The music world is still saddened by losing iconic art rock pioneer Lou Reed on Sunday night, with many remembering the Velvet Underground leader the best way they know how: by returning to his music.
As a result, sales of Reed’s music has surged in the last few days with a huge spike across digital platforms as listeners revisit his solo material in mourning, just as Divinyls material did following the passing of singer Chrissy Amphlett earlier this year.
Reed’s album catalogue has sold 3,000 units in the last week, up a whopping 607% from figures of less than a 1,000 in the previous week when the music legend was still with us, while sales of the Velvet Undergound have increased to 3,000 as well, a spike of 236%, as Billboard reports based on Nielsen SoundScan’s sales tracking.
The best selling release was, of course, Transformer, Reed’s 1972 David Bowie-produced sophomore album selling 1,000 copies (up 527%), matched by The Velvet Underground & Nico, the 1967 debut album from the New York art punks similarly selling 1,000 copies (up 146%).
Transformer cut, ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ – always Reed’s most recognisable and commercially successful hit – was the artist’s biggest selling song in the last week, with over 6,000 downloads (up by 729%) and actually making its debut on Billboard‘s Rock Digital Songs chart at #38.
In terms of digital sales, around 17,000 downloads of Reed’s music – up from 2,000 the previous week – saw a gain of 590%, while The Velvet Underground’s songs moved up 410% to 5,000 sales, with ‘Sweet Jane’ being the most poplar, with 1,000 downloads sold (up by 521%). The posthumous commercial success of Lou Reed’s musical legacy holds a sense of irony given that he infamously followed his own muse, charts and sales be damned…
On the streaming front, ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ also earned a huge number of streams on Spotify, while Reed’s back catalogue experience an immense increase of 3,000% in streams worldwide in the 12 hours following the news of his passing on Sunday night.
The posthumous commercial success of Lou Reed’s musical legacy holds a sense of irony given that he infamously followed his own muse, charts and sales be damned, which meant that Reed never sold many records across his more than 50 years of music-making.
The infamous quote attribute to Brian Eno best sums up the shadow he cast across the generations of music that followed in Reed’s wake, saying that although the (semi)eponymous 1967 Velvet Underground album only sold 30,000 copies in its first few years, “everyone who bought a copy formed a band.”
There’s no arguing the New Yorker’s influence, but it was only really the likes of ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, ‘Sweet Jane’, and ‘Perfect Day’ that received any mainstream exposure or radio play, let alone his influential work with the Velvet Underground in his fledgling years.
But according to Rolling Stone, American rock radio took the time to honour Reed following his passing, with stats trackers Mediabase noting that airplay of Reed’s solo material jumped from 187 to 448, primarily on classic rock and alternative stations.
Meanwhile, physical sales – particularly of vinyl – experienced a slight boost at the American Newbury Comics record chain, with senior buyer Carl Mello telling Rolling Stone, “there’s something there, but it’s not like there’s a mad rush; It’s not Michael Jackson.”
Here in Australia, admiration for Lou Reed also saw a boost in music sales, with ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ peaking at #21 on the popular iTunes Singles Chart before sliding to #95, while ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Dirty Blvd’ reached #131 and #200 respectively. Albums-wise, Transformer hit #21 on the iTunes store, The Very Best Of Lou Reed went to #36, and New York and The Velvet Underground & Nico hit #84 and #92 respectively.
In related news, the official Lou Reed website shared the last ever photograph taken of the late musician; a black and white portrait accompanied by a statement from Reed’s manager, Tom Sarig, that reads: “Just a couple of weeks ago Lou did a photo session intended to become a print ad for his friend Henri Seydoux’s French audio headphones company Parrot. The renowned photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino took the shots, and this was the very last shot he took. Always a tower of strength.”
