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I think that problem with BTS is that they don’t have a general public. Yes, BTS fans are EVERYWHERE, but i don’t know anyone at all who listens BTS casually or isn’t a army. This also may be the reason of why BTS hasn’t topped the Hot 100. By the other side, the Beatles did broke the general audience and got most n.1 than anyone and were literally everywhere. But well the point is that both are incredible acts 😎.
Can you guys start counting China sales fully? I get that they are cheaper than some other markets but so is their purchasing power. IFPI does count them fully so there's no reason not to.
MOTS7 = 455K
Black Swan (single) = 338K
MOTSP = 521K
LYA = 401K
Fake Love (rock single) = 147K
LYT = 347K
LYH = 286K
YNWA = 284K
Wings = 157K
YF = 155K
Two questions!
1. Melon is biggest streaming platform in korea and there are many more sites, not just genie. Did you count them????
2. I have seen people adding oricon and gaon sales to come with numbers. They also add oricon singles with albums. As their pricing is on par with albums. So why are you using equivalent for oricon singles? Weightage should be on par with album. As most BTS albums cost over 20 usd, we never tag then as 2 albums sold. So oricon sales should be counted as albums right?
Hi Britneybts!
It's explained with the formula, streams in remaining platforms are extrapolated from Genie numbers, with a formula that is consistent with Gaon data.
As for the second question, there are no reason to consider Oricon singles as albums if they are singles. Records are very expensive in Japan, we won't be doubling album sales for example to account for that. If singles are maxi-singles yet, which is often the case in Japan, we weight them as EPs / half of an album.
IFPI counts Koreia's physical sales? The last report BTS' Map Of The Soul: Persona charted #3 with 2.5 million and according Gaon Chart they sold 3.2 million in May 2019.
Fri May 10th, 2019, 17:28
Monthly Gaon Album Sales
(2019) Map of the Soul: Persona: 3,229,032
Someome could explain this?????
IFPI did not count them at all for BTS. Heck IFPI did not even count Bts's numbers. They indicated that they no longer had a partnership with SK charts and asked BigHit for Bts's numbers. BigHit gave them Hanteo numbers only (i.e. pretty much only South Korean physical sales and nothing else), and IFPI did not bother to verify any other numbers outside of that, so Bts's IFPI numbers are at about 1/2 what they should be.
The Beatles had the support of radio, and they were also White English speakers who did not have people disregarding them because they sang in another language and had more feminine features. There are very legitimate boundaries that Bts has had to go up against which have blocked their ability to reach the general audience...boundaries that The Beatles never had to face.
I made this comment months ago, but Downloads 100% can be updated for a number of Bts's songs using Gaons monthly updates when they declare which songs have reached certification status (or reached the milestone that would have gotten them certification had they been released after 2017) for either downloads or streams. Those updates give definitive data on either the Download or the Streaming numbers, and have nothing to do with the said point system that combines the two.
Although I do agree BTS boundaries probably are bigger it's wrong to say the Beatles didn't have any. British acts never really did too well in the US before they took over the world. They opened the door for a lot of British bands in the US for decades to come in a similar way to how BTS is making K-pop global right now.
I was about to say that. Saying that the Beatles didn't have any problems just because they were white English-speakers is TOTALLY WRONG (the total absence of UK power in the US market, the much less media, communication opportunities and techonological advances, etc). Both bands had problems to break the global market, but they finally did.
Hi Amber!
It's not about identifying downloads out of the points total, it's about the fact these "downloads" shown by Gaon aren't really downloads. IIRC, by 2017 their DL market was worth $9 million. That's a tiny number. Gaon can be messy with their numbers (as shown by their recent retail charts), and for downloads it appears they have been considering that streamers who pressed the "available offline" option were downloading the song. Technically it's true, but it's not a download as we think about it. If we consider these in the US, you would have songs in the 10s of millions.
Hi Amber!
The IFPI do not count sales for the BTS, nor for anyone else. Nor they look or partner with SK charts or charts for anyone else. It's a misconception to think the IFPI ranking is build the same way as a Billboard ranking, with a system of scanning/auditing albums.
Labels are affiliated with the IFPI. To build their annual report, they ask data to labels, including their top selling albums. They simply put together these label figures. There are no audit whatsoever. Since royalties need to be paid on these officially reported figures, labels do not inflate the data, but you are always at risk of typos, errors or even missing album because the label isn't affiliated to the IFPI (it happens a lot every year for Asian releases).
Map of the Soul: 7 has done so well. I would love to see this article updated with the latest sales figures applied to it.
True the Beatles are the legends of legends. bts's achievements are really amazing considering how they started from the bottom. Now its only about the longevity into their career. its going to be really interesting to see how long those fans can continue to support them.
