On Friday, March 20th, Country music star Kenny Rogers died of natural causes at age 81. In the days following, the on-demand U.S. streams of Rogers 6 decade catalog of songs surged 1687% (according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data). On March 21 and 22, Rogers’ music reached 18 million streams. But it wasn’t just the streaming where we saw an increase in Rogers’ music being played. Album sales went up significantly as well. 15,000 copies were sold and 82,000 digital downloads were sold between March 21 and 23.
Rogers’ singles “The Gambler” and “Islands in the Stream” were two among the many hits that soared in digital downloads and on-demand downloads in the past few days. Many artists also gave their condolences to Rogers such as Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton and Lionel Richie. Rogers once said before he retired, “I’ve been so lucky to have enjoyed such a long career and to have such amazing support from my fans and all who have helped me along the way…” His fans have truly shown that they always have been, and always will be there to support him.
