Rush Of Rush Music Sales Rise After Neil Peart's Death

Neil Peart (Twitter @overtime_angels)

JAKARTA - Sales of Canadian progressive rock band Rush have increased by 2000 percent since the death of drummer Neil Peart.

The drummer and main lyricist of Rush's songs died on January 7 after battling brain cancer for the past 3.5 years. The news of the charismatic drummer's death was confirmed by Peart's spokesman, Elliott Mintz.

Peart's band mates, Geddy Lee (vocals / bass) and Alex Lifeson (guitar) shared a statement regarding his friend's death a few days later via social media.

"It is with broken hearts and deep sadness that we have to share the bad news that on Tuesday our friend, soul mate and bandmate of 45 years, Neil, lost his incredible 3.5 year battle against brain cancer (Glioblastoma)," read Rush's official statement on his Instagram account.

Rush then asked the Pearts for privacy: "We ask friends, fans and the media alike to respect the family's need for privacy and peace at this painful and difficult time. Those who wish to offer their condolences can choose a cancer research group or charity and make a donation. on behalf of Neil. "

"Rest in peace my brother," Rush's statement concluded.

Neil Peart September 12, 1952 - January 7, 2020 pic.twitter.com/NivX2RhiB8

- Rush (@rushtheband) January 10, 2020

It is now revealed that in the days following Peart's death, streaming of Rush's songs soared by 776 percent in the United States, according to a preliminary report from Nielsen Music / MRC Data (via Billboard).

Meanwhile, demand for audio and video streaming based on the Rush song catalog increased to 24.54 million from Jan 10-13 - up 776.4 percent compared to the previous four days (2.8 million on Jan 6-9).

Rush's most-streamed song during the same period was Tom Sawyer's 1981 hit, with 2.82 million streams (up 305 percent compared to 698K streams on Jan 6-9).

As far as sales, Rush's song catalog grew by 2,304 percent to 19 thousand (from 1,000), while the group's album sales were up 1,820 percent to 6,000 (from a really low previous figure.