Post Mortem Prince Sets New Billboard Records

Similar to what happened with Michael Jackson, Prince’s death awakened a large, dormant fan base.

In the week that followed the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor’s demise, five of his albums made it to Billboard’s top 10 list, occupying the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh spots. According to Billboard, no artist in history has had so many albums ranked among the Top 10.

Only Beyoncé, with her "Lemonade" album, produced by Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE: SNE)'s Columbia Records, could outrank Prince.

Even further, in the week that followed the passing of Prince, 19 of his albums were included in Billboard’s top 200 list, beating another record, held by The Beatles, who at one time had 14 albums ranked among the top 200.

Billboard spokespeople said the top sellers were three hits collections, plus the well-known albums "Purple Rain" and "1999," both from Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX)’s Warner Bros. Records label.

Prince, who had sold only 19,000 records and songs in the week before his death, sold 4.4 million albums and tracks over the week following his passing away.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.