Stamp Yuh Name.
When famous and beloved artists die suddenly, everyone wants their music.
The Washington Post 1997 article ‘Death Roars Up the Charts’ described sales booming after the death of David Bowie, Tupac & Lennon. Both the 2014 study ‘Death-Related Publicity as Information Advertising: Evidence from the Music Industry” and the 2019 Music Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) abstract ‘Music, Death, and Profits; Variables Contributing to the Surge in Sales After and Artists Death’, concluded that an artist’s record sales increased by an average of 54% following their death – and not just immediately after, potentially for several months and years.
Researchers would later coin the term the ‘Prince Effect’ after sales surged by 16000% the day after that artist’s death in 2016. Similarly in 2021 in the days following the death of DMX, streams of his catalogue grew +900% in the U.S. ..
It has been just a month now since the unexpected passing of our beloved Ricardo Robert Barriteau Drue, and the trend appears to be the same. Alongside the wave of public mourning for the widely loved and respected Soca Artist, Drue’s music on Apple Music and iTunes grew +600% over the past thirty (30) days compared to the month prior, and still +150% compared to the prior three (3) months. Likewise, his Spotify monthly listeners have increased by 21% in the over the past month, bringing his current total to just under 50k.
I.D. (Stamp Yuh Name) became the #5 song streamed for Drue, just surpassing Homesick in that position days prior. Last One Standing, Drue’s recent Road March winning song for the 2023 Antigua & Barbuda Carnival season had the highest growth rate of his songs, increasing its Spotify Streams by 52% in just 30 days.
Apple Music and iTunes were much of the same as Antigua & Barbuda held the flag high for its native son with three (3) songs (Last One Standing, Iron & Ah Love it Here) each peaking at #1 in recent weeks. Over the course of the month, 10 songs in total would peak in the Top 10 in his homeland on the iTunes Charts.
Throughout the Caribbean, the Drue World Order banner has been held high with several songs, including Last One Standing, I.D. (Stamp Yuh Name) & Dear Beloved (with Turner), also coming in at #1 on the iTunes Charts.
Over the course of the past 30 days on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and Radio Airplay, eighty-six (86) songs by Ricardo Drue were streamed in over thirty (30) countries around the world. Eighteen (18) of them (just over 20%), would also peak in the Top 10 across 13 countries from Antigua & Barbuda to Australia.
In an unreleased song which played during the ceremony, Drue sang almost prophetically, ‘When ah dead and gone. Not a tear in your eye’ I don’t want you to cry for me. Celebrate in song, and my name will live on when you sing that melody….”
We will never forget you, our dear Ricardo Drue, loving father, devoted son, we will continue to sing your sweet Soca melodies.
The Soca Source extends condolences to his children, fiancée, family and friends.
Take a listen to Ricardo Drue’s Top songs on Spotify.
