Streaming Part 2
At first, Let There Be Rock was bigger than its predecessors. It was AC/DC‘s first album to chart in the US, and first in the UK too, where it reached the Top 20. Since then it hasn’t been able to follow the sales of High Voltage and Dirty Deeds. Streaming figures show perfectly why. It lacks a classic hit the size of T.N.T. or Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. What it does have is live favorites. Of the album’s total 58 million Spotify streams, almost 40% come from live versions, easily the most of all their albums (Black Ice is 2nd with 20% – which is fueled by Live at River Plate recorded on the Black Ice Tour).
On Youtube live versions are always more popular due to the visual effect. Whole Lotta Rosie is close to 100 million views there and is actually bigger than Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Crabsody in Blue was replaced by Problem Child on the US release (now worldwide) and was considered a rarity until its inclusion on the Backtracks box set in 2009.
Powerage lacks both classic hits and live favourites. With the biggest track Sin City at 6 million Spotify streams, it is easily their weakest 70’s LP on streaming platforms, just topping 25,000 EAS. But Powerage is the connoisseur’s choice. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones calls it his favourite. For some reason Cold Hearted Man was rejected by their US record company in 1978. Like Crabsody in Blue it was a rarity until being included in the Backtracks box set. The healthy figure of almost 2 million Spotify streams is likely due to it’s presence on the Iron Man 2 soundtrack from 2010.
Then came the breakthrough! Produced by hit-maker Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Highway to Hell became a worldwide hit and their first US platinum album. With almost 200 million streams the title track is massive. In some regions, perhaps especially in Europe, it is still considered the quintessential AC/DC song. EAS for this song alone is 240,000. With 4 other tracks in the 10-20,000 region, and a total of 310,000 EAS, this album is bigger than High Voltage and Dirty Deeds combined.
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 »