Streaming Sales
Streaming is made up of two families – audio and video. Our CSPC methodology now includes both to better reflect the real popularity of each track. The main source of data for each avenue is respectively Spotify and YouTube. As detailed in the Fixing Log article, Spotify represents 132 million of the 212 million users of streaming platforms, while YouTube is pretty much the only video platform generating some revenue for the industry. Below is the equivalence set on the aforementioned article:
Audio Stream – 1500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream – 11,750 views equal 1 album unit
Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = 212/132 * Spotify streams / 1500 + YouTube views / 11750
Streaming Part 1
Initially none of AC/DC‘s early recordings became big hits outside their native Australia. However, after their popularity sky-rocketed a few years later many tracks from their international debut also became popular. The Jack remains a sing-along live favorite, while High Voltage, It’s A Long Way To the Top and especially T.N.T. became Classic Rock Radio stables. To this day those three songs are among their most popular, with T.N.T. closing in on 100 million Spotify streams! Thus providing the lion’s share of the impressive 200,000 EAS from that era.
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is highlighted by the title track of course. Over 50 million streams on Spotify makes it one of AC/DC‘s top 10 tracks. But the humorous Big Balls, the raucous Problem Child, the fierce Rocker (a leftover from Aussie album T.N.T.) and the poignant Ride On are all well remembered too. Adding up to over 90,000 EAS.
Today “Hells Bells” passed 200M plays on Spotify. It is the 7th AC/DC track to do so, and the 4th track from the classic “Back in Black” album. BIB is the 4th pre-2000 album to have 4 tracks top 200M plays. Biggest 4th track race: 1. Michael Jackson “P.Y.T.” (“Thriller” – 1982) – 224.7M 2. Pearl Jam “Jeremy” (“Ten” – 1992) – 202.4M 3. Dr. Dre “What’s the Difference” (“2001” – 1999) – 202.3M 4. AC/DC “Hells Bells” (“Back in Black” – 1980) – 200.1M 5. Bob Marley “Waitin’ in Vain” (“Exodus” – 1977) – 178.7M 6. Michael Jackson “Bad”… Read more »
Buzz around the new album also boosts their catalog of course. “Let There Be Rock” recently passed 50M plays on Spotify. AC/DC’s 14th track to do so. And “Back in Black” is closing in on 700M! 1 Back in Black – 688.7M 2 Highway to Hell – 679.9M 3 Thunderstruck – 642.4M 4 You Shook Me All Night Long – 482.6M 5 T.N.T. – 323.1M 6 Shoot To Thrill – 184.4M 7 Hells Bells – 181.5M 8 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – 171.4M 9 It’s a Long Way to the Top – 118.2M 10 Rock n Roll Train –… Read more »
PWR/UP released 13/11-2020 has entered the charts at #1 in many parts of the world, including the US, the UK, Australia, Germany, France and Italy. It’s tracks has over 37 mio plays on Spotify so far, ranked like this: 1 Shot in the Dark – 14,894,488 (released 7/10-2020) 2 Realize – 4,350,815 (released 11/11-20) 3 Rejection – 2,258,787 4 Demon Fire – 2,231,278 5 Through the Mists of Time – 2,041,399 6 Witch’s Spell – 2,038,847 7 Kick You When You’re Down – 1,941,032 8 Wild Reputation – 1,653,567 9 No Man’s Land – 1,542,946 10 Systems Down – 1,461,380… Read more »
New single “Shot in the Dark” out now, New album “Power Up” out Nov. 13th.
First day streaming on Spotify for “Shot in the Dark” was 688K plays. That day’s biggest by AC/DC, topping their classics “Back in Black” (669K), “Highway to Hell” (573K) and “Thunderstruck” (546K).
But when they talk about Back in black as the second best-selling album ever with 52 million copies sold, did they also include the copies left in the warehouses and the download/streaming ?
Today You Shook Me All Night Long passed 400M plays on Spotify (400.2M).
2nd song from BIB, and 4th from AC/DC to pass that threshold. Only Queen have more pre-2000 songs with over 400M plays (7 songs, soon to be 8 as We are the Champions is at 398.8M).
I have compiled Back in Black sales in the barcode era in Brazil, it’s safe to say that it sold 200K in the last 15 years, I’d estimate sales to be around 350 K overall. AC/DC is extremely under certified in Brazil.
Back In Black is now certified 25 times platinum in the US.
That seems to fit pretty well with the US sales estimate since the certification likely also include streams and downloads.
Don’ t you think that since the death of Malcolm Young the sales of physical copies have increased to 25 million ?
Friday is my birthday 🙂 So what are my birthday wishes? Well, a new car would be nice… but I guess less will do. Like my favourite band getting their first 500M+ track on Spotify. Lo and behold the top ten AC/DC tracks on Spotify: 1 BACK IN BLACK – 499,574,000 2 HIGHWAY TO HELL – 495,263,000 3 THUNDERSTRUCK – 471,457,000 4 YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG – 346,640,000 5 T.N.T. – 234,653,000 6 SHOOT TO THRILL – 132,645,000 7 HELLS BELLS – 130,395,000 8 DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP – 123,221,000 9 IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE… Read more »
Jep. Back in Black:
485,591,580 + 9,932,151 + 3,999,408 + 329,020 + 218,578 = 500,070,737 🙂
And today Highway to Hell:
487,071,561 + 8,377,254 + 3,115,141 + 1,094,026 + 758,835 = 500,416,717 🙂
Thunderstruck becomes the 3rd. AC/DC track to pass the 500M mark:
482,255,015 + 12,089,864 + 6,197,401 = 500,542,280 🙂
The only other legacy artist with more than two songs above that threshold is Queen, with five!
Well done!
Back in Black was promoted on social medias last month in celebration of it’s 40th anniversary.
This has pushed “Shake a Leg” above 10M spins on Spotify. Here are the BIB tracks (with increases since primo dec 2019)
BIB 628.5M (128.9M)
YSMANL 441.6M (95.0M)
STT 168.7M (36.1M)
HB 163.6M (33.2M)
HADOM 35.4M (7.4M)
RNRANP 34.4M (7.6M)
WDYDFMH 15.2M (3.5M)
LMPMLIY 12.6M (2.5M)
GTDAB 12.5M (3.0M)
SAL 10.0M (2.3M)
About a year ago I speculated that all BIB tracks would have passed the 10M mark by now. Well, that happened in August (as posted earlier). Anyway here’s an update (with increase since early dec 2019) BIB tracks as of today: BIB 707.8M (208.2M) YSMANL 494.9M (148.3M) STT 189.0M (56.4M) HB 186.4M (56.0M) RNRANP 39.4M (12.6M) HADOM 39.0M (11.0M) WDYDFMH 19.7M (8.0M) GTDAB 15.2M (5.7M) LMPMLIY 14.3M (4.2M) SAL 11.9M (4.2M) BIB is the first AC/DC track to join the 700M club (HTH is next with 696.4M) and YSMANL will soon become their 4th track (2nd from BIB) to pass… Read more »