Fans hoping to score some of the famous James Brown sound may find retailers funk-free and soul-ed out.

A run on Mr. Brown's catalog after his death has music retailers struggling to keep up with demand.

Noura Gordon, the manager of Pyramid Records on Broad Street, said the store sold out of James Brown music and has been unable to restock.

"The warehouse is out," she said. "There's been a real demand."

Talli Sullivent at FYE in Augusta Mall said it sold out but hopes to replenish stocks Friday.

At the popular online retailer amazon.com, waiting periods range from a few days to a few weeks for most James Brown releases.

"The unfortunate death of James Brown was not something we could have or wanted to predict," Amazon spokesman Sean Sundwall said. "It caught us off-guard, and in our conversations with Mr. Brown's label we've found that it is going on everywhere."

Using Mr. Brown's popular 20 All-Time Greatest Hits as an illustration, Mr. Sundwall said the recording peaked at No. 2 on the Amazon sales charts the day after Christmas. That represented a rise of 1,235 percent.

He said the demand for Mr. Brown's music has been somewhat unprecedented.

"We'll often see works peak on either the best-sellers or Movers and Shakers list," he said. "But I've never seen four albums by the same artist make it into the top 10 at the same time, which is exactly what happened with James Brown."

Dana Harris, the vice president of corporate communications at Napster.com, said that while the digital nature of the music download business means never selling out, there has been a noticeable spike. According to Napster records, Mr. Brown moved from the 400th most-searched artist on the site to 14th.