Despite his sex trafficking verdict, R. Kelly’s album sales have increased by more than 500 percent a week after his conviction.
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The singer’s albums sales increased by 517% after he was found guilty of sexual exploitation, bribery, racketeering, and sex trafficking on Sept. 27. According to Rolling Stone, Apple and Spotify did not include Kelly’s music on curated playlists and several artists have removed their collaborations with Kelly off of their streaming profiles.
So far, YouTube is the only platform to officially remove all of Kelly’s official music videos from the site except for unofficial music videos, citing that the singer violated “creator responsibility guidelines.”
“Egregious actions committed by R. Kelly warrant penalties beyond standard enforcement measures due to a potential to cause widespread harm. Ultimately we are taking this action to protect our users similar to other platforms,” said Youtube’s Head of Legal Nicole Alston.
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Prior to the verdict, Kelly’s songs were streamed more this year than in 2017. He averaged around 5.4 million streams per week that year but it increased to 6.4 million amid his highly publicized legal situation.
SOURCE: New York Post