State-owned labels
We tend to forget our geography lessons too quickly. Until the fall of the former USSR and the wall of Berlin, there was various state-owned labels in Eastern Europe that used to control what was coming out or not. They often used compilations that are completely unknown from the rest of the world. One of the most famous examples is no doubt Beatles‘ 1986 compilation A Taste Of Honey which shipped 300,000 units upon release in USSR. It was their first legal album ever released there.
Presley also had his share of state-owned records. Here they are!
Bulgaria – Balkanton
The most collected record from the state owned label Balkanton is Michael Jackson‘s Thriller with 1,162 owners across 18 versions. Presley does extremely well there too. His Bulgarian-only compilations Elvis from 1985 and Rock-And-Roll from 1986 are among the Top 10 most owned foreign albums from this country with respectively 682 and 566 users collecting them. While we lack data about Bulgaria to set up highly reliable processes, over 500 owners of an LP from the 80s make both of them very likely 6-digits sellers in this country.
Czechoslovakia – Opus / Supraphon
The discography of Presley in Czechoslovakia was made of 2 records Pure Gold and Promised Land, from 1978 and 1980, respectively. With 50 and 40 owners a piece, they are not huge sellers there, which is consistent with his low popularity in this market as shown by our global heatmap. Jackson‘s Thriller which shipped 100,000 units by 1985, has 255 owners up to date from its Supraphon versions. Surprisingly, the most owned record from this country is a compilation of James Brown.
East Germany / GDR – Amiga label
The only official Presley release in East Germany was a compilation titled Elvis in 1978. With 489 owners it is no fluke. The top performer at Discogs from the AMIGA label is once again Jackson‘s Thriller at 1,434. Applying the same ratio than standard German releases suggests around 100,000 sales for Elvis.
Hungary – Pepita
The state label from Hungary never issued Presley recordings. Instead, the top 3 best performing foreign albums there are A Hard Day’s Night (1981, 373 owners) and Please Please Me (1982, 333) by the Beatles and the Best of Pink Floyd (1983, 263).
USSR – Melodiya
Along with some music clubs, USSR sales must be one of the biggest black boxes of the music industry. The Melodiya label used to be massive. The only label in existence during the era of the USSR, it grossed over $200 million per year.
I already mentioned A Taste of Honey by the Beatles, which shipped 300,000 units upon release and sold strongly for 4 years. With sales anywhere from half a million units to a million, it has an immense 2,096 owners. Led Zeppelin actually outperform them with the local compilation Stairway to Heaven at 2,285.
Guess what? Presley also got his monster selling compilation in the USSR. The 1988 best of That’s All Right has 885 owners and likely as many as 300,000 purchasers.
Yugoslavia – Jugoton
Unlike remaining state-owned labels, Jugoton used to drop many international albums. Presley himself got more than 50 distinct albums issued there, combining for nearly 800 owners. Our favorite scale, Thriller, once again among the most owned albums in the country, has 479 owners from Yugoslavia where it had shipped 112,000 units by 1984, which sets the mark on over 200,000 for Presley in this market.
Conclusion
With this article, the discography of Elvis Presley has no more secrets for you. Same for loopholes and state-owned labels. While evidencing these albums, we completed our all-around study of the King’s career. Next up: his CSPC article with all results. Stay tuned!
Sources: Discogs, Chartmasters.org, Memphis Recording Service, Billboard, Elvisoncd, Jorgensen, Agora SA, Le Monde, OCC, BPI, Not Now Music, RPM, SNEP.
If u really dont trust this site. Go to other site that makes u happy. Why are u wasting so much time here. In fact even better, go and make ur own website with ur own estimates since u r so good at it.
Sorry but you bored me 30 odd days ago with this. The guys at Chartmasters do a wonderfull job and are making a real difference to the world of the most accurate data on record sales, far better than the old unreliable and grossly over estimated sales , mainly coming out of the USA and especially on some of the so called big acts like Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zepelin , Madonna and Pink Floyd. Let’s all just be greatfull that Chartmasters team are doing, which is far far better than what we had before. You are obviously a big… Read more »
Maybe he has bored you, but a lot of what he says is relevant and does bring up questions that should be looked at. He obviously is a big Elvis fan, but he seems more concerned about accuracy/innaccuracy, than being hurt because the figures are not as high as some of the ludicrous claims made.
