M-J Music: Radio Airplay Drops

HBO's new documentary Leaving Neverland, which chronicles allegations of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson, has led to a dip in sales, streaming and airplay for his catalog of music in the U.S., according to Billboard citing initial reports to Nielsen Music.

The first two hours of the four-hour Neverland film debuted on HBO on Sunday, March 3, and the second two hours bowed on the network a day later.

Michael Jackson

Jackson’s combined album and song sales -- including his work with the Jackson 5 and The Jacksons -- dipped 4 percent in the shadow of the Neverland premiere. His combined sales on March 3-5 totaled nearly 8,000, down from the little over 8,000 on the previous Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Feb. 24-26).

Breaking that down further, looking at just album sales, his total fell by 39 percent in that span (dropping to about 1,000, down from nearly 2,000). Conversely, his song sales increased by 6 percent (rising to nearly 7,000 up from 6,000).

In terms of on-demand audio and video streams, Jackson’s tunes saw a decline of 5 percent, falling to 19.7 million on March 3-5, down from 18.7 million on Feb. 24-26.

Viewing Jackson’s radio airplay picture, spins of his songs fell by 13 percent to 5,200 plays across all monitored U.S. terrestrial and satellite radio stations on March 3-5 (down from 6,000 on Feb. 24-26).