Forum
Various singers have many myths floating around them. One such typical case is R&B Princess Aaliyah. Already owner of a very loyal fan base, her dramatic passing in 2001, at just 22 years of age, made her the icon of many.
Artistically, she had been widely acclaimed way before her death. In spite of issuing her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But A Number at barely 15, critics praised her efforts right from the start. The public was soon to follow with the star in the making's first single Back & Forth climbing the US Hot 100 all the way to #5.
A meteoric rise to fame, media on her side, and an iconic status... surely Aaliyah must have sold bucket loads. Well, everything is not always as it may seem, especially for her. Out of all the myths largely repeated over the internet about her sales, we will clean things up a bit today to restore some accuracy.
Original Albums Sales
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number (1994)
- America
- US - 2,200,000
- Canada - 90,000
- Argentina - N/A
- Brazil - N/A
- Mexico - N/A
- Asia
- Japan - 150,000
- Oceania
- Australia - 20,000
- New Zealand - N/A
- Europe - 260,000
- UK - 140,000
- France - N/A
- Germany - N/A
- Italy - N/A
- Spain - N/A
- Sweden - N/A
- Netherland - 30,000
- Switzerland - N/A
- Austria - N/A
- Finland - N/A
- World - 2,850,000
One in a Million (1996)
- America
- US - 3,400,000
- Canada - 125,000
- Argentina - N/A
- Brazil - N/A
- Mexico - N/A
- Asia
- Japan - 180,000
- Oceania
- Australia - 30,000
- New Zealand - N/A
- Europe - 340,000
- UK - 180,000
- France - N/A
- Germany - N/A
- Italy - N/A
- Spain - N/A
- Sweden - 15,000
- Netherland - 20,000
- Switzerland - N/A
- Austria - N/A
- Finland - N/A
- World - 4,250,000
Aaliyah (2001)
- America
- US - 3,100,000
- Canada - 140,000
- Argentina - N/A
- Brazil - N/A
- Mexico - N/A
- Asia
- Japan - 200,000
- Oceania
- Australia - 45,000
- New Zealand - 15,000
- Europe - 1,200,000
- UK - 400,000
- France - 210,000
- Germany - 250,000
- Italy - 10,000
- Spain - N/A
- Sweden - 15,000
- Netherland - 75,000
- Switzerland - 30,000
- Austria - 10,000
- Finland - N/A
- World - 5,100,000
Original Album Sales - Comments
1994 Age Ain't Nothing but a Number - 2,850,000
1996 One in a Million - 4,250,000
2001 Aaliyah - 5,100,000
Obviously passing away at only 22 doesn't allow one to have an extensive discography. Releasing 3 albums within that time frame, Aaliyah was growing.
Her first two records failed to break the non-Urban audience in the US. Thus, logically, they were not promoted on a Worldwide scale, except in markets cherishing R&B like the Netherlands and Japan.
In-between, being also a successful actress, she was busy participating in as many as 9 Soundtracks. Most notably 2000 album Romeo Must Die. From it, she extracted the global hit Try Again. This raised her profile a lot with positive results very visible in her self-titled third album that released one year later.
All in all, those three albums sold 12,2 million units. Definitely a decent total, nevertheless it is nothing record breaking, especially during an era of heavy album sales. It must be said that her last two albums have been out of print for a decade now due to label issues, which clearly doesn't help. In any case, as iconic as she may be, Aaliyah never managed to be an A-League star. Album sales are only one format though, and we are going to check her physical singles right now.
Physical Singles Sales
The market of physical singles was still quite healthy during the mid-90s in the US. Aaliyah hits from that period perfectly benefited from that background with 2 songs each selling upwards of half a million units there, although sales abroad were fairly low.
Getting into the 00s at the top of the game, her independent label Blackground wasn't releasing all her songs as physical singles to improve album sales. Thus, the artist's biggest hit Try Again wasn't available on CD in the US, even becoming the first Hot 100 #1 ever on the back of radio airplay only. The song still sold past 1 million units thanks to solid success across Europe.
The discography total is up to 6,35 million units sold in this format.
