Artists who performed at the Grammys or (better yet?) won an award, gained more than just the honor—they gained new fans, perhaps reached a wider audience than usual and thus increased sales of their music. Over the past week, overall album sales increased 17%, which is due in part to the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, but also, Valentine’s Day-- lest we forget the extremely commercialized holiday. There were definitely some urban artists who benefited from awards show, such as Rihanna, who amidst scandal with Chris Brown, saw an 80% increase in Unapologetic sales. Frank Ocean, a Grammy award winner, also saw an increase in Channel Orange sales following the event. Usually the Grammys are chastised for their lack of hip-hop-related content, however this year, there seemed to be no lack of it, from performers, to attendees, to the host—hip-hop was represented.
1) Rihanna— Unapologetic : Rih Rih had her 25th birthday this past week, and she definitely had a lot to celebrate. The singer had yet another big year, from debuting her fashion line, to her infamous #RihRihPlane. Her #1 album continues to stay atop the charts, although fluctuating from week to week. This week she comes in at #13, up from last week, with 41,475 units sold.
2) Alicia Keys—Girl On Fire: AK’s Girl On Fire is still bringing in the dollars for RCA. The album saw a spike in sales of 47% this past week, perhaps due to her recent string of live appearances. The album rose from #32 to #24 with 24k sold.
3) A$AP Rocky—Long.Live.ASAP: Rocky’s RCA debut continues to sell, seemingly oblivious to its early leak. This week he increased in sales 33%, rising from #27 to #25. Mob fans copped 24,637 copies of the LP this past week.
4) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis—The Heist: This week “Thrift Shop” was finally pushed from its #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 (to be replaced by another internet phenom, Baauer’s “Harlem Shake”). The Heist also saw a drop this week, indicating that perhaps the hype surrounding Macklemore may be dying down. The album dropped from #19 to #32, with around 20k sold.
5) Kendrick Lamar—good kid, m.A.A.d city: Kendrick Lamar has been pretty quiet on the music front lately, perhaps taking a moment to himself while his debut album continues to ride a wave of success. GKMC dropped to #35 on the charts this week, selling 18,575 units.
6) Joe Budden—No Love Lost: Joe Budden’s new album seemed to fall flat chart-wise. It seems the mainstream did not receive Joe with the wide arms he might have been hoping for. This week the album sits at #59 on the charts, dropping quite a bit from its #15 debut.
Apart from those artists above, consistent seller Bruno Mars remains high up on the charts. He may be another artist who saw a large increase in sales due to his performance at the Grammys. The artist’s album Unorthodox Jukebox saw an impressive spike of 117% in album sales—that’s 85k—more than some artists make opening week, so hats off to the urban-pop artist. As mentioned before, Frank Ocean, who won Best Urban Contemporary Album for Channel Orange and also performed, saw an increase of 49% with 16k moved. T.I. saw a smaller increase, but as they say, every dollar counts. The rapper’s Trouble Man also sold around 16k, up 8% from last week.
