A PURPLE REIGN AT RETAIL (UPDATE)

In what is unquestionably the most profound marketplace response to a star's death since Michael Jackson, the sudden death of Prince has powered an explosion of demand at retail.

The response at the iTunes Store was staggering, with Prince albums occupying 15 of the top 20 slots through the weekend, including the Top 5, and his tracks ruling 19 of the Top 20. While Beyoncé's arrival at the download emporium saw her leap to #1, Prince has continued to dominate otherwise.

The singles side resembled a Prince mixtape; the top 10 consisted of "Purple Rain," "Little Red Corvette," "When Doves Cry," "Kiss," "Let's Go Crazy," "1999," "Raspberry Beret," "I Would Die 4 U," "Purple Rain" from The Very Best and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” with plenty more scattered throughout the leaderboard. Bey and Drake have since re-infiltrated the upper tier, but Prince stays strong.

At Amazon, meanwhile, Prince dominated both the Digital Albums and Digital Songs charts; on the latter rundown he has 38 of the Top 40. Oh, and CDs and vinyl too. Speaking of vinyl, the 180-gram Purple Rain, 1999, Dirty Mind and Controversy, to name but a few, will set you back around $30 apiece. Totally worth it.

Overall, orders at major outlets are in the hundreds of thousands, and production is ramping up to meet demand. This phenomenon will undoubtedly alter the complexion of the next couple of charts.