Daft Punk streams and sales have soared to record-numbers following the announcement of their break-up after 28 years together.
On Monday, 22 February 2021, it was announced that the iconic music-duo Daft Punk are splitting up after over 28 years as a band. The duo, consisting of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, announced the split in a video titled Epologue.
Although the video only sparked rumours of a split, the band’s long-time publicist, Kathryn Frazier, subsequently confirmed the news to Pitchfork, but gave no reason behind it.
The Rolling Stone reports (citing their Analytics provider Alpha Data) that streams of Daft Punk’s music soared nearly 500% on Monday alone, compared to the day before. The sales of their music have also increased, with song sales being up 1,335% and digital sales being up 2,650% on Monday; With a music bibliography going back nearly 30 years, the listeners weren’t short on options.
With songs like ‘One More Time’, ‘Digital Love’ and ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’, their most streamed album on Monday was Discovery from 2001. The album has previously been ranked Number 236 on the Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Discovery was streamed a total of 1.5 million times on Monday – an increase of 429% compared to the day before. The digital sales of the album increased with over 8,000%.
The most streamed songs on Monday were ‘Get Lucky’, ‘One More Time’, ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’, ‘Around the World’ and their collaboration with Julian Casablancas, ‘Instant Crush’.
Spotify reported a 242% increase in Daft Punk ‘discoveries’ on Tuesday, with 459,334 members streaming the band for the first time on the service that day. Similarly, Pandora reported a 1,546% increase in artist station adds the same day.
Words by Alice Sjöberg
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