Call it a posthumous digital “Victory” tour for Michael Jackson.
A staggering 2.6 million Michael Jackson (and Jackson 5) songs were downloaded over the Internet in the days after his death, according to Nielsen SoundScan, adding yet another bouquet to his amazing pop music career: Mr. Jackson is the first artist to sell more than a million tracks over the Internet in a single week.
And Billboard’s latest figures show that the so-called King of Pop will occupy 9 of the top 10 spots on the Top Pop Catalog Album chart this week. Among them are two greatest-hits collections and the mythmaking “Thriller” album. “Thriller” easily maintains its place as the top-selling record in history, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide, and counting. On the magazine’s Top Digital Albums chart, Jackson has a record 6 out of the top 10 slots, including the top 4.
The one set not related to Mr. Jackson in the top 10 — at No. 10 — is a reissue of the “Woodstock” soundtrack.
In the 1980s, at the height of Michael Jackson-”Thriller” mania, digital downloads weren’t a factor in music sales. But the singer’s song catalog has remained popular in the digital era: In the week before his death, 48,000 of his songs were bought online. Still, the jump to 2.6 million is amazing.
Mr. Jackson’s online presence goes beyond audio as well. According to Visible Measures, a firm that tracks Internet video, the 13-minute classic “Thriller” music video from 1983 has been watched more than 8.5 million times online since last Thursday, the day Mr. Jackson died.