AFTERSHOCK! Ken Burns’ Country Music Series Kicks Up Classic Country Sales

As more viewers see the recent PBS showing of Ken Burns Country Music, the sale of classic country music has taken a certain upward turn. iTunes reports that 14 of their top 20 best selling album streams are from artists that were highlighted on the TV series.

Every performer that was highlighted on the film has shown a significant spike in sales. As an example: Merle Haggard's LP 20 Greatest Hits got over a million streams in the first week after the special aired. Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash saw similar increases. Not surprising to me was the fantastic reaction to Patsy Cline's albums which got over TWO million streams. Amazon reports that the #2 album on their all-genre chart is now the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken with Willie Nelson's Stardust at #3.

What effect this will have on the popularity of Classic Country music will not be felt for many years as more and more people view the film. If the word of mouth (read "social media") is any indication, the popularity of the series will grow for quite a while.