The vast musical catalog of toppled titan Sean “Diddy” Combs has experienced a significant boost on streaming platforms since his arrest and confinement on federal charges.
Combs, 54, who has had multiple monikers since he emerged in the early 1990s — including Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy and Love — is languishing in the Metropolitan Correctional Facility, yet his song and album streams have jumped nearly 20 percent, industry data and analytics company Luminate shared with the Associated Press.
George Howard, a professor of music business management at Berklee College of Music, said Diddy’s music trending high on streaming services makes sense.
“Music just becomes another piece of information as people try to comprehend the atrocities,” Howard told the AP. “It’s like, ‘What would someone whose brain works like that, allegedly, what would their music sound like?’”
Also, most streaming music fans were either not born or too young in the 1990s to have experienced Diddy as a musician and producer. Most fans in the new millennium know Diddy as a business mogul and global influencer who used to own various portions of companies like Revolt TV and Ciroc vodka.
“The natural curiosity that these types of charges evoke makes sense,” Howard added. “It’s like driving by a car crash. People want to look.”
Howard gave an example of disgraced crooner R. Kelly, one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of his generation. Following the airing of the explosive Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and subsequent imprisonment, Howard said streaming of R. Kelly’s music nearly doubled.
It also helps that modern technology enables fans to buy music anonymously, saving patrons the embarrassment of in-person purchases of outcast artists such as R. Kelly and Diddy.
“Imagine walking into a record store now like, ‘Yeah, I want to buy this Diddy CD,’” he said.
Combs is in jail without bail after being indicted on federal sex trafficking, prostitution and racketeering charges. He pleaded not guilty.
