Michael Jackson’s sales, streaming numbers, and radio airplay have all taken a dip in the wake of the two-part HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.
via Complex:
According to Billboard, Jackson’s combined album and song sales dropped by 5 percent after the Neverland premiere. His album sales alone dropped by 39 percent. Jackson’s on-demand streams fell from 19.7 million to 18.7 million.
His biggest hit came in radio airplay, where some DJs have committed to not playing Jackson’s music. In addition to individual programmers making the decision to play less of Jackson’s music, at least one broadcast company has committed to pulling Jackson’s work. Three stations in Canada owned by Cogeco Media have removed his music from their playlists, according to Billboard. While no major radio groups would go on record with the magazine to say that they are moving away from MJ, his radio airplay fell by 13 percent in the days immediately following Neverland airing.
The airplay drop-off is similar to the reaction that followed the R. Kelly expose Surviving R. Kelly. R. Kelly’s radio airplay dropped by 85 percent following the six-part doc that stacked up the years of abuse allegations against the singer. However, his streaming numbers increased dramatically after the documentary, jumping by 100,000 streams per week after Spotify announced that they were removing his music from their curated playlists.
Have you stopped playing Michael’s music?
