February 07, 2009

By AYALA BEN-YEHUDA

The Grammy Awards represent a professional honor and a coveted performance spot, because the telecast has historically boosted sales for nominees, winners and performers. Just in time for the 51st annual Grammy Awards ceremony Feb. 8, Billboard parent the Nielsen Co. has completed a study demonstrating that awards shows are still a boon to commerce, even as their TV viewership declines.

"Despite waning viewership numbers, and a male audience that has gone MIA, award shows remain popular with advertisers, and even more so with artists who can see record sales climb as much as 700% one week after the show airs," according to Nielsen Entertainment's Valentina Nucete and Nielsen Monitor-Plus' Virginia Harvey.

Ratings for the Grammys averaged 18.2 million viewers on CBS last year, compared with 20 million in 2007 (billboard.biz, May 21, 2008). The Grammys weren't the only awards show that experienced audience desertion: Ratings for the 2008 Academy Awards telecast on ABC dropped 24% among adults 18-49 compared with its 2007 telecast, according to the Nielsen report.

In the past three years, the report found that nine out of 10 artists who won or performed saw an increase in album sales. Three-quarters of those also had spikes in digital song sales.

Artists at various stages of their careers have benefited from Grammy buzz. Amy Winehouse, a superstar in the United Kingdom but an up-and-comer in the United States, nearly quintupled the weekly sales of her Universal Republic album "Back to Black" after performing on last year's show and winning five awards, jumping from 25,000 to 115,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Herbie Hancock's "River: The Joni Letters" on Verve/Universal sold 54,000 copies the week after it won album of the year in 2008, a whopping 967% increase. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, nominated for album of the year (and four other categories) this year for their Rounder collaboration "Raising Sand," had a jump of 88% for the album in its post-nominations week.

After the 2007 Grammys, "half of musical participants enjoyed a sales push of 50% or more during the seven-day post-show period," according to the Nielsen study.

On Grammy night, songs performed during the ceremony inspire viewers to jump online and download digital versions. But the Grammys aren't the only awards show with music. The Oscar winners for best original song have all experienced a bounce. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova's "Falling Slowly" from the movie "Once" leapt 207% in digital downloads, from 14,000 to 42,000. Other Academy Award music winners, such as Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" and Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," and their soundtracks posted double- and triple-digit percentage gains.

Still, there are times when awards shows have a less-than-stellar impact on sales. Though several winners and performers on Univision's Latin Grammys telecast Nov. 13 experienced large percentage increases relative to their sales, only Juanes saw an album gain of more than 1,000 copies. ••••

Additional reporting by Leila Cobo and Ann Donahue.

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