Having been in music retail since the mid-‘70s, I see many parallels between the death of Elvis and Jackson but the media today is so different compared to the late-‘70s when Elvis died and that factor will affect both the short term mania surrounding Michael’s death and the potential long term impact of his legacy.

No artist, following their death, has sold as much product as Elvis – not Lennon, not Cobain, not Sinatra – but MJ is likely to come close or even surpass the monumental achievements of Presley post-death. This puts Jackson in unique company, the type of artist that comes along maybe only once every century. But you’ve heard enough of that on TV and the Web already this past two weeks.

Sick of reading about Michael’s legacy? I get it, but read on, you may find this interesting.

Forget about all the new sales records Jackson will achieve following his passing, forget the impact communicating his death had on the internet; what’s more fascinating is to look out five, 10 or even 50 years post death and see what the legacy will be.

Elvis still generates a huge industry and his brand is consistently one of the top 10 earners in the entertainment industry every year. MJ has this same potential and it’s ironic since sales of MJ had trickled to very little over the last decade.

But death has allowed many to, for the time being, forgive his weirdness and just celebrate the amazing music he gave us.

How do we measure whether Jackson will remain in the same club as iconic figures like Marilyn, James Dean and Elvis?

Will there be a central gathering spot for fans to pay tribute to Michael? Elvis has Graceland and today almost a half-million pour through those doors every year to see where peanut butter and banana sandwiches were constructed all the while dropping hundreds of millions on memorabilia.

Michael had Neverland. Will the handlers of his estate attempt to rebuild the Santa Barbara compound to provide the same haven for icon worship? Will they bring back the carnivals rides and petting zoo?

Not having a specific place that fans can travel to may hurt his legacy. Michael deserves this type of Mecca memorial to properly address the size of his contribution to popular culture. Not having a physical location to celebrate his life and music will likely diminish his legacy over decades.

What about Vegas impersonators? Sure, there are already MJ clones dealing cards and doing the brief moonwalk throughout the desert town’s casinos, but will really good impersonators be able to carve out a good living traveling and performing around the country like the Elvis wannabe’s did? I’m thinking a Cirque de Soleil show built around his music is only five years away, maybe less.

What about the rehearsal footage filmed of the upcoming London concerts? Is there enough there to release a DVD?

RCA is still releasing Presley collections today and MJ, with possibly hundreds of tracks in the archives, will receive the same revered treatment with the probability of annual holiday-timed releases of repackaged hits and selected new unreleased music. There has to be a couple of gems in amongst all these tracks. Can Michael hit number one post-death with brand new music?

Will rumors of Jackson citings begin to pop up a decade from now just like Elvis? Will rumors of alien intervention in his death pop up?

How will this affect his children? Look what it’s done to Lisa Marie, by the way, probably the only person in the world who really understands what Michael went through. She eventually sold the ownership of Graceland and Elvis’s image to another company so she wouldn’t bear the weight and responsibility of managing her father’s image.