Whitney Houston’s Album Sales Spike Following Passing

2012-02-13

Story by Anne Erickson

Music fans of all genres are lapping up late singer’s greatest hits collection

Following the untimely passing of Whitney Houston last Saturday (Feb. 11), rock performers from Nickelback to Slash came out of the woodwork to Tweet their sympathies regarding the loss of one of pop’s finest vocalists. Now, just a few days after the tragedy, music fans of all genres have lapped up Houston’s albums and singles in masses, so much so that Houston’s 2000 hits package, “Whitney: The Greatest Hits,” is on target to hit the Billboard 200 chart’s Top 10 this week.

According to Billboard, Houston’s “Hits” set moved roughly 50,000 copies in the day-and-a-half period between when word broke of her death and the end of Nielsen SoundScan’s business week.

So, how big will sales likely jump over the next few weeks? “In terms of sales impact, it won’t quite be like Michael Jackson, but it will be big,” Billboard’s associate director of charts Keith Caulfield told MTV News. “Most big pop stars have a perfect great hits and Whitney doesn’t, and that could factor into how the sales play out. I do think her track sales are going to be really big.”

While a lack of greatest hits packages may splinter Houston’s sales, fans do have the aforementioned hits package to turn to in the wake of her death. Still, Caulfield told MTV News the package is considered “a flawed greatest hits to a lot of people,” because it’s not a classic hits set in that half of the album includes remixes of her dance songs. In addition to albums, many of Houston’s songs are expected to re-enter and / or debut on Billboard’s Digital Songs chart this week, with “I Will Always Love You” likely the top seller.

 




Anne Erickson
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