Full Length related record Sales
It sounds fairly logical to add together weighted sales of one era – studio album, physical singles, downloads, streams – to get the full picture of an album’s popularity. For older releases though, they also generate sales of various live, music videos and compilation albums.
All those packaging-only records do not create value, they exploit the value originating from the parent studio album of each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, when such compilations are issued, this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP. Thus, to perfectly gauge the worth of these releases, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all the compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this method.
Remaining Long Format – Example
How to understand this table? If you check for example the Master Serie 1 compilation line, those figures mean it sold 570,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for nearly 30,000 equivalent album sales from streams of all types.
The second part on the right of the table shows how many equivalent streams are coming from each original album, plus the share it represents on the overall package. Thus, streaming figures tell us songs from the Le pénitencier album are responsible for 28% of the Master Serie 1 track list attractiveness. This means it generated 157,000 of its 570,000 album sales and so forth for the other records.
Tables on the following pages list sales of Johnny‘s live, compilation and box set albums as well as music videos.
I counted 10 million less. Are you counting EP’s as singles?
Hi MJD!
I’ve read that Mon pays c’est l’amour has already sold 890,000 (!!!) copies in France in the weeks since its release. Of course, given the circumstances and Johnny Hallyday’s stature that doesn’t actually feel too surprising, but comprehensively speaking, how do you see it performing in the long-run compared to the rest of his discography? Also, do you have a ballpark figure of how much his CSPC results may have increased in the year since his passing?
Hi Orange! Yes, it sold 888k pure units in its first two weeks. Not sure it will do that well in the long run (except in the run of Christmas of course), it’s sales aren’t reflective of an organic success. It’s mostly down to nostalgia effect added to the most insane promotion campaign that have ever been. Even main TV channels stopped their programs at midnight to stream live the album, to be honest it felt kind of nonsense. All jornalists and all were saying how utterly essential / great the album is even before listening parties had happen. I… Read more »
Thank you! I wasn’t aware of all the TV promotion, that does sound a bit ridiculous haha.
If he sold that much in 2 weeks, he must have totally crushed his own record of highest first-week sales in France, which is fantastic but it seems like it would be impossible for that to happen if he were still alive.
I’ve just gone through it, too quickly, but I’m going to look at it more carefully. That’s already the best level of Johnny sales research I’ve ever seen. This is a titanic job and must be difficult, as there is so much missing data. I am fairly familiar with Johnny’s career and have read quite a few books, some of which contain first-hand accounts. His artistic directors, record company heads. Everyone agrees that some times were more difficult. 66/67,74/75,81/84. Concerts were not always full and the hits were rarer. Outside, from what I’ve seen, it’s not always reflected in your… Read more »
France Gall has died. I believe she’s among those who had the most successful french songs abroad in the 60’s, isn’t she ?
Hi Rell! Yes, she definitely is. Maybe more impressively, Ella Elle L’A also did wonders all over continental Europe, as did Babacar. Obviously Poupée de Cire Poupée de Son was her biggest international hit during the 60s. It is reputed to have sold a million copies in Japan, and while this is most likely wrong (300k to 500k is a more realistic ballpark) it was definitely a smash there. It shipped 25,000 units upon release in the Netherlands and 10,000 units in Spain. It was a #1 hit in Norway and #2 in Germany. Except in continental Europe, she mostly… Read more »
Je vous suis très reconnaissant pour la qualité de votre travail. Fan de Johnny depuis toujours, je savais qu’il cumulait des chiffres de ventes impressionnants. Pouvoir précisément connaître les chiffres de tous ses opus est incroyable……… Grâce à vous, certains peuvent mesurer l’impact de cette immense star qui restera gravé à jamais dans notre cœur…..