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UPDATED: Michael Jackson’s Albums Storm The Charts On iTunes

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Michael Jackson's albums are storming the charts on iTunes.

UPDATE: As predicted, seven of the Top 10 albums on iTunes are Michael Jackson’s. Checked at 8AM Friday morning.

Just hours after his untimely death, Michael Jackson’s albums are storming the charts on iTunes.

Jackson’s seminal album Thriller is currently the number one album on iTunes, while The Essential Michael Jackson is number two.

Several of his other albums are climbing the charts fast. At the time of writing (about 6.45 PST) Jackson has nine albums in the iTunes top 40:

Thriller (25th Anniversary, Zombie Cover) is #7; Off the Wall is #9; The Ultimate Collection is #12; Number Ones is #13; Bad is #22; Greatest Hits is #27; Dangerous is #29; and Thriller (25th Anniversary, Deluxe Edition) is #28.

Jackson is the best-selling solo artist of all time. He sold more than 750 million albums worldwide, and Thriller, produced by the genius Quincy Jones, sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide.

I expect Apple to post a homepage tribute, and Jackson’s albums to dominate the chart by the morning.

About the author

Leander Kahney

Leander Kahney is senior editor of Cult of Mac, editor of two books about technology culture, Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, and has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Observer in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

Email the author | Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

17 comments

    Not surprised. Your worth more money when you are dead than alive.

    The same is true for YouTube. I wanted to hear a couple of songs to remember my teenage years. They don’t sound the same to me as they were in 1980s, but still it brings up a lot of memories. RIP Michael Jackson :-(

    Legend!

    Minor note, MJ is the best selling male solo artist, the best selling act of all time is The Beatles, but still the world has lost a great performer

    Hey, have you seen this news article?
    New details about Michael Jackson’s Death Emerge
    I was wondering if you were going to blog about this…

    I think it is amazing that the world is really doing this…you have to know that most people already have vinyl, cassettes and cd’s of these albums already

    but they are paying homage to an icon
    and an amazing performer the best ever!

    he has almost all of the music videos top ten and 6 of the top ten albums as of 3am eastern time…he will be missed

    just goes to show you don’t have to be what society considers a normal male to be loved by the masses and respected for his gift

    we love you Michael and will miss you

    You should update this he’s got the number 1,4,5,6, & 10 album on iTunes right now that’s 50 percent of the top ten. Also he’s got the top music video on iTune (Thriller).

    R.I.P Michael

    One thing I heard a few years back was that Michael Jackson owned the rights to a lot of Beatles’ music which he outbid Paul McCartney. Supposedly Michael put in his will that Paul gets the rights to the music when he (Michael of course) dies.

    The former is true. I wonder if the latter is.

    Get ‘em while you can. Now that he died they’ll never be able to make another clone of these files…

    [...] Michael Jackson’s Albums Storm The Charts On iTunes (cultofmac.com) [...]

    i have a 1982 album of michael jackson thiller for sale ,a cassete of bad, and a cd of motown classis the jackson 5 ,all for sale for two hundred dollars ,if interest ,e-mail me at tnrebel53@aol.com

    [...] evening, Cult of Mac predicted a surge in sales of Michael Jackson music. Correct. Indeed as I type this 9 of the top 10 albums, [...]

    very sad news ;he was king of pop.

    [...] Plattenregale bestimmt voll. Schon jetzt verkaufen sich die alten wie geschnitten Brot. Und auch digital brummt es. Bitter Beigeschmack neben der eigentlichen Trauer, das man ihr in manchen Ländern nicht [...]

    [...] Michael Jackson war 50 Jahre alt, als er einem Herzanfall erlag. Ich möchte mich nicht lange an dem Thema aufhalten. Seine Musik dominiert zurzeit die iTunes-Charts; zurecht. Thriller ist nach wie vor eines der besten Alben aller Zeiten. (cultofmac) [...]

    you feel his music in your soul! if he could see all that is being blogged about him now, would he care so much of all of us saying how he is the best singer and performer? he knew who he was and what he could do in his career. i beleive he needed and wanted someone to not judge him. a friend who would see and connect to his heart.
    i beleive you found that michael with your heavenly father! i love you and hope to join you in paradise!

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