Fans clear out Michael Jackson music stock
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The sudden death of pop icon Michael Jackson on June 25 set off a predictable frenzy over his old music.
In San Antonio, his fans have virtually cleared out music retailers and resellers, who in this digital age keep less inventory on their store shelves.
That is shifting demand online. At one point on June 26, Jackson accounted for the top 15 best-selling albums at Amazon.com. On iTunes, Jackson absolutely dominated singles and album sales.
It's a different era than when the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon shocked the world roughly 30 years ago. Their music catalogs were readily available at stores. Not so today.
Billboard editor and pop/adult charts manager Gary Trust said overnight reports indicate that Jackson's catalog sales are exploding.
“We're going to see a huge jump in his catalog,” Trust said. The exact numbers of physical and digital sales of albums and songs won't be tabulated until later this week in Billboard's Top Pop Catalog chart.
Trust wasn't surprised to learn record stores in San Antonio, Austin and Houston were virtually out of Jackson stock.
Collectors shops such as Alamo Records on Broadway and Antone's Records in Austin did have picture discs, collectible vinyl and CDs.
“This could be a real clear case where the digital world has a real leg up,” Trust said.
Roman Cuellar at Flip Side Record Parlor on the South Side said his store was quickly cleaned out of used Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson CDs and vinyl albums the day he died.
“People called searching for the vinyl, anything fromOff the Wall on up. Most of the people who grew up with him held his vinyl in their hands, played vinyl. They want to hold it again,” Cuellar said.
The same story was repeated at Cactus Records in Houston and Waterloo Records in Austin, retail outlets known as a deep catalog stores, which carry older titles, imports and limited editions. Big-box retailers, by comparison, focus primarily on current releases.
“We're sold out of everything,” said Quinn Bishop, owner of Cactus Records.
Jackson's Billboard feats are legendary, which helps explains the rush to reconnect with his music.
Only the Beatles and Mariah Carey have scored more No. 1 records than Jackson. He remains the dominant solo male artist, with 13 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, delivered seven Top 10 hits.Bad scored with six Top 10 hits, and five of them hit No. 1, a feat never again matched in the Hot 100.
He's the only solo artist to have Top 10 hits in every decade since 1970. That doesn't include hitting No. 1 with the Jackson 5 in the late '60s.
“He established a new standard of pop music success,” said rock critic Ben Fong-Torres, who twice interviewed Jackson. “And his moonwalk at the Motown anniversary show was one of those moments like the Beatles or Elvis.”
Jackson fan Mary Alice Romo-Garcia is still listening, and she went to CD Exchange on Broadway to buy aThriller reissue CD for her son.
“It was my first cassette, my first music that I ever owned,” Romo-Garcia said. “I still have it, and my son, who's 9 years old, keeps asking me for it, and I'm giving him this one.”
Hector Saldaña | 210SA contributor
Staff writer Julie Garcia contributed to this report.
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