In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death nearly two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people have suddenly realized that the last time they purchased any of Michael Jackson’s albums was back in the era when everyone listened to music on cassette tapes. So, quite naturally, they flocked to record stores, looking to make the upgrade to compact discs for easier listening. The only problem was, most retailers had sold out of whatever MJ stock they had on hand, so a number of consumers initially walked away empty-handed. However, in a totally surprising twist, once Sony finally got around to shipping out fresh copies of MJ’s catalog to stores, people not only returned to the record stores, but they bought an astronomical 800,000 copies (!) of his CDs last week. That’s an increase of nearly 90 percent from his impressive sales figures the week prior, with the lion’s share of the sales (roughly 656K) being purchased from physical outlets (as opposed to, say, the iTunes record store). Jackson’s Number Ones greatest-hits package sold 339,000 copies, while Thriller moved some 187,000 units. And while we’re quite positive that this short-term boost to the record industry isn’t sustainable, it’s good to see that people are still willing to shell out their hard-earned money to buy the music they love.
Michael Jackson Music Dominates Billboard Charts, 800K Albums Sold [Billboard]