You have been voting in your numbers on voting at Chartmasters.org for your favorite artist to be studied with the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept. The promise was that artists winning each category would be covered within a few weeks. On political campaigns, commitments aren’t always completed but our site is fully aiming to respect them! Among artists with a mid-sized discography, Janet Jackson received half of the votes – 297 out of 592 as of now – the highest total of any artists from all categories making it natural to start filling your wishes by working on her statistics!
It is a mystery to nobody that the American superstar hasn’t been doing headlines for many years. The little sister of Michael Jackson is more than a famous sibling or a faded rising star. Her discography spans 33 years from 1982 to 2015. Along the way she topped the US charts with 10 singles and 7 albums, proving a real selling power.
Albums like Control and Rhythm Nation 1814 are often claimed to be 14 million sellers each while 1993 set Janet. is supposed to be a 20 million seller. Regular readers of our website are certainly questioning those tallies though as they know how often inflated figures flood the internet, especially when the popular divas a la Madonna, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston or Celine Dion are concerned. Her chart toppers are completely legitimate so she must have sold a good chunk of units with various of her records. What is the truth then? Where does Janet Jackson rank inside the all-time divas list?
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge her results. The concept will not only bring you sales information for all Janet Jackson albums, physical singles, download singles, music videos and streaming, it will also accurately weight all this information to conclude her true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC idea, the next page explains it with a short video, I fully recommend you to watch it before getting onto the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures. Let’s go!
Hi,
Are these statements reliable?
https://jj-cs.tumblr.com/most-downloaded-songs-in-the-us
It looks like, as MJD said before, Together sales are also underestimated, do you plan to update everything soon?
Hi G.G.!
To be 100% honest there is no plan to update Janet in the near future as her total wouldn’t change as much as other older articles like Eminem, U2, the Stones, Queen, etc. I feel that the priority must be give to artists who are running the most ahead of their former totals.
I personally feel like for Janet, you went with the lowest estimation you possibly could but for everyone else, you overestimated their sales. Please redo Janet!!! I feel like there are could be some missing numbers.
Hi Iris!
While all studied acts will be updated in due time, especially those with the old multi-page format, this claim is extremely childish. All acts are studied the same way and no one here has a vendetta against Janet Jackson (or any other artist). If you have any actual proof that her sales have been underestimated, feel free to post it and you can be sure we’ll look into it. But until then, it comes off as wishful thinking. Janet’s sales have been carefully analysed and estimated based on official sources, such as her label, IFPI, etc.
Her fanclub inflated her sales a lot, and I don’t understand why they do that, she has incredible numbers. Years ago (Around 2012) when her new website was released it included sales of her albums that were not much different than the listed here (Janet 12kk, RN 10kk and so on), but a lot of fans complained in the twitter saying that the info was outdated and many thing like that, and the sales was erased. After that the official website became to publish the inflated numbers that we know… Unfortunally we can’t see the past info in the site… Read more »
Very true Marcus! I often say that selling 1 million copies is already a lot. When you think about it, getting 1 million different people paying $10 to listen to you sing, it’s amazing. Let alone 10 million, and let alone repeating this feat multiple times. Janet is definitely on a league where there is no need for inflation. I suppose it’s down to the 90s situation where a big 4 emerged with Madonna, Mariah, Celine and Whitney, and some people tried to make it a big 5. That’s unnecessary, her numbers speak for themselves, she did wonders especially when… Read more »
You are absolutely right MJD that’s what I explained before… For me she had an incredible career for the type of music she did and the few released albums she had during her golden years, she really sold very well…
MJ sold 5x as much as her and they both made the same music.
Whitney and Mariah were making similar music and were selling more.
She did well, but Iets not over exaggerate her sales.
Whitney and mariah did not make the same music as Janet Jackson at all.
They kinda did because Mariah and Whitney were both pop/r&b from the beginning.
Lol Maybe you’re a bit deaf because from Thriller to the end of his career Michael did more pop music oriented than his sister
Hi Mjd I would like to know if 77 millions albums sold is only album sales or record sales (with singles)?
Hi Melany!
It’s none of both. It’s all records sales, but with weighting by format. For example physical singles are weighted as 0.3 album, thus the total is 77 million equivalent album sales.
