The irony is that Michael Jackson is the ideal artist for digital distribution. EVERYONE likes at least one Michael Jackson song. Or at least everyone I’ve ever met. So though his prime was well before the iTunes era his broad appeal shows how digital distribution can help an artist sell more music by giving the consumer the ability to pick and choose what songs they want.
No, actually. As many people who own, say, Thriller, I bet there are even more who like songs off the album but don't own it. Then he dies, they realize they'd like to hear those songs again, realize they don't actually own it, and download the one or two they remember.
Actually my point was that there are a lot of people out there who maybe liked one of his songs pre-iTunes but weren't inclined to buy the whole album so they just forgot about it. Then when he died they realized they could now buy just that one song which is why he's getting these monster sales numbers.
From that I extrapolated that you can make a lot of money if not more money from a bunch of micro purchases.
I don't own any MJ music, but I like at least 5 songs enough to buy them. (Only reason I didn't is lazyness in getting around to clean up my music collection and having it all on my computer etc.)
