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David Bowie Songs Soar To Top Spots On iTunes, 2,800% Increase On Spotify

By Jean Mendoza
Published on: 01:01 PST, Jan 13, 2016

Fans of David Bowie are paying tribute to the music star in different ways, but most seem to want to remember him through his songs. Just minutes after his death was officially announced on Facebook, David Bowie’s songs soared to the top spots on iTunes and Spotify.

David Bowie just celebrated his 69th birthday on January 8, the same day he released his Blackstar album, and he succumbed to liver cancer after an 18-month ordeal on January 10.

The news of David’s death was announced on his official Facebook account at 6:30 a.m. GMT.

https://www.facebook.com/davidbowie/posts/10153176666977665

Soon after, 10 minutes to be exact, streaming of David’s songs on Spotify massively increased. As Spotify reported, via Mashable, the streaming of Bowie’s songs boosted 2,700 percent after his death. Songs streamed the most include “Let’s Dance,” “Space Oddity,” “Under Pressure,” and “Heroes,” which are songs from his old albums, but some songs from his Blackstar album had an increase in the number of streams. As of January 13, streaming increased to more than 2,800 percent.

NME provided the percentage of increase for the songs most streamed.

  • “Heroes” — 3,630 percent increase
  • “Let’s Dance” — 3,942 percent increase
  • “Blackstar” — 1,120 percent increase
  • “Lazarus” — 1,084 percent increase
  • “Life on Mars” — 4,238 percent increase

Quartz provided more information given by Spotify, reporting that the number of streams is five times more than the number before his death. According to the report, 4 million Spotify users listened to David Bowie’s songs, and 81,000 of them streamed the songs for the first time. The information provided was based on statistics taken at 11:43 p.m GMT on January 11.

On iTunes, Blackstar stole the No. 1 spot on the Top Albums Chart. Two other albums, The Best of Bowie and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, took the No. 2 and No. 4 spots on the chart respectively. In addition, David Bowie grabbed seven of the top 10 spots in the iTunes UK album charts, beating Justin Bieber and Adele. His music videos also dominated all the top 10 video spots on iTunes, as the Guardian reported.

More of his songs took spots on the Top 100 singles chart, while Labyrinth, the 1986 film by Jim Henson wherein David Bowie played Jareth the ruler of goblins, reached the No. 24 spot on the Top Movies chart.

The Twitter world also mourned the loss of a great musician, with a reported 6.1 million tweets regarding David Bowie. The number increased after his death, as only 154,000+ tweets were sent out about Bowie on his birthday. Prior to that, only 555,100 tweets were posted about him in November to December 2015 before Blackstar was released.

Lazarus, the title of one of Bowie’s songs on Blackstar and a musical he co-wrote, is currently playing at the New York City Workshop. The musical stars Michael C. Hall and Cristin Milloti. The closing date has been postponed to January 19 to keep up with the demand of David’s fans. Tickets are hard to come by and are long sold out, but according to the New York City Theatre website, the only available tickets as of writing range from $630 to $1000+.

David’s fans in the UK will be able to watch Lazarus, as the producer has already confirmed that it will be shown in London “in the fullness of time,” as the Telegraph reported. The musical features songs from David’s albums, as well as new songs.

[Photo via Associated Press]

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