Daft Punk, Paul McCartney Lead Post-Grammy Sales and Stream Bumps
In addition to picking up three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, and performing several songs with an all-star band featuring Stevie Wonder and Nile Rodgers, the robot duo Daft Punk have cleaned up in post-show sales and online streaming. The band’s Spotify streams increased more than 200 percent after Sunday night’s CBS broadcast, “Get Lucky” hit Shazam’s Top 5 “tracks purchased” list, and Random Access Memories rose from Number 51 to Number Three on Amazon’s MP3 bestsellers.
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Although the robots characteristically never showed their faces, appearing in black and white helmets throughout the broadcast, they benefited from the presence of Pharrell Williams, who sang on “Get Lucky” and accepted awards on Daft Punk’s behalf in his giant park-ranger hat. But the face of the 2014 Grammys was probably Paul McCartney, who was ubiquitous, reuniting onstage with Ringo Starr, winning Best Rock Song for his Nirvana collaboration “Cut Me Some Slack” and dancing in the front row. His Spotify streams jumped 126 percent from Sunday to Monday, and “Cut Me Some Slack” rose more than 9,000 percent on Amazon, from Number 21,943 to Number 134.
Other big winners, by the numbers: Chicago’s “Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?,” which the soft-rock big band performed with Robin Thicke, rose 150 percent on Spotify; Kendrick Lamar’s Spotify streams increased 99 percent (although his collaborators, Imagine Dragons, rose just 37 percent); Lorde’s “Royals” and Pure Heroine shot to Number One on Amazon’s MP3 song and album charts; and country rookie Kacey Musgraves’ electric-booted performance boosted her album Same Trailer Different Park from Number 20 to Number Two on Amazon and dominated Shazam’s lists as well.
Post-Grammy sales statistics were incomplete, as Nielsen SoundScan’s latest weekly figures counted only the Sunday of the CBS broadcast. But Billboard reports the Grammys boosted 13 albums, including Lorde’s Pure Heroine, which jumped from Number Seven to Number Five on the album charts and increased 19 percent in sales, and Katy Perry’s Prism, which maintained at Number Nine but increased 11 percent. Numerous Grammy-related songs also surged on the charts, most notably John Legend’s “All of Me,” which boosted sales 110 percent and rose from Number 44 to Number 15.
Taylor Swift, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Beyoncé, Pink, Metallica, Keith Urban and Justin Timberlake, all winners or prominent performers, received sales and streaming boosts as well.