Lou Reed’s Album Sales Surge Following Death

The rock icon’s catalog of albums sold 3,000 last week — up 607 percent from less than 1,000 the week previous. The late Lou Reed’s catalog of music sees great gains this week, following his death on Sunday, Oct. 27. As Nielsen SoundScan’s sales tracking week ended on Oct. 27, Billboard’s new sales charts reflect less than one day since Reed’s passing. (SoundScan provides data to Billboard for its music chart rankings.) Thus, we’ll probably see even larger increases for his music a week from now, after a full seven days have passed following his death.

Reed’s catalog of albums sold 3,000 last week — up 607 percent from the less than 1,000 the week previous. Reed was also a member of the band the Velvet Underground, which sees its album sales rise to 3,000 as well — up by 236 percent.

His best selling album in the last week was Transformer, with 1,000 sold (up 527 percent). The Velvet Underground’s largest seller was its 1967 debut The Velvet Underground & Nico, with 1,000 (up 146 percent).

In terms of digital songs, Reed sold 17,000 downloads last week — up from 2,000 the week previous (a gain of 590 percent). The Velvet Underground’s song sales grew to 5,000 — up from 1,000 the week previous (a gain of 410 percent).

Reed’s largest selling song last week was also his biggest chart hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Walk On the Wild Side.” It sold 6,000 downloads (up by 729 percent) and debuts at No. 38 on the Rock Digital Songs chart. “Walk On the Wild Side” reached No. 16 on the Hot 100 in 1973.

Velvet Underground’s biggest song in the past week was “Sweet Jane,” with 1,000 downloads sold (up by 521 percent).

“Walk On the Wild Side” also, unsurprisingly, proved to be one of Reed’s most popular songs on the streaming music service Spotify in the wake of his death. His catalog of songs earned a 3,000 percent increase in streams, globally, in the 12 hours following the news of his passing on Sunday.

Source: Hollywood Reporter / Billboard