There is a real pressure on those left to run an estate to ensure that the artist does not fade from the public’s view and become an anachronism. There are more opportunities now for estates to take the lead, but for a long time the estate was at the mercy of the whims of the record labels that controlled a deceased act’s recordings.
Source: The Lucrative Afterlife of Music Estates: ‘A complex balancing act between the past and the future.’