So all these news outlets are running around reporting that in the wake of the documentary that there’s been a spike in his ‘Sales’ of R Kelley’s music… There’s a lot of straight-up bullshyt in those headlines so let’s unpack what’s happening.
The headlines ‘R Kelly Record Sales Increase‘ suggest one of two scenarios. The first is tens of thousands or perhaps ‘millions’ of people upon watching the documentary and hearing all these disturbing and compelling testimonies of rape, sexual assault, and abuse were moved and inspired to go to the local record store and ‘purchase’ R Kelly music…
Really?? Think about that. Does that make sense? Tens of thousands of people heard about R Kelly urinating in the mouth of a 14-year-old and reacted by saying; ‘Ya know.. lemme go purchase the latest R Kelly album‘ Do people even know the name of R Kelly’s latest album? Common sense told you that didn’t happen.
The other scenario is that folks saw the documentary or heard about it and said they didn’t believe the women and their stories and said they would go out and purchase R Kelly music to make a defiant statement. So, in other words, folks said; ‘Damn it R Kelly is in trouble, they are trying to pull him down, lemme go purchase music to help keep this embattled brother alive’…Is that what we think happened.?
So let’s look at some of the numbers being tossed about in these articles and give this some context. There is are two websites, The Blast, and Refinery29.com that seem to be the first to report that ‘streams’… not record sales… but streams of R Kelly’s music on Spotify had increased. In the articles, they note that R Kelly’s numbers had increased by 16% since the Surviving R Kelly documentary aired. They also toss out some impressive-sounding numbers like R Kelly has a monthly listener base of ‘over 5.5 million and over 1.7 million subscribers. You can read the articles HERE.. and HERE.
Many of the stories reporting on Kelly’s supposed ‘increased record sales’ have quoted or pulled from these two articles including actress Jada Pinkett Smith who put up an Instagram video expressing bewilderment that R Kelly is sales are flourishing.
So yes, 5.5 million monthly listeners seems like a big number. And to be honest, should we be surprised? Keep in mind, R Kelly is an A-List artist, who’s been around for more than 20 years and has sold over 75 million albums. So 5.5 million listeners sounds legit until you compare him to some of his contemporaries.
For example, let’s compare R Kelly’s numbers to someone like Lil Wayne who has 21 million monthly listeners, Kodak Black who has 27 million listeners, Meek Mill, another embattled artist has 22 million listeners, or Drake who has 44 million listeners. R Kelly’s monthly listeners are comparable to someone like Iggy Azalea who has close to 5.5 million.
What’s the point being made here? Since these news reports wanted to entice us by tossing out numbers we can do that as well, and when you start stacking it up, R Kelly ain’t doing all that, as these stories would imply.
Let’s look at some other numbers. On Youtube, the R Kelly Channel has 2.2 million subscribers. He gained about 100k new subscribers since November 2018. Compare his numbers that with Drake who has 17 million, Kodak Black who has 4.8 million, Meek Mill who has 2.9 million. In short the R Kelly has increased record sales is a bunch of hype..
Claims that R. Kelly Has Increased Record Sales is a Bunch of Hype
So all these news outlets are running around reporting that in the wake of the documentary that there’s been a spike in his ‘Sales’ of R Kelley’s music… There’s a lot of straight-upbullshyt in those headlines so let’s unpack what’s happening.
.
The headlines ‘R Kelly Record Sales Increase‘ suggest one of two scenarios. The first is tens of thousands or perhaps ‘millions’ of people upon watching the documentary and hearing all these disturbing and compelling testimonies of rape, sexual assault, and abuse were moved and inspired to go to the local record store and ‘purchase’ R Kelly music…
Really?? Think about that. Does that make sense? Tens of thousands of people heard about R Kelly urinating in the mouth of a 14-year-old and reacted by saying; ‘Ya know.. lemme go purchase the latest R Kelly album‘ Do people even know the name of R Kelly’s latest album? Common sense told you that didn’t happen
The other scenario is that folks saw the documentary or heard about it and said they didn’t believe the women and their stories and said they would go out and purchase R Kelly music to make a defiant statement. So, in other words, folks said; ‘Damn it R Kelly is in trouble, they are trying to pull him down, lemme go purchase music to help keep this embattled brother alive’…Is that what we think happened.?
seems like a big number. And to be honest, should we be surprised? Keep in mind, R Kelly is an A-List artist, who’s been around for more than 20 years and has sold over 75 million albums. So 5.5 million listeners sounds legit until you compare him to some of his contemporaries.
So let’s look at some of the numbers being tossed about in these articles and give this some context. There is are two websites, The Blast, and Refinery29.com that seem to be the first to report that ‘streams’… not record sales… but streams of R Kelly’s music on Spotify had increased. In the articles, they note that R Kelly’s numbers had increased by 16% since the Surviving R Kelly documentary aired. They also toss out some impressive-sounding numbers like R Kelly has a monthly listener base of ‘over 5.5 million and over 1.7 million subscribers. You can read the articles HERE.. and HERE.
Many of the stories reporting on Kelly’s supposed ‘increased record sales’ have quoted or pulled from these two articles including actress Jada Pinkett Smith who put up an Instagram video expressing bewilderment that R Kelly is sales are flourishing.
So yes, 5.5 million monthly listeners
For example, let’s compare R Kelly’s numbers to someone like Lil Wayne who has 21 million monthly listeners, Kodak Black who has 27 million listeners, Meek Mill, another embattled artist has 22 million listeners, or Drake who has 44 million listeners. R Kelly’s monthly listeners are comparable to someone like Iggy Azalea who has close to 5.5 million.
What’s the point being made here? Since these news reports wanted to entice us by tossing out numbers we can do that as well, and when you start stacking it up, R Kelly ain’t doing all that, as these stories would imply.
Let’s look at some other numbers. On Youtube, the R Kelly Channel has 2.2 million subscribers. He gained about 100k new subscribers since November 2018. Compare his numbers that with Drake who has 17 million, Kodak Black who has 4.8 million, Meek Mill who has 2.9 million. In short the R Kelly has increased record sales is a bunch of hype..