993 of prostate cancer at age 52. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and awarded the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1997.

Universal Music Enterprises helped digitize and expand Zappa’s music empire 10 years ago, according to a news release from Universal Music Group. The company has worked with the Zappa Trust, which includes Frank Zappa’s children, to revamp and release Zappa music around the world.

“As a prolific artist well ahead of his time, Frank Zappa was constantly creating and recording and he left behind a treasure trove of extraordinary still-unreleased music and video in his Vault that will help us usher in the next era of Frank Zappa fans,” Universal Music Enterprises President & CEO Bruce Resnikoff said in a news release.

City News Service contributed to this report.