Join the discussion...Just because there are 10 songs on an album , it still is only one sale. If you want to say their music sales were worth more money, that's fine. Sales and money value are two separate areas.Drake has certified album and single sales, around 160 million in America. His sales are as legit as any Elvis or Beatles sales. Money was spent to buy them,so it is a legit sale. Michael Jackson likely would have the record for total sales value, since it cost more to buy his records,compared with Elvis and the Beatles.

Join the discussion...One album sold and one single sold are the same total of sales. The album cost more but it is still only one person buying it, not 10 or 12. You can say an act made more money on their sales,but you can't make up fake sales totals, because it cost more.

Give it up Cass, your argument is weak and you just been blown out the water on this discussion. Give it up mate!

Join the discussion,it's extreme for female to sell same number of album before 1985, so a album worth much more than three singles, should be at least ten times more, so Barbra is more successful divas for selling ovet 100 million album than other divas who sold less than1 billion record, so Barbra's CSPC should be over 1.4 billion, more than your top100 artist combined

MJD, I'm curious, now that you've done Elvis, is there any other artists that would be remotely as difficult as he was? Or was Elvis the most time consuming?
THank you for all your work.
If you had a way to donate $$$, I'd send some to keep the operation moving.
After all, I've already spent countless hours going over and enjoying your work.
THank you for everything you've done,.............don't let the haters bring you down..........."Groos!"

Join the discussion...Keep dreaming. If anybody honestly thinks population is not a factor, they are badly mistaken..

It really is interesting to see how successful an artist can be releasing songs as singles. I feel like in the streaming era we have entered that this could be the best strategy for artists....put all effort into creating an amazing single and get it exposure on streaming/radio, milk it for all it's worth then move on to the next one.

I personally still love an immersive album that I can just hit play and be transported someone else for 45 min to an hour, but if people aren't spending the money on albums anymore you have to wonder how much longer artists/labels are willing to put in the effort.

Hi Nathan!

I'm reluctant at studiying Nicki because her downloads / ringtones will be a nightmare to compile. That being said, the worst remaining is likely Frank Sinatra. His sales may be even harder to work on than Elvis' sales because his catalog was never audited in full while the one of Elvis is pretty much under control in the US. He also has nearly as many records as Elvis!

It's true that I have put nothing money-wise so far. I really started Chartmasters as an educational place praising accuracy. By then in early 2016, I had a very lucrative job and enjoyed working on it on my free time. I wasn't concerned at all by losing money with it. A year ago or so I gave up my job because what I really wanted to do is work on Chartmasters, that's why I added ads to at least cover hosting costs. I still do not want to ask users for money yet. I may offer services at some point to media, writers, labels, etc, or even users who has a specific query, but asking for money to users for simply visiting the site I still haven't accept that idea at the moment 🙂

I was thinking more of donation instead of subscription. I like your idea of getting into media, etc. I hope you are welcomed in the media like you have been with us!

Hi Kris!

That's very true. We tend to link the technology (here streaming) with the evolution of music formats, but in truth albums would be dying right now still even if it wasn't for the format. Back in the 60s when albums started to be relevant, it was a real entertainment activity. People 'planed' to listen to an album the same way than they would plan to watch a movie. Then you would debrief it with friends the following day. These days are over.

Now there is mainly 3 contexts to listen to music. One is passive listening, in background while we work / study. For that, we want a never-ending playlist, that we don't really listen to, that only creates an ambiance. You need generic sounds, nothing agressive. Drake, Ed Sheeran, etc, that's perfect for that. You won't use Iron Maiden's albums as passive listening music! Then there is social entertainment. At a party or simply while having a drink with friends. It makes no sense to play an artist album on that context, you better use a playlist that everyone at least enjoys a song or another. Then, the last major context for listening to music is transport network. It's the only one where you select your music and mostly listen to it actively, but here the album format in terms of time doesn't fit. Your ride until your work may last 15 minutes or 1:30, but it will rarely be fitting with the length of an album. Plus, even if you are actively seeking for music, the context (a car, a bus, a train or whatever) isn't appropriate to get into an album.

Nowadays, if you have one hour in front of you and look for entertainment, you watch a TV series. Then you talk about the new episode to your friends the following day, as you would have done for a new album 50 years ago. Times changed, not only formats. At the end of the day, albums are just not relevant anymore as per our consumption of music. Playlists are.

You're mostly right (especially with the younger generation), but their will always be a market for albums. I still listen to albums in my car, but mostly compilations.

Thanks for the insightful response. I'm 31 years old and have fully embraced streaming as my only music-listening platform, however I still tend to stream full albums because that's the way I've always listened to music. So you can see that I'm the age that is "in between" the album format and the streaming format. As much as I love playlists for finding new music, once I've found something I like I go and listen to the artist's discography album by album. I don't tend to "cherry pick" just the songs I like.

I actually can't believe I haven't purchased an album in over two years now, not even from my favourite artists! And I gave away all my CDs years ago. The only music I "own" is old stuff on my iTunes account that I haven't used in years. And I'm totally okay with that.

Hi MJD, about 5 days ago, in a response to Lance you said that you would add a page to the Beatles post called, BONUS: Total Album (all types) Sales per Country.

When will this page be added?

Thanks

Sorry but it really is not, clearly.

I would have to agree that population is a factor. Sorry, I can't disagree all that Cass says.