Kelly Clarkson’s album “Stronger” sales reportedly grew Stronger after Ron Paul Twitter endorsement

The “American Idol” alum Kelly Clarkson’s album “Stronger” sales reportedly grew Stronger after her Twitter endorsement of Ron Paul, but her political views had little to do with the sales jump, The Hollywood Reporter writes.

The week before Christmas, a flurry of stories online said that Clarkson’s album sales jumped anywhere from 200 to 400 percent, depending on the report. The album of the "Miss Independent" singer did climb to No. 17 from No. 39 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Billboard reported that other albums experienced a greater decline in sales as shoppers cut back on spending the week after Christmas. The overall album market dropped 49% that week.

Ron Paul himself was proud about what the endorsement did for her sales. At a campaign stop before the caucuses earlier this week, the presidential hopeful bragged to a group of Iowa high schoolers about his popularity among Clarkson fans.

“They went up and bumped up her sales on her records by 600 percent,” Paul said. No offense to Paul, but the bump had more to do with iTunes promotions rather than her libertarian views:

…it wasn’t Clarkson’s political preferences that pushed digital sales of Stronger — its $7.99 sale price (which was matched by Amazon MP3) and iTunes’ advertising were the real reasons behind the gain. Those spikes were usually cited as evidence of the sales gain in the “Ron Paul Sales Bump” articles. In fact, Clarkson’s album, “Stronger” sold 40 percent fewer (41,000 to 25,000) copies than the week before the endorsement. Even though it moved from No. 39 to No. 17 on the Billboard 200 chart, this was due to Clarkson’s album selling better than the other titles on the list.

Kelly Clarkson and Ron Paul