Ok thank you so much and last question how many albums did she sold with compilation and remix album worldwide ? 65 millions ? 60 millions? Thanx
Just under 60 million (50.5 million studio albums, 9.1 million compilations/remixes) by the time of the article, let’s round it to 60 million by now!
Thank you so much I think Janet was very big during the nineties I live in France by the way and she was everywhere between the Janet and all for you era. The album sales look really low compared to the other divas of the same era but don’t forget that she was a black female rnb first not so much a pop artist like Madonna or Mariah (early nineties) and she released really few albums during her golden years 86/01 and Control and rhythm nation were more America oriented in the 80´s… Actually I knew these albums only when… Read more »
Lol, why are most of the US album sales lower than the ACTUAL Nielsen Soundscan reported numbers (not even talking about the SPS leaked ones)?
Greetings, I am interested to know how you got the figure 375K for TVR in Germany. The album had a very healthy chart run. I would assume at least 400k. 5-7-6-10-13-14-29-39-44-36-21-11-6-5-6-7-11-10-12-12-15-21-25-29-30-32-34-38-39-39-48-53-68-85-89-91-99 Also your numbers are off from the leaked Soundscan reports from May 2018. janet. Chartmasters: 8,000,000 Nielsen Soundscan: 8,156,073 Design Of A Decade Chartmasters: 4,000,000 Nielsen Soundscan: 4,766,247 The Velvet Rope Chartmasters: 3,800,000 Nielsen Soundscan: 4,089,764 All For You Chartmasters: 3,300,000 Nielsen Soundscan: 3,571,296 Damita Jo Chartmasters: 1,050,000 Nielsen Soundscan: 1,100,395 20 Y.O. Chartmasters: 700,000 Nieslen Soundscan: 777,168 Discipline Chartmasters: 480,000 Nieslen Soundscan: 590,778 Number Ones/The Best Chartmasters: 600,000… Read more »
Hi Bret! 1. MJD used a formula that helps convert chart runs into sales for most markets taking into account the market size and the period. In this case, TVR chart run in Germany is converted to 354K based on the formula. Bear in mind that this formula reflects shipped units rather than “soundscan-like” sales unit. Add in catalog sales after the chart run and the figure of 375K is reached. Although TVR was released in Q4 of 1997, suggesting consistently solid sales, let’s not forget that during the resurgence of the album into the Top 10, it was already… Read more »
The reason Chartmaster’s numbers for Janet’s US shipped album sales excludes the streaming sales is because there is no per country breakdown of those data, it is looked at as a whole worldwide album equivalents while the leaked Soundscan + club sales data is focused on the US only. And even at that, the leaked SPS numbers for the “Number Ones/The Best” album compilation puts it at over 1.5 million in the USA alone, while even if you add all the album sale equivalents the specific songs from that compilation generates according to the (outdated) Spotify numbers Chartmasters has for… Read more »
Your lack of data from Africa do not make your claims the most accurate figure too. I mean you I do believe that your figures are low for many black arists. It’s not like albums/singles are not sold in these countries.
Hi Edward! Have you ever been to Africa? I was living there until last summer and NO, albums/singles are not sold in these countries. There is no music retailers in most, no music industry organization, no labels implanted. At best a few FNACs are here and there filled with unsold copies from Europe at an heavily expensive price (higher than in Europe because of shipment costs). Apart from SA, there has been a few legal sales in Nigeria and in Zimbabwe at some point, but numbers were very low (a few thousands) even for top sellers. Just go to Discogs… Read more »
Even in many Asian countries piracy was rampant back in the 80s, 90s early 00s. Im pretty sure piracy was even a much larger problems in African countries considering that there is loterally no music organizations there. I dont think sales in Africa would’ve made it such a big deal despite black singers huge fan base there.
https://books.google.com.br/books?id=1Q0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA75&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Together Again sold 800k during 1998 in US. Definitly it didn’t reach the 1 million copies.
Hi KantClark!
Actually, it has! The single was released in December 1997, going straigth into the Top 10 of the Sales chart. Hanboo reported 1,224,000 units scanned. Hernan likely missed that post since he assigned 950,000 units for the song in the US, which was logical considering 1998 SS sales / the lack of Platinum award, but truth is that the song sold more. He also understated sligthly I Get Lonely (set at 900k, scanned at 928k). I’ll have a round of checks / fixes as soon as I’m done with Elvis!