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number (1994) - 480,000 equivalent albums
Back & Forth - 850,000
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number - 100,000
Down with the Clique - 50,000
At Your Best (You Are Love) - 550,000
The Thing I Like - 50,000
One in a Million (1996) - 630,000 equivalent albums
If Your Girl Only Knew - 800,000
Got to Give It Up - 25,000
4 Page Letter - 50,000
The One I Gave My Heart To - 1,200,000
Come Over - 25,000
Aaliyah (2001) - 188,000 equivalent albums
We Need a Resolution - 125,000
Rock the Boat - 100,000
More Than a Woman - 400,000
Orphan - 608,000 equivalent albums
Try Again - 1,100,000
Don't Know What to Tell Ya - 100,000
Miss You - 250,000
Are You That Somebody? - 350,000
Journey at the Past - 50,000
I Need You Tonight - 75,000
Remaining Singles - 100,000
Digital Singles Sales
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.
If estimating digital singles sales is often the hardest part of CSPC analysis, it just turns out to be a nightmare in the case of Aaliyah. Her uncle-handled label went bankrupt many years ago, forcing the sale of her catalog with the exception of her debut record. Now owned by Reservoir Media, this company seems in no hurry to properly release albums like One In A Million or Aaliyah. They are not only out of print in physical format, they are also unavailable for download - and for streaming.
Time to time, they do leak on iTunes or elsewhere. They are also available for download at Reservoir Media's own website, which pretty much nobody knows. Thus, estimated download sales of Aaliyah are a tiny 3 million units, a total which includes a good chunk of ringtones.
Age Ain't Nothing... (1994) - 210,000 equivalent albums
Back & Forth - 600,000
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number - 200,000
At Your Best (You Are Love) - 400,000
Remaining tracks - 200,000
One in a Million (1996) - 30,000 equivalent albums
All tracks - 200,000
Aaliyah (2001) - 75,000 equivalent albums
All tracks - 500,000
Orphan - 143,000 equivalent albums
Try Again - 400,000
Miss You - 150,000
Don't Think They Know - 200,000
Remaining tracks - 200,000
Streaming Sales
The below table lists Spotify streaming of all songs from the five albums we are studying. The Comprehensive Streaming is reached by multiplying Spotify figures by 68/26. In fact, https://www.ifpi.org/downloads/GMR2016.pd f" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as shown in the IFPI 2015 Report, there were 68 million paying subscribers to all streaming platforms by the end of 2015. While the exact count of Spotify paying subscribers by the end of 2015 is unknown, that figure reached 20 million in June 2015 and 30 million in March 2016, thus an estimated 26 million is used as of the end of 2015.
The equivalent album sales is the division of the comprehensive streaming figure by 1500 as is now the norm in the new industry model.
NB: as we now switched to 2017, Chartmasters.org is going to update the ratio used on this methodology as soon as official market information from IFPI gets published. This is in order to maintain the relevancy of all figures.
Streaming Part 1 - 90s Rising Star
The lack of consistent availability of One In A Million becomes obvious with its streaming results. If we check the artist's Last.fm catalog, this album has almost twice as many plays as her debut one, which shows its potential. While on Spotify it loses the battle by 12 to 1.
As a result, less than 7,000 equivalent album sales is all that it gets. Naturally, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which is fully available and has always been at Spotify and other streaming platforms, performs much better with nearly 80,000 equivalent album sales. Its two US Top 10 hits back in the day registered more than 10 million plays.
Streaming Part 2 - Late works and Orphan
Aaliyah's songs top Age Ain't Nothing but a Number by more than 3 to 1 at Last.fm, but suffer the same treatment as One In A Million tracks. Within the brief periods of availability, its biggest songs topped the million streams milestone although they are far from riding at their full potential. Aaliyah has a total of 23,000 equivalent album sales from streams.
With nearly 18 million streams, it seems like Try Again has always been available on Spotify. Actually, it currently is but one has to, in some way, hit Spotify's web version direct link for Ultimate package, which isn't displayed within the artist' page and impossible to reach on mobile. It can be reached through the Romeo Must Die soundtrack though. That very limited exposure still results in 85,000 equivalent album sales for Orphan Album songs.
Full Length related records Sales
Just one year after her passing, Aaliyah's label dropped a career spanning compilation, I Care 4 U. One more compilation came out in 2005, Ultimate, but it was only released in a few countries with no promotion. Both records are studied below.
As you will know if you have already read CSPC analysis in the past, sales of compilations are added into the original studio albums by using Spotify streams distribution. As all Aaliyah's albums haven't been continuously available, it would create a flawed picture of each song's popularity. Thus, rather than Spotify, Last.fm figures have been used.
