Butterfly
Album – Certification – Date – Soundscan – Unsold units – Gap
Butterfly – 3xP – 01/08/1998 – 2,100,000 – 800,000 – 100,000
Butterfly – 5xP – 12/15/1999 – 3,550,000 – Irrelevant – 1,450,000
Butterfly is one more album with an impressive showing at Clubs. It must be said that Christmas period releases often benefitted greatly from them. In fact, the timing was near perfect as after the first few months destroying charts and sales during the Christmas hype albums tend to drop fast. This is the perfect moment to activate them on Clubs and use lower prices to sell large quantities of albums with popular singles during the softer months of the market. Selling 3,4 million units as per Soundscan by the end of 1998, the album climbed to 3,8 million up to date, proving itself to be one of the best catalog seller of the artist.
I noticed that – against the analysis that you give in this article – that both Mariah’s “Merry Christmas” and “Rainbow” actually were available through the Columbia House music club. They even had regular catalog numbers: Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas (Columbia) – 112789 Available as of 1995: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/82467713/ As of 2001: https://archive.org/details/universityofmemp2001unse –> page 142 Mariah Carey – Rainbow (Columbia) 324608 Available as of October 2000: https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-22-2000-p-857/ As of 2001: https://archive.org/details/universityofmemp2001unse –> page 137 “Rainbow” is even presented with a picture, which sets it apart from less popular albums. How does that go together with your claim that both… Read more »
Hi Luminator! The last 3 links you provide are all ads of BMG Music Club (CDHQ) rather than Columbia House. I’m not able to read the first one. I once posted the full catalog of Columbia House as of 1997 and Merry Christmas wasn’t there. Clubs availability (just like Spotify availability nowadays) hasn’t always been constant, some albums could have gone in and out their lists one or two times. I went through that full 1997 catalog and also hundreds of old Columbia ads, still it isn’t impossible that there is albums I never saw that were available at some… Read more »
hello i dont really understand whats the unsold units?
Hi puffygucci!
They refer to the amount of copies shipped by labels but not sold to consumers so far, they are copies remaining on shelves / stocks of retailers!
Hey MJD, can you post a breakdown for Ariana Grande sales, please?
P.S.: I loved the new site <3
Hi dear MJD !!!
congratulations for the beautiful articles for Music Clubs 1 and 2. This weekend do you will realize CSPC analysis of some singer or groups ?
I hope you realize CSPC analysis of The Beatles !!!
Hi Anthony!
There is two classic male acts CSPC studies in the making, plus two relatively recent bands which will be treated next. As we are nearing Christmas, I’ll try to drop such an article for every major act releasing a new album. I’m already collecting various information about The Beatles at the same time, as soon as I have a free week spot I’ll post their article!
Sting is about to release a new album, let’s hope he – along with his band, The Police – are among those who will be treated next!
Fantastic job, as usual. I would like to see how high “Merry Christmas” can get if Sony requests an audit for it + streaming inclusion… it could easily get 7 platinum.
I also wonder if Eagles’ “Greatest hits” can keep up the competition with “Thriller”… it seems unlikely now that streaming is a factor.
I have one further remark: I totally agree with you on all your estimations, but i find Rainbow’s shipment of 3,5 million a tad bit too low. Isn’t it reasonable to estimate 3,6-3,7 million considering the inaccuracy of SoundScan and further shipments?
I would be very grateful if you’d have a word on this remark!
Thanks in advance!
Hello Luminator! As you can see there is slightly more than 4,4 million units confirmed. As the album is dead now, hardly stocked anywhere, nearly all copies shipped have either been sold – and track on its Soundscan tally – or returned. Also, in 1999 Soundscan was way more reliable than in the first half of the 90s. This being said, nobody – except owning all Sony bills related to the album – can know the to date net shipment number with less than a 2% margin. Considering known information and the lack of later certs to refine non-Soundscan sales… Read more »
Thank you! I guess the 4,…. numbers were a typo! Of course we’re talking about the 3,…. -range 😉
This is so well explained. Must have taken a lot of time too. Seriously, thank you!
Thank you so much MJ! You really invested a lot of your time for Mariah and cleared up all the stupid discussion concerning her “fake diamond albums”!
I hope to see her overall CSPC article very soon! It’s about time 😉