Super Bowl XLII boosts digital music sales

GLENDALE, Ariz., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Digital sales for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers music skyrocketed after the band's Super Bowl XLII halftime performance, a report said.

With Petty and his band taking the lead, artists who appeared in TV ads or performed during the game showed increased sales, Billboard reported Friday.

Super bowl XLII reportedly pulled in 97 million viewers, which made it the most watched Super Bowl in history.

"A huge part of our marketing was online-based. With big television events, the online aspect is so important because people can see (the performance) happen onscreen and then immediately react and buy it online," Universal Music Enterprises Executive Mike Davis said.

The week following the game, sales for the Heartbreakers' "Greatest Hits" went up 196 percent, with 33,000 units, and took the Billboard's Top Pop Catalog No. 1 spot, Nielsen SoundScan reported.