No Surge in Album Sales After Jackson’s Interview

Overnight ratings for Michael Jackson’s appearance with Oprah Winfrey may have been huge in the Nielsens, but the interest hasn’t translated to album sales.

Music retailers in Southern California and New York report no increase in sales of his albums after the interview, which was broadcast live Wednesday to an estimated 90 million people in the United States.

“People were talking about the show but not buying (Jackson’s albums),” said Eddie Lopez Jr., shift manager at the Sam Goody’s store in the South Coast Corner shopping center in Santa Ana. “Everyone who wanted (his latest album “Dangerous”) bought it before.”

The word was the same at the Virgin Megastore in West Hollywood, a Wherehouse store in Long Beach and the Tower Records store on Broadway in New York, although Tower store manager Howard Cespedes noted that “there might be more over the weekend, when a lot of people do their shopping.”