Whitney's soaring numbers

As we noted earlier this week, Whitney Houston had virtually taken over the top ten slots on Amazon's bestseller list and was sure to be even more explosive when the Soundscan numbers of all retailers were released. And now here they are.

CD sales, up nearly 800%. Digital sales, up more than 17,000%. Overall combined, sales were up 6,000% since she died last weekend.

And that's despite Sony's immediate price increase on all of Houston's music, a move that Sony claimed was a "mistake" after fans were outraged at the sheer gall of such a cold-hearted gouge (for the record -- and you already know this -- Sony is lying through its corporate teeth).

Those are stunning numbers, especially considering the bulk of Houston's career and certainly its peak occurred before digital downloads became the new music standard. Of her 25 million albums sold, 20 million were pre-2000.

Here are some raw numbers, courtesy of Nielsen Soundscan:

 

Total Album sales (release to date):

25,116,000

Total Digital Track sales (release to date):

6,951,000

Total Physical Single sales (release to date):

14,747,000

Total Video Sales (release to date):

635,000

OVERALL ALBUMS:

Week ending 2/12/2012         101,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           1,700

Lift                                           +5994%

 

PHYSICAL ALBUMS:

Week ending 2/12/2012         10,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           1,000

Lift                                           +799%

 

DIGITAL ALBUMS:

Week ending 2/12/2012         91,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           500

Lift                                           +17408%

 

DIGITAL TRACKS:

Week ending 2/12/2012         887,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           15,000

Lift                                           +5730%

 

BIGGEST SELLING ALBUM: GREATEST HITS (#6)       

Week ending 2/12/2012         64,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           600

Lift:                                          +10,419%

 

BIGGEST SELLING DIGITAL SONG: I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU (#3)

Week ending 2/12/2012         195,000

Week ending 2/5/2012           3,000

Left:                                        +6,877%

 

BODYGUARD

ASMG Album

1992-11-10

11,837,000

 

MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE

RCA  Album

1998-11-17

2,797,000

 

PREACHER'S WIFE

ASMG Album

1996-10-15

2,494,000

 

GREATEST HITS

ASMG Album

2000-05-09

1,805,000

 

I'M YOUR BABY TONIGHT

RCA  Album

1990-11-06

1,747,000

 

WHITNEY HOUSTON

ASMG Album

1985-02-25

1,094,000

 

WHITNEY

ASMG Album

1987-06-01

1,000,000

 

I LOOK TO YOU

ASMG Album

2009-08-25

984,000

 

JUST WHITNEY

RCA  Album

2002-12-03

760,000

 

HOLIDAY ALBUM

ASMG Album

2003-11-18

491,000

 

Mighty impressive numbers, no matter who you are. It's just another sign of our short-attention-span​ culture that it takes a death to remember a life.