Barnett, Impala, sales up after Grammys, BRITs

The results of the sales spike after the Grammys and the BRITs are in – with rises for current albums by Courtney Barnett and Tame Impala

US sales of Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit were up 46% after she was nominated for Best New Artist.

Shifting 2,000 units in the week after the Monday February 15 event compared to the 1,000 sales the week before, hers was the second-smallest sales percentage increase for any of the artists in the category. But that can be attributed to the fact she did not perform on the live telecast which was watched by 24.95 million Americans. Last year when she was nominated, her online views doubled.

Of others in that category, the winner Meaghan Trainor had the smallest rise (from 6,000 units to 8,000), obviously because her album had already sold well before. Same with Sam Hunt whose sales moved from 11,000 to 20,000.

It was the lesser known names in Best New Artist who discovered new fans during the telecast. James Bay had the biggest sales in terms of percentage (333% after Chaos And The Calm went to 12,000 from 3,000 in the week before. Tori Kelly was up to 7,000 from 3,000.

Following Adele’s performance on the telecast (despite technical difficulties which had her crying all the next day), 25 went back to #1 after moving 151,000 album equivalent units, a 25% increase. Her single All I Ask bounded by 990% in the two days after.

Proven big sellers also saw a spike, with Taylor Swift’s 1989 up 109% (from 15,000 units to 31,000), Justin Bieber’s Purpose up 15% to 84,000 seeing it jump from #5 to #2, Chris Stapleton’s Traveller up 58%, and The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness enjoyed a bump of 38%.

The Swift, The Weeknd and Stapleton releases had been up for Album of the Year. In this category, Kendrick Lamar and Alabama Shakes seem to have most discovered new fans.

Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, in particular enjoyed a new lease of life with a 317% surge after his spectacular five wins and appearance. In the two days after, the record had a 67% dub in online streams and 47% increase in US radio airplay.

The Shakes’ Sound & Color enjoyed a 315% rise in record sales after their three wins, also experiencing a 170% upsurge in streams and 56% boost in radio spins.

For Rhianna, a Grammy appearance could have bumped the less than expected sales for the January-released Anti in America. However, illness forced her to cancel just before the event and Anti dropped by 18% to 79,000 that week.

The other Australian nominees Tame Impala (Alternative Album), Keith Urban (Country Solo Performance) and Hiatus Kaiyote (R & B Performance) had slight rises.

But on the other side of the Atlantic at the Brits, Tame Impala’s win of International Group saw sales of Currents rising 110.1%. Although the album remained at #64 on the UK charts the week after (it debuted at #3 in the UK last July and later topped the first-ever UK Prog Albums Chart), the win would certainly have increased ticket sales for their UK and European tours.

The BRITs had an average viewing of 5.8 million, a 27.5% share of all TV viewing between 8pm and 10.20pm the night.

Artists enjoying BRIT spikes, according to figures by Music Week, were 321.3% for James Bay, 144% for Adele (who won four awards on the night) for both 25 and the When We Were Young single, 60% for Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams and 80.6% for the new single Hymn For The Weekend which jumped to #3 from #10.