Why Are Celebrities Like Whitney Houston Worth More Dead Than Alive

I understand why singers with amazing voices, like Whitney Houston, are super rich when they are alive, but why does their estate become even more wealthy after they die?
Within hours of her untimely death, Whitney Houston was fast on her way to once again becoming a hot commodity.  Her hit song, I Will Always Love You, was the most downloaded single on iTunes the day after her death. 

“It’s a very predictable pattern that happens with all famous artists. They become valuable commodities. If they were shares, you would see Bay Street buying them up,” said Theo Peridis, a professor of strategic management at York University.

“Fundamentally, it’s the realization that it’s the end of the artist’s productivity, that they won’t produce anything more, that sparks the buying frenzy.”

The popstar was found dead of unknown causes in a bathtub at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Saturday afternoon on the day before the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

At the height of her career, from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Houston had seven straight No.1 hit singles, making her one of the bestselling artists in the world.

She also made it as a moviestar with roles in The Bodyguard and Waiting to Exhale. With her roots in gospel music, Houston was considered the music industry’s golden girl who never relied on overt sexuality in her concerts.

But in the last decade, Houston struggled with drug and alcohol addictions and a stressful split from rapper Bobby Brown.

At the time of her death, Houston was no where near the top, even though she tried to be.

“Even though Whitney tried to make a comeback, it was disastrous. But she still has a huge loyal fan base that remember that great voice,” he said. “So there is an emotional factor where everybody starts talking about what her music meant to them.”

Although Houston’s estate will swell from residual profits, it’s the folks who own the rights to her work — record producers and movie studios who will re-release her CDs and DVDs — that stand to gain the most from her death, said Peridis.

I'm sure tribute concerts and other things dedicated to Whitney will pop up over the next couple of months that will contribute to her estate as well.

Here is my opinion.  Artists like Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were so ill when they were alive that they spent a lot of their money trying to support their habits.  Once they died, there were no vices to take the money.  Plus, for some reason I don't understand, people feel compelled to buy everything that the stars owned for ridiculous prices.  Just a little something to remember them buy.