It's great to "get it while you can," as Janis Joplin used to counsel. But in the pop music world, many artists loom much larger, and sell many more albums, after they've moved to the great beyond. Consider these sales statistics gleaned from the Recording Industry Association of America, noting the number of gold (500,000 copies) and platinum (1 million copies) sales awards issued to famous artists during their lives and after they'd gone, for albums and long-form videos.
By our reckoning, awards made within a month of the artist's death still deserved to be notched in the "Alive" column, since the recording association is dependent on record companies to supply information and thus way behind in their tallying. These gold and platinum awards are for U.S. sales only:
Artist (Alive/Dead)
Elvis Presley (23/ 224)
Frank Sinatra (34/ 9)
Janis Joplin (2/ 14)
John Lennon (6/ 13)
Kurt Cobain with Nirvana (13/ 19)
Jimi Hendrix (3/ 31)
Jim Morrison with the Doors (5/ 20)
Bob Marley (0/ 26)