@KantClark You have to remember the single was released in 1997 and 1998. It managed to chart on ARIA end of the year lists three years in a row. ARIA tracks down global sales. Billboard tracks US sales.
Tonk, ARIA is the Australian equivalent of the RIAA, it doesn’t track global sales at all.
I’m sorry. If Billboard and ARIA aren’t reliable sources for sales (lmao), then I don’t know what in your world is. The six million figure is official. From the certifications alone it’s more than what your site claims.
Hi Tonk! Misquoting grossly isn’t the way to go. You showed nothing from Billboard / ARIA proving 6 million global sales. All you did prove is 70,000 Australian units. You should be careful with Wikipedia, especially on pages related to divas where fans invent a lot of fake figures. Together Again isn’t Platinum in the US. It hasn’t sold 804k in the UK either, instead 741k. It isn’t Platinum in Japan, instead it hasn’t charted insite the Top 100 at all. Lastly, by 1997 most countries had already stopped to release physical singles, that includes Canada, continental Asia, Latin America… Read more »
https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/janet-jacksons-official-top-40-most-downloaded-songs__10662/
“60,000 copies of the song have been downloaded since we started counting in 2005 – not bad to say the song came out a whole eight years earlier and sold a whopping 747,000 on physical formats. With 4.1 million streams, it’s also Ms. Jackson if you’re Nasty’s most streamed song.”
Together Again has sold 747,000 physical copies + 60,000 downloads since 2005 = 807k in the UK
Straight from the UK Official Charts Company. Will you be doing an update on Janet’s total CSPC anytime in the future?
The song sold 5 million across Europe alone. This was documented decades ago from European sources officially. I don’t care what the certifications show because they are often grossly understated, as most of Janet’s certifications are. I’m sorry but a lot of your figures are just incorrect and even the Soundscan numbers in the US show your numbers are incorrect.
Colosoul, Janet is uncertified but not that much. For instance, Janet sold more than 8 million, whereas it is certified for 6 million.
Correction: It sold 8 million in THE US but is certified there for 6 million.
So a difference of 2 million copies is not that much?? I completely disagree. She has two albums available for diamond certifications yet both are certified at 6 million. Mariah has albums that sold less than janet. and RN that are certified diamond and RN is close to 9 by now which sold more than sold more than some Mariah Carey albums. If she is that undercertified in the US, then I can only imagine how undercertified she is in Europe. The fact is, Tother Again sold over 5 million copies in Europe and this was documented by multiple European… Read more »
She does not have 2 albums with sales above 10 million albums. And janet album chart runs all over Europe has been mediocre. She isnt a global seller. She is local. There are many supposedly documented sources that says a lot of stuff many of them are fake however.
How is she local If she is one of the best selling black female artist in Europe and Asia?
Limiting it to just black female artists is kind of limiting her competition. She wasnt even bringing in closely the no of records that Whitney, Mariah, Celine, Madonna, Britney, Barbra produced. And even in Black female categories she isnt even among the very best seller. There is off course Whitney and Mariah, and lets not forget about Beyonce and Rihanna. If it wasnt for the brutal market dropped they suffered, im pretty sure both of them would have out sell Janet’s non US market sales too. Furthermore, selling 500k – 1 million albums in Asia and 1-2 million albums in… Read more »
Hi KantClark!
While I would agree on this example (that Janet isn’t local), that argument doesn’t work out. You can’t say someone is global by ranking him against people who aren’t representative of the market you are scaling him/her. If we push that argument to the limit, that would be like saying Patrick Bruel is global, just because he did well outside France in comparison to many other French singers. At best he is slightly less local 😉
Hi Colosoul!
It seems accuracy isn’t your thing. Your message basically says that Janet’s albums are undercertified because of non-Soundscan sales (which is true) and at the same time that they “sold more” than Mariah Carey’s Diamond albums, meaning you are strictly looking at Soundscan sales for them. How consistent is that?
Hi Colosoul! Surely you should care more about certifications and accurate receipts than wild claims posted on sites which have nothing to do with music charts and sales. No, TA hasn’t sold 5 million units in Europe, and no, that’s not “documented”. Just because a fan claimed it doesn’t make it “documented”. Figures from the UK, France, Germany, are indeed documented, so are charts from all over Europe and so are market size of each country, and claiming 5 million in Europe is just plain absurd. Just try to break it down to see how that works out. I hope… Read more »