"When I met with him before he died we went through an agenda. John (McClain) and I are really executing on that," Mr Branca said. "We're doing the things we think Michael would have wanted."

Several people have been paid for overdue bills after spending years trying to track the singer down. Others who haven't yet been paid say they have been treated professionally by the estate; a night and day change from his old regime.

"We couldn't (collect) until unfortunately he passed away," said Joseph Akhtarzad, a Jackson family friend who owns the Santa Monica-based Video & Audio Center. Last month, the estate settled a $128,429 tab with Akhtarzad for electronics goods owed since 2007.

Thomas Mesereau, who successfully defended Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, said the estate recently paid his law firm $341,452 for services provided after the trial, when Jackson moved to Bahrain. The firm revived its claim in September because it gave up dealing with Jackson's previous managers.

If Elvis is any example, a moderate level of earnings could flow into Jackson's estate for decades.

Sony Music said more than 31 million Jackson albums have sold worldwide since he died, a stratospheric number for a music industry in decline.

With 8.3 million albums sold in North America, he was the top-selling artist in 2009, easily topping Taylor Swift's 4.6 million. It marked the most albums sold in a year since Usher topped 8 million in 2004, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Even since the start of this year, Jackson songs have been played on the radio in the US and Canada 140,000 times, about 10 times the pace before he died, according to Nielsen. Nearly a million Jackson albums have sold this year and a new album of unreleased material is set to hit stores in November, roughly in tandem with a new video game in which fans can mimic his signature moves.

"In the year that Michael has gone, we realise how incredibly talented he was," said Marty Bandier, the chief executive of Sony/ATV. "The guy was the King of Pop and more."

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