Remaining Long Format Part 1 - Compilations #1
How to understand this table? If you check for example I Care 4 U's compilation line, those figures mean it sold 3,100,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for almost 1,5 billion streaming plays on Last.fm.
The second part on the right of the table shows how many streams are coming from each original album plus the share it represents on the overall package streams. Thus, streaming figures tell us One In A Million songs are responsible for 16% of the album's attractiveness, which means it generated 505,000 of its 3,100,000 album sales and so on for the other records.
Considering the smash hit Try Again - by far her most streamed song, with a more than 2 to 1 lead over One In A Million - wasn't part of the singer's original albums, the Orphan Album folder gets assigned the largest part of the compilations. Each studio album contributed to their sales in a solid way though.
BONUS: Compilation Albums Sales
I Care 4 U (2002)
- America
- US - 1,825,000
- Canada - 85,000
- Argentina - N/A
- Brazil - N/A
- Mexico - N/A
- Asia
- Japan - 125,000
- Oceania
- Australia - 20,000
- New Zealand - 10,000
- Europe - 770,000
- UK - 230,000
- France - 160,000
- Germany - 175,000
- Italy - 5,000
- Spain - N/A
- Sweden - 10,000
- Netherland - 25,000
- Switzerland - 25,000
- Austria - 5,000
- Finland - N/A
- World - 3,100,000
Aaliyah Career CSPC Results
So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each Aaliyah album achieved? Well, at this point we don't need to combine all the figures found in this article.
[xyz-ips snippet="updatedCSPCalbums"]
Mind-blowing? Definitely not. Good? For sure. A lot can be said about Aaliyah's artistic talents as well as about her impact over R&B and pop music too. Many popular singers do quote her as a key influence. Most of what is said about her album sales though - figures repeated often a la 24, 32 or even 80 million - are insanely exaggerated.
She definitely sold well as an urban artist, but all figures point out that she never crossed over to a mainstream audience. Basically, kids born in the late 80s may have been big fans of her, but their parents have most likely never heard her name. Not all artists should be A-List stars though. A trio of consistent albums from nearly 4 million to over 6 million equivalent album sales each, plus various successful singles outside of them, is already a very nice showing. If the mess around her discography availability gets cleared up in the future, the diva's catalog sales' pace will get much better...
Overall, Aaliyah moved 17,9 million equivalent albums. This tally is not at the level of most artists studied so far - most of them were absolute monsters though. Although, you would be surprised at how many well-known singers are under that mark.
As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!
Sources: IFPI, Spotify, Last.fm, Chartmasters.org.
Biggest tracks - Aaliyah
The list of most successful songs is compiled in equivalent album sales generated by each of them. It includes the song's own physical singles sales with a 0,3 weighting, its download and streaming sales with appropriate weighting too, plus its share amongst sales of all albums on which it is featured.
- 2001 - More Than a Woman [Aaliyah] - 2,400,0000
- 1996 - One in a Million [One in a Million] - 2,240,000
-
1994 - Back & Forth [Age Ain't Nothing but a Number] - 1,830,000
-
2000 - Try Again [Orphan] - 1,210,000
-
2001 - Rock the Boat [Aaliyah] - 1,060,000
-
1994 - At Your Best (You Are Love) [Age Ain't Nothing but a Number] - 990,000
-
2001 - We Need a Resolution [Aaliyah] - 930,000
-
2001 - I Care 4 U [Aaliyah] - 730,000
-
1996 - If Your Girl Only Knew [One in a Million] - 590,000
-
1996 - The One I Gave My Heart To [One in a Million] - 500,000
We have more for you...
... Aaliyah's streaming masters analysis
... checking out the upcoming artists or even voting for them!
... similar artists
... best-selling artists, albums, and singles
Thank you for this article! I've always been curious about Aaliyah's stats!
Oh My God! MJD, I knew you were gonna do a CSPC analysis on Baby Girl, but not this soon! Thank you so much!!!
I would like to comment on some few things though. Firstly, about her album sales, do you mind posting her Soundscan sales? I can't find them anywhere! I only know she sold 8m albums through Soundscan back in 2006. Also, her overall album sales are quite low, though still impressive considering the audience she was catering to.
For her digital sales, MJD, would you mind giving us your most logical estimation on how her songs from her OIAM and self-titled album would have performed if they were available for downloads.
