Death is good for business: Michael Jackson's music the web's hottest download

Sad but true, death can be great for business. Just as a talented painter rarely sees the true value of their canvases while alive, the sudden and tragic death of the world’s biggest pop star has shot his music to the top of the Internet download charts.

Despite going through a rocky 15 years, personally and professionally, Michael Jackson is still arguably the world’s biggest and most recognizable pop icon. Sales of past albums, such as blockbusters like Thriller spiked last year with the various 25th anniversary editions and remixes, but this is pale in comparison to what we’ve seen on the Internet this weekend, following the singer’s untimely death at age 50 on Thursday afternoon.

Take a gander at the iTunes Top 10 album charts for instance (pictured here). The online store, arguably the western world’s biggest for legitimate downloads, has 8 of Michael Jackson’s albums and compilations in the Top 10. In the U.S. iTunes store, Michael’s music dominates 9 out of the Top 10 albums for sale.

Similarly, Amazon’s music store has seen a spike of more than 70% of Michael Jackson’s albums on Friday, the company said. Amazon has even created a graphic (see below) that welcomes visitors to the site, which leads to multiple pages of his works.

Even those who download music illegitimately have been clamouring for Michael’s catalogue of music. Take PirateBay, for example. Click on the BitTorrent site’s Top Music page and you’ll see the number 1 is Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits, number 2 is Michael Jackson/The Jackson 5/The Jacksons discography (a zipped file at nearly 2GB in size) and number 3 is Michael Jackson -Thriller 25th Anniversary Edition plus four music videos.

Unfortunately for the “King of Pop,” this has all transpired following his death. But perhaps the extraordinary sales for Michael Jackson’s albums will offset the purported US$400+ million in debt the singer left to those who inherit his estate.

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