Forum
Hi Slavisa,
This is just a urban legend, it is nowhere near such a figure.
Great sales! She sold more than Lady Gaga or Spice Girls. If Britney sold more than her was because she released a lot of albums during her best years. And she still is young. She can get a big comeback. She deserves. She is the biggest voice in the industry and she is smart. She only need beeing ambitius again.
Billboard posted an article and had her US album sales at around 18 million and US single sales around 40 million. Are you sure this is right? They have her debut at 8 million sold and when you add catalog sales in it's at 9 million, so do you honestly think she only sold around 3 million more worldwide?
Hi Jason,
Billboard themselves stated 12,5m worldwide not that long ago! Indeed, it sold very poorly outside of North America. It peaked at #13 in Germany, #21 in the Netherlands, #44 in France, #21 in Australia, #14 in the UK, #60 in Sweden etc. Those peaks are similar with an album like Can't Take Me Home by P!nk that nobody expects to be a huge seller outside of the US.
Sales-wise it barely crossed the million mark in Europe by the end of its run and got only Platinum in countries like Australia and Japan. You can see its entire breakdown on page 3 which shows well that its success was pretty moderate in most countries.
If Britney sold more it's because she was more popular than Christina and their debut albums completely prove it.
I see people say that everybody was getting diamond albums during that time to try to reduce Britney's accomplishments but Christina was blatantly the second most popular artist during that time and had zero diamond certified albums. If her debut went diamond then that would lessen Britney's accomplishments, but it didn't. And without Britney's music videos (which were her idea) during the TRL era neither album goes diamond so she's just as responsible for their diamond status as Max Martin.
People need to stop discrediting Britney Spears' achievements. She worked since she was a kid just like Christina, Justin, Ryan (and Keri Russell)
If Cristina had not physically released her singles, as used to do Britney to sell more albums, she would also have a diamond album. In fact, Christina Aguilera album is almost platinum.
And she was more popular than Britney, because she had more airplay and hits. In Usa. I know that Britney was more popular worldwide.
Xtina only had better peaks on the BB Hot 100 because Britney didn't release most of her singles physically. BOMT sold 14.2 million, CA sold 9.5 million. That gap (4.7 million) is bigger than Stripped's sales. Xtina was not bigger than Britney in the US, at ALL.
"If Britney sold more than her was because she released a lot of albums during her best years"
Actually, BOMT + OIDIA alone have sold way more than Xtina's entire discography including her greatest hits.
Also....
France
...Baby One More Time - 675,000
Christina Aguilera - 75,000
Stripped - 140,000
Back To Basics - 130,000
Keeps Getting Better: A Decade Of Hits - 30,000
Bionic - 15,000
Burlesque - 5,000
Lotus - 5,000
= 400,000
Germany
Oops!... I Did It Again - 1,025,000
Christina Aguilera - 175,000
Stripped- 425,000
Back To Basics - 235,000
Keeps Getting Better: A Decade Of Hits - 50,000
Bionic - 35,000
Burlesque - 60,000
Lotus - 15,000
= 995,000
Japan
Greatest Hits: My Prerogative - 1,000,000
Christina Aguilera - 250,000
My Kind Of Christmas - 25,000
Stripped - 225,000
Back To Basics - 140,000
Keeps Getting Better: A Decade Of Hits - 120,000
Bionic - 65,000
Burlesque - 120,000
Lotus - 30,000
= 975,000
Well the lead single "...Baby One More Time" was released as a single in the US just as "Genie in a Bottle" was. And the other single she released in the US from that album, "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart", was certified platinum, unlike "Come on Over" or What a Girl Wants, which were each certified gold.
Britney released two singles in the US from her debut album while Christina released three singles in the US from her debut album. That is not some colossal difference. If you added the total sales from the singles released in the US from each album it would probably come out nearly the same.
So the fact remains ....Baby One More Time went Diamond and Christina Aguilera didn't.
Christina got better airplay than Britney but 3 other singles not being released as singles in the US has nothing to do with that ?
And Britney was also blacklisted on the radio during 2001-2003.
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/25/business/fi-clear25
And of course, without counting features, Britney pummels Christina in digital sales and streaming. Even with features she still comfortably leads Christina.
She has to be given her recognition. She's in the top 10 for females in album sales, physical single sales and, in an era that is totally not hers whatsoever, digital single sales.
However, If Britney was more popular, ¿why she didnt get a top 3 in radio during baby or oops? Christina had three. No doubt, the audience (the general public) preferred to listen to Christina.
The general public also preferred buying Britney's music. People spending their hard earned money on your music >>> airplay.
Sales will always be more important than airplay no matter how hard you reach or try to re-write history. Britney was much bigger and popular than Xtina in the US (and everywhere). End of.
And then, radio ejecutives were silly. And Billboard, where Cristina was the artist of the year, too.
Why are you discrediting radio radio airplay? Radio airplay is so important as streaming. Radio airplay= popularity. Billboard are agree with me.