Finally, i would like to point out that you made a little mistake with the I Care 4 U page. You used the One In A Million album cover for that page.
Once again, thank you so much, as well as Hernán and Anthony for your hard work and dedication. Looking forward for your future projects!
Hi Raffi!
Hehe copy/paste spotted I guess! The cover is now correctly updated 🙂
Her 8,1 million soundscan sales are spread as 1,4 / 2,4 / 2,6 / 1,7 million in chronological order. The first two albums got incorrectly credited with 3m Soundscan sales each when Billboard posted that figure in 2001, but that tally was in reality the combined total for both. All those Soundscan sales are valid as of 2006, after which the albums pretty much stopped selling due to lack of availability.
Had her catalog been widely available as for other artists, realistically she would have:
- sold roughly 2 million more albums Worldwide
- sold in the 2 to 2,5 million range of OIAM songs in downloads and 3 to 4 million for Aaliyah songs, plus a bit more Orphan songs
- been in the 150-200,000 range of equivalent album sales for OIAM from streaming and 250,000 units for Aaliyah, plus a bit more Orphan units
- been at about 3,9 / 6,1 / 7,1 / 4,2 million CSPC sales for each 3 studio albums plus Orphan one, so over 21 million in total
Obviously this can't be verified as it just hasn't happen, but giving available indicators that sounds like a very good gauge of what it would have been.
Hello everyone,
Just to inform you that I have just added the 10 biggest Aaliyah tracks.
Sorry for the delay.
Very good analyis of Aaliyah sales.
Please do Michael Jackson if you have time, thanks 🙂
Hello. I'm trying to understand what you did here. First, you're claiming that she has exactly 292,331,997 comprehensive streams between all her releases (page 9 & 10). Then, suddenly in your next table (page 11) you're claiming she jumped from that figure to 3,603,280,000 streams. A jump of no less than 3,310,948,003, figure that seems completely off considering her actual stats in Spotify and Youtube, so where exactly did those +3 billion streams come from? I think that was a typo since in your final CSPC results chart you only show the equivalent album sales for the original ~292 million streams figure. Anyhow, you should fix it because there's people using your chart as source to mislead people into thinking that she has over 3 billion streams, which is obviously a huge lie.
Hi Havok!
The problem with Aaliyah's catalog is that bar her debut album, her other albums are not available on any digital platform, including Spotify. That is why her debut album is her best showing on that platform, while the other albums had minimal success there due to their unavailability.
The 229m streams you mention are Spotify streams multiply by a certain ratio, representing the streams on all possible streaming platforms like Apple Music. For Aaliyah, the total could be higher, as her catalog is a mess there, but it could also be lower, due to its unavailability on other platforms.
As for the compilation part, its main focus is to assign the sales of each compilation album to its parent album as they cannibalizes the catalog sales of studio albums. For the majority of artists, we use Spotify streams to gauge the popularity of each studio album on a compilation album. However, for Aaliyah, since her latter albums are unavailable, this would give an unfair advantage to her debut, thus it would not be able to accurately reflect each album's popularity.
To solve this solution, we used Last.fm, a streaming site that has all of Aaliyah's catalog available so we can assign sales of compilations to each studio album involved.
Hello, Raffi. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
I get that, I read the notes in the article and I understand what and why you did that. My question is where exactly is that +3 billion figure coming from? It cannot be from last.fm either because her total scrobbles (plays) are only at 13.2 million. Also, I wouldn't say last.fm is a streaming service/site, it's more of a tracking tool. Anyway, like I said you should consider changing those stats because there are people using your work as source to claim Aaliyah has 3 billion streams, when that's a fallacy.
Hi havok!
I checked out Aaliyah's page on Last.fm, and you're right! The streams posted on this article is way higher than that listed in the website. I'll ask MJD to clarify on this!
Hi again havok!
I asked MJD about this issue and apparently, all the songs' total were multiplied by 1000 because when using Spotify figures, MJD and the team rounds up Spotify figures in the closest thousands (eg. 1m to 1000) This was mixed using in the calculation of streams on last.fm. MJD will probably edit this soon. Thanks for your contribution!
It would be interesting a comparison analysis of Beyoncé & Aaliyah, since there is a myth that says ''Beyoncé wouldn't be here if Aaliyah were alive''... taking into consideration of how big were Destiny's Child compared to Aaliyah