“So called big acts”. Stop talking shit, none of those acts are so called big acts, they are 5 of the 10 biggest acts ever!
Why not we all have the right to our opinions, one of the few things we have left!
Hi! Talkin’ about blockbusters…: how about Portugal, Greece, Japan and South Africa?
Hi Luca!
Do you mean Elvis’ top sellers there or all-time biggest albums?
Both, if possible! Elvis and international acts, NOT locals!
Ok, just Elvis and Michael jackson!
🙂
Moved comment to CSPC article.
Discogs is really sheding a light on the industry’s more “unknown” territories. I was not aware that countries under the iron curtain could even buy western music legally. And what comes as an even bigger shock is that the numbers are actually quite big. If western albums were able to sell hundreds of thousands of copies in the Soviet Union it makes me wonder what numbers local stars (probably favoured by the state as well) could do.
I was born in the USSR, i remember my dad had the entire Beatles catalog on vinyl.
And i second the curiosity about local artists, I’d love to know how many records Alla Pugacheva, or Aria sold.
I think its about time for his results already. Or if his is not ready. Its time for new updates on existing artist studies or new study on new artis. Its getting kinda boring.
I think the Elvis Presley analysis will be uploaded this weekend, at least that’s
what i’m hoping for.
He said this week so it can be even today.
Hi Jake!
The writting of the article is 90%+ completed, it will be online tomorrow 🙂
This isn’t really a site for fair-weather fans and those who only care about their favorite acts.
Well, he did discover a new formula to add to everything he’s already doing with the “hidden sales” Plus he made a comment how Elvis is coming with quite a bit more coming quickly after that, so I’m thinking after Elvis, we are going to see a handful of acts pretty quickly
MJD,
this is probably the first of a long list of questions:
you say that Elv1s 30 # 1 Hits and The Essential Collection sold over 75.000 units each, but the first has 19 owners, the second 6 owners.
And I don’t understand that….
🙂
Argentina!
Hi Luca! It has to do with the period. 30 #1 Hits continues to sell, so even if CD compilations aren’t much collected, there is still many Discogs users who have it. 90s comps are among the worst albums in terms of conversion rate from Discogs owners to real purchasers, because they sold large amounts to casual buyers that aren’t music fans back in the day. For example, Lionel Richie’s Back to Front from 1992 has only 2,675 owners against 5,937 for 30 #1 Hits, although they sold similar numbers. That’s why we always need to use a factor that… Read more »
Thanks! I’m trying to understand the mechanism! And of course I’m tryng to applicate it to Neil Young. Beginning with Harvest, not my favorite album, but his bestseller. Adding all the LP (and only the LP) releases in Canada and in comparison with your Elvis examples in Canadian Blockbusters, we have a total amount of 1.000.000/1.200.000. I’m wrong? The figure seems really high! But probably I’m wrong something…
How have you weighted its owners? I haven’t check details about Canadian editions, but from the worldwide total of 58,533 owners we can see Harvest is massively collected (more than Dark Side in proportion). For example Aloha from Hawaii has roughly 40% of its sales globally but only 13% of its owners (7,501). If we use this album as the scaling point, Harvest would need ~5,35 owners to equal to 1,000 sales.
2972 owners, for the Harvest LPs in Canada
I respect Elvis and all but I think Nicki Minaj is a little bit more famous and deserves to have all these articles on her before him.
Can’t wait until Elvis month(s) is over so we can get Nicki’s 🙂
I hope it’s professional trolling.
Never heard of nicki Minaj, and she’s more famous than Elvis, that’s were laughable
Hi MJD. These articles make me wonder – with all these new techniques to evaluate sales, (like the revolution brought by Discogs), does this means all previously studied artists (like Queen, Rolling Stones etc.) have black holes and undiscovered sales to uncover?
Hi Dan! As a general note, new techniques are always welcome, especially when they are as efficient and detailed as statistics from Discogs! Through the last 2 years, I came up with a lot of methods when the need was felt. When I’m not satisfied with an estimate that isn’t enough under control (and thus with a large margin of error), I go in and out every possible source to find a solution. That’s why in 2 years I went from ‘estimates’ spreadsheets to Excel files full of formulas / macros that treat raw data with 0 room for what… Read more »
Thanks for the detailed answer!
YOU ARE ALIVE!?!?
I missed you
Everyone, please stop with this kind of joke. It isn’t funny.