The irony is that Michael Jackson is the ideal artist for digital distribution. EVERYONE likes at least one Michael Jackson song. Or at least everyone I’ve ever met. So though his prime was well before the iTunes era his broad appeal shows how digital distribution can help an artist sell more music by giving the consumer the ability to pick and choose what songs they want.
This is kind of ironic, if you consider that digital distribution can empower the artist to sell without a whole bunch of intermediaries and therefore benefit more from the sales...