If you read this week's reports on the Billboard 200 and the Albums Sales Chart then you're aware already that The Grammys had a huge positive impact on the sales of several performers, including Sam Smith and Beck. Billboard has released a full report of the night's live performances and how the ceremony affected this involved.
The company limited its tracking of album sales to the most recent release from all those who appeared during the ceremony. As we reported earlier this week, Smith was the biggest seller of the Grammy performers in the eight days following the broadcast, drawing further interest thanks to his four wins in televised categories. In The Lonely Hour, the album that drew all of the nominations, sold 181,000 copies during the last long week, an 114,000 album boost from the previous sales period, more than 168 percent.
Beck and Album of The Year Morning Phase had the second-highest total for total sales increase, albeit a distant second. That record sold more than 73,000 copies, according to Billboard. That total did earn it the title of largest percentage gain, as the boost equated to a 3,344 percent increase.
Over on the songs charts, "FourFiveSeconds"—the collaboration of Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney—was the biggest gainer in terms of units sold. The single received 442,000 downloads in the eight days following the ceremony, nearly 200,000 more than the two weeks prior to The Grammys. Brandy Clark had the highest jump in terms of percentage for "Hold My Hand," but she somewhat had an unfair advantage. As her album 12 Stories has been out since 2013, and wasn't a huge seller to begin with, the sales of "Hold My Hand" prior to The Grammys was near negligible. When it shot up to 11,000 downloads following the ceremony, that amounted to a 25,405 percent increase.
Songs featured in the ceremony totaled 2.04 million downloads in the last sales period, but four of the 26 songs equated to more than 75 percent of that total. Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" was the leader with 584,000 downloads, while "FourFiveSeconds," Hozier's "Take Me To Church" and Smith's "Stay With Me" were the other three.
