According to a new report at Billboard citing initial reports from Nielsen Music/MRC Data streams of Rush’s music have grown by 776% since the death of their drummer Neil Peart was announced on January 10th. Peart died on January 7th under care for brain cancer. Audio and video streams of Rush’s catalog of songs increased to a combined 24.54 million — up 776.4% as compared to the previous four days (2.8 million on Jan. 6-9). The act’s most-streamed tunes during the Jan. 10-13 period was the 1981 hit ‘Tom Sawyer,’ with 2.82 million streams (up 305% as compared to the 698,000 streams it registered Jan. 6-9). In terms of sales, Rush’s catalog of songs grew by 2,304% to 19,000 (from 1,000), while the group’s album sales gained 1,820% to 6,000 (up from a negligible figure).
It’s expected that Rush’s songs and albums will impact next week’s Billboard charts (dated Jan. 25), including a likely re-entry on the Billboard 200 chart from the act’s best-of collection The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974 – 1987.